The future of Chester Kent Prologues depends on signing the crucial Apollo theater circuit, and George Appolinaris (Paul Porcasi) wants to first see three killer examples of Chester’s work.
The faster Chester comes up with clever prologue subjects, the faster someone steals them to give to the rival Gladstone Company. While his partners hide the profits, Chester must contend with chiselers, ‘protégés,’ and a censor advisor (Hugh Herbert) appointed by Si Gould’s annoying wife Harriet (Ruth Donnelly).
#Footlight parade film movie
With sound pictures making stage musicals obsolete (!), director-impresario Chester Kent (James Cagney) talks crooked producers Si Gould and Al Frazer (Guy Kibbee and Arthur Hohl) into backing his idea to produce theatrical road companies on an assembly-line, to provide live movie prologues for hungry exhibitors. And of course there’s the incredibly talented James Cagney, who just plain didn’t dance enough in his movies. Nobody anywhere had ever filmed visuals like this - while the craze lasted, those moguls must have thought Berkeley was some kind of crazy genius.Ĥ2nd Street may have been the first of the Berkeley pictures, and Gold Diggers of 1933 the most socially-oriented, but Footlight Parade is the most grandiose. The home of Rin-Tin-Tin got more than it bargained for, because Berkeley combined clever stagecraft, camera tricks and his own visual ideas to create musical numbers that were wholly cinematic: they could only exist on a screen. Berkeley had contributed to Goldwyn’s Eddie Cantor pictures but it was Warners that gave him the anything-goes creative go-ahead. Berkeley’s shows became a highlight of 1930s culture, a bridge between musicals transposed directly from the stage, and the later star-centered musical formulas developed by RKO and MGM. He told us sheltered college kids that if we thought our generation had invented sex, drugs and psychedelic visuals, we had something to learn!įootlight Parade is the third of Warner Bros’ Great Depression musical extravaganzas, the ones that thrived with Busby Berkeley’s overblown, phantasmagorical choreographic set pieces. His mission was to prove that, even with 1971’s relaxed censorship, movies of the pre-Code era were more creative with adult content. Our favorite associate professor back at UCLA, Bob Epstein, would spring a perfect 35mm nitrate print of this gem on us, for the first day of his basic ‘intro to film history’ class.
Original Music: Sammy Fain, Irving Kahal Harry Warren, Al Dubin Starring: James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Frank McHugh, Ruth Donnelly, Guy Kibbee, Hugh Herbert.Īrt Directors: Anton Grot, Jack Okey Film Editor: George Amy Street Date J/ available through the WBshop / 21.99 Remastered in HD, the fantastic, kaleidoscopic visuals will wow anybody - we really expect Porky Pig to pop up and stutter, “N-n-n-o CGI, Folks!”ġ933 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 104 min. James Cagney’s nervy, terminally excitable stage producer makes the tale of Chester Kent accessible to viewers otherwise allergic to musicals - he’s as electric here as he is in his gangster movies. This amazing Busby Berkeley extravaganza is the best choice to impress newbies to pre-Code musical madness: it is absolutely irresistible.
0 kommentar(er)
