Gold Diggers of 1935

Gold Diggers of 1935

Warner Bros.

March 15, 1935

Comedy

DVD
C-

I tuned out before there was any singing, although there was of course some very choreographed movement, which is why this is not quite a musical in the first quarter hour.  Not that it was especially funny, but they were certainly trying.  Busby Berkeley is the unmistakable director.

Dames

Dames
Warner Bros.
September 1, 1934
Musical, Comedy
DVD
C-

I was underwhelmed by the first quarter hour, which has mostly unfunny comedy, a song about falling in love with a thirteenth cousin before her conception, and no dancing.  Still, I've obviously seen worse.  Ray Enright and Busby Berkeley co-directed.

42nd Street

42nd Street
Warner Bros
March 11, 1933
Musical
DVD
B-

Cast I recognize:

• Louise Beavers as Pansy, Dorothy's Maid
• Ruby Keeler as Peggy Sawyer
• The never-aging Charles Lane (seriously, this guy looked much the same in the '70s) as the Author of Pretty Lady
• Una Merkel as Lorraine Fleming
• Dick Powell as Billy Lawler
• The marvelous Ginger Rogers as Ann "Anytime" Lowell
• Lyle Talbot as Geoffrey Warning

Yes, finally we've got to a movie from the library that I could sit all the way through, and it figures it's definitely the oldest one yet.  It's not only '30s, it's pre-Code, which means lots of revealing costumes and racy dialogue and lyrics, including from the saucy pair of Rogers and Merkel.  There's even a song comparing love to drug addiction! It also mentions The Great Depression more than once, while some of its contemporaries are set in a fantasy world where money is never discussed.  In some ways, this feels like the most "modern" movie I've looked at so far for this blog, but it also has corny melodrama and cliches that it may've invented, or at least popularized, but are still cliches.  (It's based on a 1932 Bradford Ropes novel.)  I know this film is regarded as a classic, but I could've actually done with less backstage stuff and more of the show within a show.

Lloyd Bacon directed but choreographer Busby Berkeley is deservedly the household name.