“42nd Street” was released in March and was an instant hit. 1933 was the year of the backstage musical.New York’s Radio City Music Hall was the last of the classic movie houses to feature prologues, ending the tradition in 1979 when it stopped showing movies altogether. While prologues were popular in their ’30s heyday, they were slowly phased out over the decade in favor of cheaper B-pictures and shorts. The brother-sister team of Fanchon & Marco Wolff were the top prologue producers of the day, and their studio in Hollywood served as the basis for Kent’s studio in this film. Turns out they were real, and more or less how they are depicted here: specialty acts and dance numbers that preceded your feature presentation, typically themed around the movie. Seriously, Oscars?: No Oscar nominations for “Footlight Parade”, the only one of Warner Bros.’ three backstage musicals of the year to not be recognized by the Academy. Oh, and in one rehearsal scene, there’s a guy sitting in the background wearing Blackface AND THEY NEVER ACKNOWLEDGE HIM! There are the usual Depression-era sensibilities and obscure references ( Lydia Pinkham, anyone?), but mainly we have to acknowledge the massive racial insensitivity throughout, particularly the copious Yellowface in the “Shanghai Lil” finale. First of all, prologues, but I’ll get to those a little later. Wow, That’s Dated: Oh man, we have a lot to cover this time. I get why “Footlight Parade” is on the list, but perhaps the NFR should have just selected the “That’s Entertainment!” film series, preserving the Busby Berkeley numbers from these three films and trimming the fat. “Footlight” in particular suffers from too much backstage/not enough musical, and is bogged down by some very dated concepts. Collectively, these three represent a genre synonymous with Depression-era escapism, but individually none of them hold up as an undisputed classic. A loving essay by early film expert Randy Skretvedt calls the film “pure enjoyable escapism” compared to the darker tones of fellow NFR entries “ 42nd Street” and “ Gold Diggers of 1933“.īut Does It Really?: “Footlight Parade” is the third of the ’30s Busby Berkeley backstage musicals on this list, and I’m tempted to rank it as third best. Why It Matters: The NFR calls it “one of the best of the Warner Brothers showbiz musicals”, praising Cagney’s “dynamite” performance and Busby Berkeley’s numbers. When Chester learns that his prologues might get a deal with a major theater chain, he has to stage three lavish prologues, performed at three different theaters on the same night! There’s a lot of plot before you get to the exciting Busby Berkeley numbers these films are known for. Among his dancers is juvenile lead Scotty Blair (Dick Powell) who may be falling for secretary turned dancer Bea Thorn (Ruby Keeler). With support from his devoted, wise-cracking secretary Nan (Joan Blondell), Chester assembles his dancers into “units” for various prologues to be performed across the country. After being persuaded to see one of these “talkies”, he witnesses a prologue, a dance number performed live on stage before the movie, and decides to pivot his career to directing these mini-musicals. The Plot: With the advent of talking pictures, Broadway musical director Chester Kent (James Cagney) fears his career is over.
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