Wonderland Burlesque's
Let's All Go To The Movies:
All The World Is A Stage
Part 11 of 12
This is the eleventh in a twelve-part series of posts dealing with show business, be it the stage or soundstage.
Yes, show people, their tawdry little lives - in the theatre or movie studio - in all their glory, projected up there on the big screen, bigger than life; and they wouldn't have it any other way. For you see, they live for the stuff; the imitation glamor, the insufferable players, the exhausting rehearsals, and the oh-so important reviews - but above all else - they do it for the applause.
So hit the lights, for today, all the world is, indeed, a stage!
Footlight Parade
(1933)
Chester Kent used to produce musical comedies for the stage. However, with the beginning of the talkies era he switches focus and starts producing short musical prologues for movies. This becomes very stressful because he always needs new product and his rival keeps stealing his ideas. In order to secure a contract with a bigtime producer, Chester must stage three new prologues in three days. Will he meet his deadline?
Based on a story by Robert Lord and Peter Milne, this American pre-Code musical was directed by Lloyd Bacon, with songs written by Harry Warren and Al Dubin, and Sammy Fain and Irving Kahal. The film's musical numbers were staged and choreographed by Busby Berkeley. It stars James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell, with featured appearances by Frank McHugh, Guy Kibbee, Hugh Herbert, and Ruth Donnelly.
Looking for a role different from the gangster films which had catapulted him to fame, Cagney actively campaigned for the lead role of Chester Kent, based on well-known impresario Chester Hale of the prologue production company Fanchon and Marco. Cagney had gotten his start in vaudeville and Broadway before going into film work, but this is the first film where he got an opportunity to dance - showing off his experience as a song-and-dance man.
Dick Powell had become ill with pneumonia and had to be hospitalized and then rest for several weeks as production on the film began. The studio initially replaced him with Stanley Smith and all scenes were completed using Smith. However, it was ultimately decided that audiences wouldn't want to see an actor orther than Powell paired with Ruby Keeler, so the Smith footage was scrapped and the production delayed until Powell was back on his feet.
Future star Dorothy Lamour can be seen near the end of the By a Waterfall number, in a medium close-up shot of the tiers of chorus girls, in the lower right. Future star Ann Sothern can also be seen sitting at the first table at the beginning of the Shanghai Lil number, and then two minutes later at the bar.
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Dames
(1934)
Multi-millionaire Ezra Ounce wants to start a campaign against 'filthy' forms of entertainment, like Broadway Shows. He visits relatives and forces them to enlist in his moral-boosting campaign. But Jimmy, another relative, is producing a show starring Ezra's niece Barbara. When he runs into trouble with his financial backer, who has given Jimmy an bad check, show-girl Mabel comes up with the idea to blackmail Barbara's father, Horace, whom she once trapped in a slightly compromising situation, in order to secure the necessary money.
This Warner Bros. musical comedy was directed by Ray Enright with dance numbers created by Busby Berkeley. The film stars Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Joan Blondell, Guy Kibbee, ZaSu Pitts, and Hugh Herbert.
Joan Blondell was pregnant at the time of the 'ironing board' number. Her husband, and the child's father, George Barnes was this film's cinematographer and used camera angles and props to hide her condition.
The director originally slated to do the film was Archie Mayo, then a second director was brought in, but, a week before filming was to begin, Ray Enright got the job. Some early casting considerations included Ruth Donnelly playing Mathilda instead of ZaSu Pitts, and Hobart Cavanaugh playing Ellsworthy Todd. In addition, the studio wanted Broadway dancer Eleanor Powell to perform a special dance number, but she refused.
During the routine for I Only Have Eyes For You, in a shot worthy of Salvador Dalí, Ruby Keeler appears to emerge from her own eyeball.
The musical sequences in Dames were designed, staged and directed by Busby Berkeley. The Warner Bros. publicity office invented the phrase 'cinematerpsichorean' to describe Berkeley's creations. By this time, after the success of 42nd Street, Footlight Parade and Gold Diggers of 1933, Berkeley had his own unit at Warners under his total control, supervised by producer Hal Wallis.
The revolving stage in this picture was also used in Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935). Warner Bros. had the stage design patented hoping other studios could be prevented from using one in a similar fashion as Berkeley did in this film.
One of the effects of the Production Code on this film is that an entire musical number never made it to the screen. Berkeley had planned one featuring Joan Blondell about a fight between a cat and a mouse that ended with Blondell inviting everyone to "come up and see my pussy sometime". Producer Hal Wallis removed the number from the script before it got to the censors of the Hays Office.
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Gold Diggers Of 1937
(1936)
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Stage-producer J.J. Hobart, a hopeless hypochondriac, is going to put on a new show, unaware that his two partners lost all the backing money in the stock market. Insurance salesman Rosmer Peek falls in love with ex-chorus girl Joan Blondell, who's friend Genevieve makes a play for one of J.J Hobart's partners. Together, they come up with the idea to insure J.J. - who is always falling ill with this or that - for $1 million, which will be awarded them when he dies. Rosmer sells him the policy. However, once they find out that he's only a hypochondriac, an attempt to kill him 'accidentally' fails. Things are further complicated when Genevieve falls in love with J.J. But when J.J. is informed that he is putting on a show with no money, he has a nervous breakdown and it turns out the only possible way to restore J.J.'s health is to put on the show, in spite of the lack of money.
Based on the play Sweet Mystery of Life by Richard Maibaum, Michael Wallach and George Haight, this Warner Bros. movie musical was directed by Lloyd Bacon with musical numbers created and directed by Busby Berkeley, and stars Dick Powell and Joan Blondell, who were married at the time, with Glenda Farrell and Victor Moore.
The film features songs by the teams of Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg, and Harry Warren and Al Dubin. Originally, all the songs for the film were to have been written by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg, but Berkeley was dissatisfied and brought in Harry Warren and Al Dubin, who had contributed songs to his previous Warner Bros. films. Their song With Plenty of Money and You (The Gold Diggers' Lullaby) became a hit.
Although Busby Berkeley had directed Gold Diggers of 1935, for this film the director's chair was occupied by Warner Bros. comedy veteran Lloyd Bacon, who had collaborated with Berkeley on 42nd Street. This film marked Victor Moore's return to the screen after a two-year absence following Gift of Gab, during which he starred in Anything Goes on Broadway.
This is the fifth movie in Warner Bros.' series of 'Gold Digger' films.
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Little Miss Broadway
(1938)
This American musical drama was directed by Irving Cummings and stars Shirley Temple, George Murphy, Jimmy Durante, Phyllis Brooks and Edna Mae Oliver.
Murphy, who was not satisfied with the dance routine in We Should Be Together, insisted that movie's closing dance number be reworked. Despite her mother's concerns, Temple was keen to do it. The dance number proved so popular with the cast and crew that Murphy and Temple gave an encore performance once the cameras stopped rolling.
The New York Times wrote, "The devastating Mistress Temple is slightly less devastating than usual (it can't be old age, but it does look like weariness) although she performs with her customary gaiety and dimpled charm, there is no mistaking the effort every dimple cost her."
It's original title was Little Lady of Broadway.
The Battle Of Broadway
(1938)
This American comedy was directed by George Marshall and stars Victor McLaglen, Brian Donlevy, Gypsy Rose Lee, Raymond Walburn, Lynn Bari and Jane Darwell.
In a 1938 review for the film The New York Times stated "Though it will not be hailed as one of the year's finer historical films and might even be said, despite the riot scenes, to suffer from a kind of timid civilian understatement, the extent of which can only be measured by those who have lived through 'the terror' – as we of the Times Square area tend to think of it – Battle of Broadway seems to provoke enough of those tolerant, unanalytical audience guffaws to justify its modestly budgeted existence.
Gypsy Rose Lee
(Louise Havok)
Mary Martin dubbed the singing voice for Gypsy Rose Lee.
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And that's all for now.
Tune in next time...
Same place, same channel.
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I Only Have Eyes For You - Ruby Keeler
from the 1934 motion picture Dames
1 comment:
You know what? I just realized I never watched LaLa Land. You mentioning all these dance numbers reminded me of that.
Those colorized posters were either fab of terrifying. And Shirley Temple was quite the star!
XOXO
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