Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Gem !, January 1, 2008
I completely agree with one friend that told me this was one of Cagney's most underated films although it is fantastic. The musical numbers designed by Busby Berkeley are outstanding and the final number "Shangai Lil" is a pleasure for moviegoers and especially if they are Cagney's fans like myself.... After seeing this movie you can understand why Jimmy Cagney would won an Oscar for Yankee Doodle Dandy nine years later, his role as Chester Kent is an anticipation of his George Cohan role...The performances by the rest of the cast are excelent especially Joan Blondell who shines as Jimmy's Assistant...
I really spend and excelent time watching "Footlight Parade" being this 1933 gem "a must see" for the legion of Cagney's fans....
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Grand entertainment, with Cagney hoofing and singing about his Shanghai Lil, and Busby Berkeley splashing water, May 7, 2008
It's hard to say which comes out on top, James Cagney's charm and energy or the mouth-opening excesses of Busby Berkeley's three grand showstoppers at the close. I give it a tie, with Footlight Parade one of the funniest and quickest of the early Thirties musicals. Although the movie clearly belongs to Cagney, Joan Blondell adds immeasurably to the good-natured story line.
And what's the story line? It's about Chester Kent (Cagney) who produces musicals, and who now is just about out of business as the talkies take over. He starts doing Prologues, live musical entertainment offered on stage before a movie starts. He gets the idea to do bigger ones and more of them, moving them around the country. He's a ball of fire and ideas, and he needs all the ideas he can get to keep relentlessly producing these things. But a rival is spying on him and stealing his ideas; Nan Prescott (Blondell), his wise-cracking secretary, loves him but he's too busy too notice; an office girl in black-rimmed, round glasses (Ruby Keeler) wants a chance to dance; his wife turns up saying she didn't divorce him after all; a blonde gold-digger is setting her hooks in him; his partners are cheating him...my gosh, what's next? This may all sound like a lot to digest, but everything happens fast, with Cagney bouncing, strutting, striding, finger-snapping, barking orders and occasionally - until the big last number when he goes all out singing and dancing -- doing a step or two just to show how it's done.
Instead of "Let's put on a show, gang" we have "We need to build three shows in three days, so lock the doors and let's start rehearsing." These three super Prologues are going to feature 40 chorines, spectacular effects and will mean a rich contract, with forty Kent units in deluxe movie houses...the whole Apollo movie house circuit! Exhaustion threatens, feet ache, but all those unbilled chorines in skimpy costumes (which include Ann Sothern and Dorothy Lamour; you can quickly spot Sothern but Lamour is more generic) stay the course, dancing their hearts out, giggling and chattering and looking remarkably unsweaty.
And then the curtains go up as each Prologue is presented in separate movie houses, one after the other on the same night, with the owner of the Apollo circuit going to determine that night whether he'll save Chester's skin or not.
First up is "Honeymoon Hotel" with Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler in a 9 minute production number that features a lot of wholesome lasciviousness, with brides and grooms (some might even be married), bedrooms and beds, and doors with "Do not disturb" signs.
Then on to the next theater and 11 minutes of "By a Waterfall" that probably had the Warner Brothers accountants worrying about bankruptcy. This number is so excessive -- dozens of swimming girls, trees, fountains, a huge grotto with waterslides, a giant pool -- you'd never think there was a Depression on. Berkeley pulls out all his tricks -- synchronization, human patterns, legs and arms doing all sorts of precision things -- and he does it in the water, with a lot of underwater photography looking up. The girls are sure game. They come up smiling with water in their eyes and still hit their marks. The whole thing must have been incredibly difficult and exhausting. Ruby Keeler, who has a couple of quick shots in the water, is the only one who looks a bit cautious.
And finally, the smash finale...11 minutes of Cagney dancing and singing with Keeler to "Shanghai Lil," with all sorts of bar girls and their customers, unusual in that the races are mixed up. There's Cagney and Keeler dancing on the bar, dancing on a table, Cagney fighting. There are what looks like fifty or sixty marching marines, hupping back and forth, rifles tossed and caught. Then...this is true...a human picture forms of Franklin Roosevelt and the NRA eagle. This may be the only Hollywood musical production that has ever featured Roosevelt, a big federal agency and a bevy of sexy Chinese prostitutes.
That's entertainment, folks. It's great!
Of course, Chester's Prologues get the big contract and Nan gets Chester. The movie is full of juicy clichés that make us smile. Ruby Keeler is so endearing as she earnestly stomps out her taps with her arms flying that you want to help her along. Joan Blondell makes us forget about a lot of Hollywood females who might have been more beautiful but who had a lot less wit and personality. The movie, however, belongs to Cagney, who grabs and shakes it, and to Berkeley, a man for whom too much was never too much.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Delicious Broadway-Style musical, July 30, 2009
This movie has GREAT musical numbers. The waterfall sequence alone, which pre-dates, and surely inspired the entire career of Esther Williams makes it historically interesting.
Aside from that, there is a proximity in the stylization, to silent film. One of the most humorous aspects of the movie is that when the model-singer-dancer beauties open their mouth the contrasty between the sophisticated glamor of the Big city and their trailer-suburbia accents is divine. Perhaps nowhere is it more accentuated or hilarious than in James Cagney's love interest, Joan Blondell whose photo should be in the dictionary next to the word "Broad". She is a tough gal with a Southern Staten islandish accent that could transform pure silk into flawless polyester with a few vowels. She pushes and shoves her way into Cagney's heart like a barracuda in Spring heat, and wears the most outlandishly horrid gowns ever, perfect for a funeral home's receptionist.
James Cagney surprised me as a dancer. He has amazing fluidity of movement and his make up in this film reminded me of Alia Nazimova's "Camille", specially the shadows around the eyes, which are amazing.He could have done a Dr. Caligari remake between scenes!
"Shanghai Lil" is another musical treat, complete with opium den odalisques. "The Love Hotel" is a ridiculous musical number,in its posturing goodie-two-shoes innocence that is just completely over the top. It is also hilarious to watch for that very reason.
This film is pure undiluted fun, a period piece. Strongly recommended for musical lovers.
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