FOOTLIGHT PARADE [1933 / 2019] [Warner Archive Collection] Blu-ray] [USA Release]
Fast-Paced Warner Bros. Opus with Three Incredible Busby Berkeley Numbers Back to Back!
‘FOOTLIGHT PARADE’ is sheer cinematic joy. In this Depression-era romp, a timid stenographer Bea Thorn [Ruby Keeler] removes her glasses and wow! She’s a star. A gee-whiz tenor Scotty Blair [Dick Powell] asserts his independence. Plucky chorines tap; greedy hangers-on get their comeuppances, and an indefatigable producer/dancer Chester Kent [James Cagney] and his Girl Friday Nan Prescott [Joan Blondell] work showbiz miracles to stage live prologues for talkie houses to keep their company afloat during hard times. Featuring the songs “By a Waterfall,” “Honeymoon Hotel” and “Shanghai Lil” that appear in the film, and directed by Busby Berkeley and filled with imagination-bending sets, startling camera angles, kaleidoscopic pageantry and a 20,000-gallon-per-minute waterfall. Curtain up!
FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 1992 National Film Preservation Board, USA: Win: National Film Registry for the film ‘FOOTLIGHT PARADE.’
FILM FACT No.2: Dorothy Lamour, Victoria Vinton, Ann Sothern and Lynn Browning were among the many chorus girls in the film. It was Dorothy Lamour's film debut. It is sometimes written that John Garfield made his (uncredited) film debut in the “Shanghai Lil.” The 2003 Turner Classic Movies documentary The John Garfield Story refutes this, as do several John Garfield biographies that give timelines where he is in New York and then on tour in Chicago with the revival of the play Counsellor-at-Law in 1933. The film briefly shown in the theatre early in the film is ‘The Telegraph Trail,’ starring a young John Wayne and, coincidentally or not, Frank McHugh. ‘FOOTLIGHT PARADE’ was shot at the Warner Bros. studio in Burbank, California, and cost an estimated $703,000 to make approximately $13 million in 2012 dollars. It premiered on the 30th September, 1933, with a general release on the 21st October, 1933. As with many other pre-Code films, including musicals, promotional materials featured scantily clad women on movie release posters, lobby cards and promotional photographs, as seen most times with Joan Blondell featured.
Cast: James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Frank McHugh, Guy Kibbee, Ruth Donnelly, Hugh Herbert, Claire Dodd, Gordon Westcott, Arthur Hohl, Renee Whitney, Barbara Rogers, Paul Porcasi, Philip Faversham, Herman Bing, Avis Adair [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Loretta Andrews [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Consuelo Baker [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Monica Bannister [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Bonnie Bannon [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Gracie Barrie (uncredited), Billy Barty (uncredited), Eleanor Bayley [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Vangie Beilby (uncredited), Busby Berkeley [Drugstore Clerk] (uncredited), Mary Bowden [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Lynn Browning [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Louise Carter (uncredited), Margaret Carthew [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Hobart Cavanaugh (uncredited), Azelie Cecil [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), George Chandler (uncredited), Jimmy Conlin (uncredited), Lita Cortez [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Virginia Dabney [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Mary Dees [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Dorothy DeWitt [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Mildred Dixon (uncredited), Maxine Doyle [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Claudia Drake [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Marlo Dwyer [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), June Earle [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Pat Fara [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Patsy Farnum [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Patricia Farr [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Gloria Faythe [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Otto Fries (uncredited), June Gittelson (uncredited), June Glory [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Mary Gordon (uncredited), Muriel Gordon [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Betty Jane Graham (uncredited), Peggy Graves [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Roger Gray (uncredited), Althea Henley [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Ann Hovey [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), John Hyams (uncredited), Amo Ingraham [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Ann Ingraham [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), William Irving (uncredited), Fred Kelsey (uncredited), Donna La Barr [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Margaret La Marr [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Bobbie La Salle [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Adele Lacy [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Lois Lacy [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Lillian Lawrence (uncredited), Lorena Layson [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Cynthia Lindsay [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Lois Lindsay [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Marjorie Lytell [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Mae Madison [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Lorraine Marshall [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Sam McDaniel (uncredited), Leila McIntyre (uncredited), Ebba Mona [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), William V. Mong (uncredited), Lee Moran (uncredited), Marietta Myers [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Dave O'Brien [Chorus Boy] (uncredited), Dorothy O'Connell [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Dennis O'Keefe [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), DeeNeice Osika [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Sue Rainey [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Donna Mae Roberts [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Jean Rogers [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Rosalie Roy [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Cliff Saum (uncredited), Denise Sawyer [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Harry Seymour (uncredited), Jayne Shadduck [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Bee Stevens [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Alice Stombs [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Billy Taft [Boy Cat “Sittin' on a Backyard Fence” / Chorus Boy] (uncredited), Victoria Vinton [Chorus Girl] (uncredited), Juliet Ware (uncredited), Charles C. Wilson (uncredited), Vivian Wilson [Chorus Girl] (uncredited) and Duke York [Sailor on Table in “Shanghai Lil”] (uncredited)
Director: Lloyd Bacon
Producer: Robert Lord (uncredited)
Screenplay: James Seymour (screenplay), Manuel Seff (screenplay), Robert Lord (story) (uncredited) and Peter Milne (story) (uncredited)
Costumes: Milo Anderson (Gowns)
Choreography: Busby Berkeley (Dance sequences / Choreographed and Staged)
Cinematography: George S. Barnes, A.S.C (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Black-and-White)
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
Audio: English: 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
Subtitles: English
Running Time: 103 minutes
Region: All Regions
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures Inc. / Vitaphone Corp. / Warner Archive Collection
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: The journeyman director Lloyd Bacon directed a couple of ground-breaking Hollywood musicals and the first one was the brilliant ‘42nd Street’ [1933], but the other film was the outstanding ‘FOOTLIGHT PARADE’ [1933], but ask even serious classic film buffs who directed those pictures and they’ll likely to say Busby Berkeley. Well that is not entirely correct, because Busby Berkeley, who was a former Broadway choreographer who revolutionized the movie musical by devising ingenious kaleidoscopic set-pieces that transformed chorus lines into geometric shapes and patterns, conceived the musical sequences in both films, and of course did the choreography for the film ‘FOOTLIGHT PARADE,’ but of course Busby Berkeley gets all the credit for the whole film.
With the advent of talking pictures, things are shaken up on Broadway, with producers and directors seeing empty houses for their lavish musical comedies. Chester Kent [James Cagney] is one such director, who hits upon the idea of setting up a theatrical group to provide pre-movie entertainment for cinema houses.
Aiding him in his creative endeavours is his steadfast secretary, Nan Prescott [Joan Blondell], who harbours a titanic crush on Chester Kent, Scott Blair [Dick Powell], the new singer in the troupe, Francis [Frank McHugh], the pessimistic artistic director with a serious case of hypochondria, and Bea Thorn [Ruby Keeler], the bespectacled secretary who hides a wild streak.
Without Busby Berkeley’s awe-inspiring handiwork, ‘FOOTLIGHT PARADE,’ would be just another stale, dime-a-dozen backstage musical. Busby Berkeley’s choreographed creations elevate not just this film, but the entire musical genre, which was all but dead before the brazen Busby Berkeley put his personal stamp on it and resuscitated these very inventive classic choreographed musical sequences.
Busby Berkeley took the camera where it never had gone before, lifting it up and away to a bird’s-eye perch, and thanks to a bevy of contorting chorus girls down below, fashioned an array of eye-popping fantasies that captivated Depression-era audiences desperate for escape. In the blink of an eye, a static, dull genre became an art form, and the renaissance would last a generation. Though Busby Berkeley is also famous for directing almost all of the Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney backyard musicals later in his career, Busby Berkeley made his mark and cemented his reputation with a handful of Warner Bros. Pictures extravaganzas in the early 1930’s.
‘FOOTLIGHT PARADE’ is one of his most lavish concoctions, and the addition of the charismatic James Cagney to the Warner Bros. musical stock company led by hoofer Ruby Keeler and crooner Dick Powell. Already a major star thanks to his electrifying performance in the pre-Code gangster films was the brilliant James Cagney lends the proceedings a much-needed jolt with his patented pugnacity and boundless energy and who thought we only knew him as an on-screen tough guy, by unveiling his considerable toe-tapping talent, and was a veteran of vaudeville and Broadway musicals, the pint-sized dynamo could dance up a storm, and almost a decade before James Cagney wowed audiences and won a Best Actor Oscar as George M. Cohan in the brilliant film ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’ [1942].
Busby Berkeley really outdoes himself with this trio of intricate, flawlessly executed tableaux. First comes the surprisingly risqué “Honeymoon Hotel,” followed by the fiercely imaginative “By a Waterfall,” which stands as one of Berkeley’s most mind-blowing creations. No other number better exemplifies Depression-era escapism or Busby Berkeley’s genius. With astounding creativity, Busby Berkeley designs a spectacular water ballet marked by synchronistic, serpentine formations, revolutionary underwater photography, and a mammoth aquatic set-piece. The number “By a Waterfall,” reportedly received a standing ovation at the film’s premiere, and must be seen to be believed.
Hot on its heels comes “Shanghai Lil,” which begins in a brothel and features a full-scale barroom brawl before evolving into a shameless flag-waving salute to both America and the Franklin D. Roosevelt who was 32nd U.S. President, replete with rifle drills, marches, and patriotic formations. James Cagney gets a chance to brandish both his tap shoes and fists in this robust finale, which caps a solid half hour of mind-blowing musical fantasy.
Seeing those production numbers in the film ‘FOOTLIGHT PARADE’ today is simply jaw-dropping. At the height of the Great Depression, Warner Bros. basically gave Busby Berkeley a blank cheque after the successes of ‘42nd Street’ and ‘Gold Diggers of 1933’ to come up with whatever he wanted. So, Busby Berkeley completely disregarded the story of ‘FOOTLIGHT PARADE’ – which tells us that these numbers are supposedly being performed on the stage – and went totally bonkers, but in reality these massive Busby Berkeley jaw-dropping numbers could never be performed on an actual stage.
‘FOOTLIGHT PARADE’ is a sublime fantasy with few equals. The on-screen chemistry between Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler is side-lined on this occasion, and, of course, Busby Berkeley punctuates his moments with such deftly execution that we could almost believe he has directed the entire movie – not just its musical sequences. All in all the film sheer perfection, and the staging, attesting to a level of incalculable creative imagination, typifying the very best that Hollywood in its heyday it was capable of serving up like a banquet – real soul food for the mind, giving us the first class ‘A’ treatment.
FOOTLIGHT PARADE MUSIC TRACK LIST
ONE STEP AHEAD OF MY SHADOW (1933) (uncredited) Music by Sammy Fain) (Lyrics by Irving Kahal) [Played when Kent introduces Scotty to Mac] [Performed by a rehearsing chorus line]
AH, THE MOON IS HERE (1933) (uncredited) Music by Sammy Fain) (Lyrics by Irving Kahal) [Played briefly on piano after Kent puts Scotty in the Cat unit] [Performed by Frank McHugh and Dick Powell, also by three members of the Chorus]
SITTIN’ ON A BACK YARD FENCE (1933) (uncredited) (Music by Sammy Fain) (Lyrics by Irving Kahal) [Played during the Cat unit rehearsal] [Danced by Ruby Keeler] [Performed by Ruby Keeler, Billy Taft and Chorus]
HONEYMOON HOTEL (1933) (uncredited) (Music by Harry Warren) (Lyrics by Al Dubin) [Performed by Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler and Chorus]
BY A WATERFALL (1933) (uncredited) (Music by Sammy Fain) (Lyrics by Irving Kahal) [Played during the opening photo credits and often in the score] [Performed by Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler and Chorus]
YOU’RE THE FLOWER OF MY HEART, SWEET ADELINE (1896) (uncredited) (Music by Harry W. Armstrong) (Lyrics by Richard H. Gerard) [Sung briefly by Dick Powell]
LADY FAIR (uncredited) (Music by Sammy Fain) [Played by the theatre orchestra prior to the Shanghai Lil sequence]
SHANGHAI LIL (1933) (uncredited) (Music by Harry Warren) (Lyrics by Al Dubin) [Played during the opening credits and often in the score] [Performed by James Cagney, Ruby Keeler and Chorus]
ANCHORS AWEIGH (1906) (uncredited) (Music by Charles A. Zimmerman) [Played briefly during the Shanghai Lil sequence]
THE STARS AND STRIPES FOREVER (1896) (uncredited) (Music by John Philip Sousa) [Played briefly during the end of the Shanghai Lil sequence]
* * * * *
Blu-ray Image Quality – Warner Archive Collection presents the film ‘FOOTLIGHT PARADE’ with a brand new sparkling new 4K remastered 1080p vivid and outstanding Black-and-White image and of course shown in the standard 1.37:1 aspect ratio and it is totally amazing that 86 years have passed since this Warner Bros. Pictures Inc. hit the big screen. Wow! The result is totally impressive. Derived from an ancient nitrate camera negative, the good people at Warner Bros. have produced a safety fine grain master with a glossy silver sheen and ultra-smooth grain structure that brings this bit of Busby Berkeley back from the brink with mesmerizing results. Prepare to be astonished, as they used to say. Contrast is exquisite. The tonality in this grey scale is beyond anything I might have anticipated, having lived with the ‘just okay’ inferior DVD release of this film for the last 14 years. Black levels shadow and detail – you are sooooo going to be impressed. Close-ups are surprisingly crisp, background elements are easy to discern, and only a few errant marks dot the print. Best of all, the lavish musical numbers look spectacular in high definition. I sincerely envy those who have never seen Footlight Parade before because their initial exposure is going to resurrect the wonderment, excitement and joy of going to the movies circa 1933.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Warner Archive Collection brings us the film ‘FOOTLIGHT PARADE’ with a standard 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio experience that produces clear, well-modulated sound. Age-related surface noise is absent, all the sassy dialogue is easy to comprehend, and the musical score is full and robust. At times, the dialogue can sound a little tinny and shrill, but that’s typical of the period due to primitive recording equipment. But despite this, this is well worth adding to your Blu-ray collection.
* * * * *
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Special Feature: Footlight Parade: Music for the Decades [2006] [1080p] [1.37:1] [15:03] With this special feature, it takes an in-depth look at the film ‘FOOTLIGHT PARADE’ and was always done in the fashion at the time of all Warner Bros. Pictures. We are informed that Al Dubin and Harry Warren wrote all the lyrics for all the songs that are featured in all of the Busby Berkeley Warner bros. films, and also inform us how they started in their careers and also how they ended up in Hollywood which brought them together as a team partnership and both of them collaborated over 23 film scores together in just five years, and no other team could match that creative collaboration record. Their most famous songs were also used in different Warner bros. Cartoons. It's a great little piece that discusses, among other things, ‘FOOTLIGHT PARADE’ and its musical development, and its unique place in film history, and the bold casting of tough-guy James Cagney as a song-and-dance man is a joy to watch. Contributors include: Larry Billman [Author/Archivist], Martin Rubin [Author], John Kenrick [Musical Theatre and Film Historian], Rick Jewell [Professor of Film/Author], John Landis [Writer/Director], Mary Ann Kellogg [Choreographer], Richard Barrios [Author/Film Historian], John Waters [Director] and Randy Skinner [Director/Choreographer].
Special Feature: Rambling 'Round Radio Row #8 [1934] [480i] [1.37:1] [9:51] Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. and Vitaphone presents this black-and-white ensemble musical featurette. Contributors include: Harriet Lee, Frank Novak, Jr., Baby Rose Marie, Ray Atwell and Morton Downey.
Special Feature: Vaudeville Reel #1 [1934] [480i] [1.37:1] [11:03] Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. and Vitaphone presents another black-and-white ensemble musical featurette that features a variety of different acts. Contributors include: The Honey Family, Les Reis and Artie Dunn and The Wandering Minstrels, The Stepping Stars – A Musical Family and Herb Williams.
Theatrical Trailer [1933] [1080p] [1.37:1] [3:18] This is the Original Theatrical Trailer for the film ‘FOOTLIGHT PAPRADE.’
Special Feature: Vintage Warner Bros. Cartoons: Here we get to view four classic Warner Bros. Cartoons where they inform us that some of the cartoon you get to view are a product of their time. They may depict some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that were commonplace in American society at the time of the release of these four cartoons. The depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. While the following cartoons you get to view do not represent Warner Bros.’ view of today’s society, and some of these cartoons are being presented as they were originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed and here is what you get to view:
One Step Ahead of My Shadow [1933] [1080p] [1.37:1] [7:33] Several Chinese residents play music. A dragon frees himself from a cage and goes after them, but fireworks are shoved down the dragon's throat. This causes him to explode and turn into a walking dragon skeleton. Director: Rudolf Ising (uncredited).
Young and Healthy [1933] [1080p] [1.37:1] [7:28] The lazy yet large King Louis could care less about the royal ball and is more interested in sleeping on his throne. He suddenly heard the cries and cheers of the kingdom's kids playing outside and decides to play with them much to the dismay of the queen. Director: Rudolf Ising. Producers: Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Leon Schlesinger. Composer: Frank Marsales.
Sittin' on a Backyard Fence [1933] [1080p] [1.37:1] [7:18] Sex seems to be on the minds of the animals on a backyard fence: the alley cats following a solitary female who may be in heat and the bull and the cows painted on an advertisement. After some singing by the cloven-hoofed crowd and music from a jazz band of cats, the focus is on one particular male cat and his tough-guy rival for the affections of the one female. After she watches them fight with each other and then confront a bull dog, she may have her own solution to the rivalry. Director: Earl Duvall. Composer: Norman Spencer.
Honeymoon Hotel [1934] [1080p] [1.37:1] [7:21] After introducing the small town Bugtown, inhabited by bugs, this short shows what happens to two honeymooning love bugs at the Honeymoon Hotel in town, due to the fact, that their love is a little bit too hot. Voice Cast: Jack Carr [Male Fly]. Directors: Earl Duvall (uncredited) and Friz Freleng (uncredited). Producer: Leon Schlesinger. Composers: Bernard B. Brown and Norman Spencer (uncredited).
Finally, ‘FOOTLIGHT PARADE’ is the closest thing to an acid trip in 1930’s Hollywood and was a wonderful Busby Berkeley choreographed musical number with one of the filmmaker’s most potent hallucinogens. ‘FOOTLIGHT PARADE’ also coasts along, allows the monumental inspirations of Busby Berkeley to take centre stage in this routine backstage musical and is one of the most entertaining musicals of its time and features one of James Cagney’s best performances. The script is on fire with snappy comebacks, hilarious inside jokes on the entertainment industry and witty double entendre [is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning] that could only be pulled off in Pre-Code films. Back in 2006, Warner Home Video released a five-film DVD collection of Busby Berkeley’s greatest Warner Bros. Pictures musicals. We can only hope that someday a similar set will finally showcase other Busby Berkeley films on the Blu-ray format. Very Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
