Footlight Parade (1933)

Director: Lloyd Bacon                                     Writers: Manuel Seff & James Seymour
Choreography: Busby Berkeley                       Cinematography: George Barnes
Starring: James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell

Another Warner Brothers backstage frolic, this time starring James Cagney. For my money this one’s much more entertaining than 42nd Street, which came out the same year and won the Oscar for best picture. Cagney has a sense of humor, and the guy can dance. In Footlight Parade Cagney plays a musical director who fears he’s out of a job when his producers decide they can make more money from motion pictures than they can from stage shows. When he sees the singing and dancing number between shows he asks his producer, Guy Kibbee, if he can direct those but is told they cost too much money. In the drugstore buying aspirin the clerk tells Cagney he can sell it so cheap because he buys in bulk. That gives Cagney the idea to create a company that can create dozens of “prologues” that can be sent out across the country for a much cheaper rate. It’s a great idea and suddenly Cagney finds himself with more work than he can handle.

Unlike Warner Baxter in 42nd Street, who works himself into an ulcer and a heart attack, Cagney loves the work and lets his assistant, Frank McHugh, do all the worrying for him. The big problem comes when he discovers a rival theater company is stealing all of his ideas before he can get them on the stage. Meanwhile his secretary, Joan Blondell, is in love with him but he doesn’t even notice, and his producer’s wife is forcing all of her relatives on him and getting them jobs, Dick Powell and Hugh Herbert among them. Ruby Keeler is one of his “smart” secretaries, who decides that a life of bookishness is not enough and wants to dance in the shows. And, as is the case with most of the early thirties musicals, it takes until over halfway through the film before we be begin to see some of the Busby Berkeley numbers.

The first number is the “Cat” prologue, featuring Ruby Keeler. Keeler has the most gangly, loose style of dancing I’ve ever seen, and yet somehow she makes it work. It reminds me of Philly Joe Jones on the drums, who always seemed loose and disjointed and yet was one of the all time great jazz drummers. Though the conceit is that the performances are happening onstage, like all Berkeley numbers they are completely cinematic, with elaborate sets and special effects. The obligatory couple getting married opens the proceedings. The water sequence in the second number is the real showstopper, though, impressively elaborate and entertaining. But the finale is worth the wait because it actually stars Cagney himself, tap dancing with Keeler, and he’s brilliant.

Overall, the songs in the Berkeley numbers aren’t that interesting in this film, but the choreography is impressive and can’t help but bring a smile to your face. It’s definitely a pre-code film as there are plenty of scenes with women undressing or scantily clad, or both. Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler, as usual, are a little difficult to take, but the rest of the principals are great. Cagney, in the last number, is pure joy to watch and Footlight Parade is great because of him. Definitely a lesser Berkeley outing, but still a classic.