![]() Case in point, when she tells sister Vivian “As long as they’ve got sidewalks, you’ve got a job!” Nothing says sisterly affection like calling your sibling a hooker! The cherry on the cake is when Nan wallops Viv in the backside as a final send-off. Several times throughout the movie I had to do a double take and say, “Did they just say that?” As the smartass, Blondell gets the bulk of the quippy double entendres, especially in response to her snotty sister. It makes for a weighted movie, and at times the script clips the fat quickly, such as Kent’s shrewish wife who’s quick to jump ship when she believes talkies will force Kent out of work Kent finds no love lost in letting her go.įor any problems within the narrative, the script by Manuel Seff and James Seymour is brazen with its pre-Code jokes and pokes at the studio system. Cagney and Blondell are the cheese, so to speak, as they hold everything together and set-up the plot Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell are the newcomers who don’t let stardom go to their head (the pepperoni?) and a whole mess of other plots are stuck in, including a philandering fiancée to Kent, who happens to be Nan’s sister (played the cold Claire Dodd), as well as a scheme involving leaking information to competitors. I mentioned there’s a light set-up and really Footlight Parade is like a pizza covered in pretty much every topping imaginable. Once the studio is in danger of being shut down, the classic standby of “let’s put on a show” goes into effect and Cagney is on a maddening quest to get the best show up and ready in a timely fashion. With that set-up – and there is very little set-up to the tumultuous plot that unfolds – we enter the production house a whirling dervish with countless shows in various stages of production, music and dance in abundance. Footlight Parade opens with the arrival of the talkies and Cagney as the smooth-talking producer who believes they’re a fad doomed to go out of fashion. ![]() The problem is that Singin’ in the Rain exists, and if you’ve watched that then you’ve seen Footlight Parade done better and grander. It’s not to say that the movie itself is bad, I just had high expectations that weren’t completely met. That could be attributed to the vaunted position Busby Berkeley holds in musicals, but everything felt “less.” It was “less” funny than I expected the story and its elements were “less” cohesive than I’d anticipated. The overall feeling I got while watching Footlight Parade was underwhelming. With the help of constant Girl Friday, Nan (Blondell), the two come up with the best movie musical ever assembled. ![]() I wouldn’t consider this the best Berkeley movie, but that waits to be seen.Ĭhester Kent (Cagney) is a producer of musical comedies who finds his job at risk once the talkies take over. The cast, composed of big names like James Cagney and Joan Blondell, alongside younger stars Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler, are also well done. The dancing sequences, complete with the Berkeley Box, are fantastic and make up for the rather mundane story about a group of hoofers putting on a show. This is my first Berkeley film, and his trademarks are on full display. Off to a late start on my Busby Berkeley week, but we’re moving along with the film: Footlight Parade.
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