42nd Street

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

The quintessential "backstage" musical, 42nd Street traces the history of a Broadway musical comedy, from casting call to opening night. Warner Baxter plays famed director Julian Marsh, who despite failing health is determined to stage one last great production, "Pretty Lady." Others involved include "Pretty Lady" star Dorothy Brock (Bebe Daniels); Dorothy's "sugar daddy" (Guy Kibbee), who finances the show; her true love Pat (George Brent); leading man Billy Lawlor (Dick Powell); and starry-eyed chorus girl Peggy Sawyer (Ruby Keeler). It practically goes without saying that Dorothy twists her ankle the night before the premiere, forcing Julian Marsh is to put chorine Peggy into the lead: "You're going out there a youngster, but you've got to come back a star!" Delightfully corny, with hilarious wisecracking support from the likes of Ginger Rogers, Una Merkel, and George E. Stone, 42nd Street is perhaps the most famous of Warners' early-1930s Busby Berkeley musicals. Based on the novel by Bradford Ropes (which was a lot steamier than the movie censors would allow), 42nd Street is highlighted by such grandiose musical setpieces as "Shuffle Off to Buffalo," "Young and Healthy," and of course the title song. Nearly fifty years after its premiere, it was successfully revived as a Broadway musical with Tammy Grimes and Jerry Orbach. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (Pre-1954 Standard)
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Screen: Black and White
• Features:
  • cc
  • 3 vntage featurettes: Harry Warren: America's foremost composer, Hollywood newsreel, a trip through a Hollywood studio
  • Notes on Busby Berkeley

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Nominated Best Picture - 1932-
•     Nominated Best Sound - 1932- (Nathan Levinson)

• Film Daily

•     Won 10 Best Films - 1933

• Library of Congress

•     Won U.S. National Film Registry - 1998

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Warner Baxter - Julian Marsh
       Bebe Daniels - Dorothy Brock
       George Brent - Pat Denning
       Ruby Keeler - Peggy Sawyer
       Guy Kibbee - Abner Dillon
       Ginger Rogers - Ann Lowell/Anytime Annie
       Ned Sparks - Thomas Barry
       Dick Powell - Billy Lawler
       Allen Jenkins - MacElroy
       Henry B. Walthall - The Actor
       Eddie Nugent - Terry Neil
       Clarence Nordstrom - Leading Man
       Robert McWade - Al Jones
       George E. Stone - Andy Lee
       Harry Warren - Songwriter
       Adele Lacey

• Director:

  Lloyd Bacon

• Producer:

  Hal B. Wallis, Darryl F. Zanuck

• Screenwriter:

  Rian James

• Book Author:

  Bradford Ropes

• Screenwriter:

  James Seymour, Whitney Bolton

• Cinematographer:

  Sol Polito

• Songwriter:

  Alexis Dubin

• Musical Direction/Supervision:

  Leo F. Forbstein

• Songwriter:

  Harry Warren

• Editor:

  Thomas Pratt, Frank Ware

• Art Director:

  Jack Okey

• Costume Designer:

  Orry-Kelly

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Nathan Levinson

• Makeup:

  Perc Westmore

• First Assistant Director:

  Gordon Hollingshead

• Choreography:

  Busby Berkeley

REVIEW:

• If MGM's 1929 The Broadway Melody invented the musical, Warner Bros.' 42nd Street saved it. The four years between the two movies had seen the genre driven practically into the ground, as the studios, still struggling with synchronized sound and what to do about it, ground out one ill-advised musical after another, few terribly good as music and most even less impressive as movies. It had gotten so bad that by 1932, theater owners were protecting their box office with signs announcing, for any "suspect" title, "NOT A MUSICAL!" It was into that environment in 1933 that Warner Bros. released 42nd Street, directed by Lloyd Bacon and choreographed by Busby Berkeley--and it revived and revolutionized the whole musical genre, by taking it to the long-delayed next step. It was during the making of The Broadway Melody that filmmakers discovered that they could separate the shooting of a musical number from the recording of its music. Berkeley and cinematographer Sol Polito took this notion to the next step by removing the camera from the studio floor. Under their direction, shots were done from overhead angles and other locations from which no person could ever actually observe in real life, and the dancers' motions were, in turn, designed to exploit those angles; in effect, they created the true movie musical, as opposed to a musical that happened to be on film. Bacon's direction of the dialogue portions of the story, with both dramatic and comic content, was also very sure, no surprise for a man later responsible for dramas like The Fighting Sullivans and comedies with Red Skelton, which meant that the movie held up even when there was no dancing or singing on the screen; and when there was, the music by Harry Warren and Al Dubin was downright clever; and the acting, though a little broad by modern standards, was of first caliber, also unusual for a musical, ranging from serious dramatic lead Warner Baxter to comic relief from George E. Stone as the mousy, lecherous stage manager and Guy Kibbee's befuddled, lecherous backer, with Bebe Daniels, Ruby Keeler, and Ginger Rogers at their most delectable. The audience devoured it, and Warner Bros., Berkeley, and company rose to the occasion of delivering more and better musicals like it for much of the rest of the decade. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi