Quarantaduesima strada

Most of the negative comments posted below seem to be from people who either just don't like musicals or who are unaware that all the "cliches" in this movie were essentially invented by "42nd Street." It's sort of like complaining that Shakespeare is full of quotations. This movie is absolutely brilliant, which is why it's been imitated endlessly for the last seven decades.

Sure, Keeler's not the end-all of tap dancing, but she fits the bill as an ingénue and is generally amiable and perky. The plot is predictable, but only because we've seen it duplicated so often. If you hadn't seen the same sort of thing a million times, you'd notice that it's tightly assembled and even somewhat suspenseful. The show is full of first-rate comic asides, even if some of the material is dated by obsolete slang and contemporary pop culture references.

And do people still take the trouble to complain that Busby Berkeley's dance numbers couldn't have been seen properly by the audience in the theater? That's like complaining that an ape couldn't really grow to be as large as King Kong. The whole point is that it's a movie, and Berkeley is able to do things that can't happen in the real world. Hence the transformation of background settings while the camera is close up on an actress's face. There isn't even such a thing as a close-up in a stage production. Carping that a '30's musical isn't realistic enough is like complaining that Venus couldn't actually have been born out of a clamshell.

In any case, this is one of the great '30s musicals... and one of the great Hollywood movies of all time. If you don't like the genre, then so be it. It always amazes me that so many film fans strongly prefer "Singin' in the Rain" to such predecessors as "42nd Street," "Dames," "Top Hat," "Swing Time," etc., when "Singin' in the Rain" is simply an homage to the '30s musical and generates quite little fresh material of its own. Mind you, it's a brilliantly executed homage, and it arguably benefits from its overt tongue-in-cheek attitude, but I can't help thinking many are simply swayed by the fact that it's in color (really good Technicolor) and has clearer sound quality than its '30s predecessors. Either way, you need to see and appreciate the original movie musicals before you can really understand what "Singin' in the Rain" was about... just as you should see some Hong Kong action flicks and blacksploitation films to get what's going on in "Pulp Fiction."

But I digress. See "42nd Street," and try to keep an open mind. Just because it's old is not a reason to assume that the people who made it didn't know their business extremely well.

Perhaps the greatest musical of them all, this lively Warner Bros film boats a great cast and music and served as the prototype plot for scores of other films. Backstage drama in putting on a show when the star falls and breaks her ankle and must be replaced by a newcomer. It worked in film, and it worked in the Broadway stage version of this film. This film also served as a springboard to stardom for Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, and Ginger Rogers. Warner Baxter stars as the dyspeptic director who harangues his cast into making a great show. Bebe Daniels is his star who is seeing an old boyfriend (George Brent) while stringing along rube producer (Guy Kibbee). Ruby Keeler is the newcomer who has eyes for the show's "juvenile" (Dick Powell) and who is befriended by old hands, Ginger Rogers and Una Merkel. Toss in Ned Sparks, Allen Jenkins, George E. Stone, Louise Beavers, Charles Lane, Lyle Talbot, Henry B. Walthall, and the day's top chorus girl, Toby Wing. Great musical numbers boast the singing talents of Powell and the dancing talents of Keeler. Bebe Daniels also has a great number in "You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me." And Rogers does NOT make a mistake during the "Shuffle Off to Buffalo" number. She starts to say "belly" but changes it to "tummy." It's part of the show, folks! "Belly" was considered to be a vulgar term in 1933; her use of the word shows her character. It's not a mistake. But it is odd that Keeler stars in this number with Clarence Nordstrom rather than Dick Powell. Other songs include "Young and Healthy" and the superb "42nd Street." The best and oft repeated line belongs to Daniels speaking to Keeler: "Now go out there and be so swell …. that you'll make me hate you!" This line is also said by Glenda Jackson to Twiggy in 1971's The Boy Friend.

Do you find the musicals of the 40's and 50's pristine, sterile and virginal in the extreme? And based on this unhappy discovery you've decided that you don't like musicals. Please do not distress yourself and allow me to introduce you to the Busby Berkeley musicals of the 1930's, starting with 42nd Street, the best of them all.

Like nearly all the musicals of its time, 42nd Street is a depression-era back stage musical which focuses on the grueling hours that have to be put in by the singers and dancers day after day in preparation of opening night. The film has a fine cast with lovely Bebe Daniels as Dorothy Brock, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Ginger Rogers, George Brent and Warner Baxter, who chews the scenery in every scene he's in as the stage director of 'Pretty Lady'.

What separates films like "42nd Street" from the musicals of the 40's and 50's is the daring camera work of dance director Busby Berkeley. Berkeley loves his chorus girls, and he has no qualms about aiming his camera up their dresses at every opportunity. One of the sexiest moments in the film comes when the girls try out for the chorus in their street clothes. Each girl of course is dressed differently from the others, with a different hat (love those cute 30's hats) dress and high-heel shoes. This variety makes them look hotter than when they're all wearing the same chorus outfit. When they have to show their legs in the hopes of being chosen, Berkeley gets his camera down low and gives you a birds eye view of each girl's legs ... first a front view, than they turn and let you get a good look at their calves. It is a very erotic scene. Later, when the girls leave their dressing rooms and are coming down the stairs for opening night, Berkeley puts his camera under the stairs and shoots up their dresses as they pass. Again, when the girls emerge from backstage and high-kick out for the opening number, Berkeley has his camera down low at a 45 degree angle, aiming right up the chute of the costumes of the first few girls to dance out on stage. Further along, all the chorus girls form an arc in one number with their legs wide open and Berkeley tracks right thru their legs all the way around the circle. You can even see the last girl has a gold ankle bracelet on her left ankle. Once the production code was strictly enforced after 1934, shots like this were never seen again.

42nd Street has three great songs, "You're Getting To Be A Habit With Me", "Shuffle Off To Buffalo" and of course "42nd Street". There have been many revivals of "42nd Street", and they often include the best numbers of other films, along with the three I mentioned, including "Dames" from the film of the same name, "Go Into Your Dance", a terrific number, and "Lullaby of Broadway", which is the highlight number from "Gold-Diggers of 1935", which has a spectacular tap dance sequence with 100 chorus girls wearing gorgeous, sheer black skirts as part of their chorus outfits. If musicals often leave you cold, and you haven't given "42nd Street" a try, than I suggest that you do so ... and sit close to the television set.

I can't be objective -- I love everything about this movie, from the clunky tapping of Ruby Keeler to the wisecracks of Ginger Rogers et al. It's not as dark as other Berkeley films,such as the Golddiggers, but it is bittersweet. Marsh is a lonely man (though we shouldn't read too much into his request that Andy Lee come home with him), and he may be dying. But it isn't something the script dwells on, it's too busy flinging lines like "In a star it's temperament, but in a chorus girl it's just bad taste" and just being outrageous. (That is Gandhi who gets the girl at the end of "You're Getting To Be a Habit With Me," isn't it?) Julian Marsh is a master of psychology -- all those speeches about the hundreds of jobs resting on Peggy Sawyer's shoulders would give Ethel Merman a nervous breakdown! I've given up all hope of making sense of the plot of "Pretty Lady" -- it's easier that way. If you haven't seen this, see it now. If you have, watch for Dave O'Brien (future star of "Reefer Madness") dancing in the chorus.

Berkeley's famous pattern-dancers become more than an example of self-focusing art. Unlike several other of Berkeley related films, 42nd Street has more heart than "eye candy." Ruby Keeler returns to the musical genre as another small town girl wanting to become a Broadway dancer. There's less comic relief in this one. Unlike all the Gold Digger films of the 1930's, 42nd Street stands out as a movie about hopes and dreams. One of the all time classics for musical lovers, its a must see if you're a Ruby fan!