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List Price: $19.98Price: $11.50 You Save: $8.48 (42%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786301969284
Format: Black & White, NTSC
ISBN: 6301969286
Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
Publisher: MGM (Video & DVD)
Release Date: September 01, 1998
Running Time: 104 minutes
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Theatrical Release Date: October 21, 1933
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Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
Footlight Parade is one of the best early musicals starring the great Jimmy Cagney, Ruby Keeler, and Joan Blondell. Dick Powell also turns in a great performance and his singing is superb. The song and dance numbers by Busby Berkeley are nothing short of incredible; and the plot moves along at a good pace.
The action begins when Chester Kent (Jimmy Cagney) is struggling to put on prologues, small shows as opening numbers on a stage just before a movie theater showed an early "talkie film." Chester must contend with his two swindling bosses Silas 'Si' Gould (Guy Kibbee) and Al Frazer (Arthur Hohl) and worse yet there's a rat in the company giving all their inside plans to a competing firm that also puts on prologues.
Of course, the plot goes deeper still. Chester's wife Cynthia (Renee Whitney) wants a divorce. Moreover, Joan Blondell plays Nan Prescott, Chester's devoted secretary who loves him even though Chester himself doesn't realize it. There are also great ... Read More
Rating:  -
A wonderful musical. The three Busby Berkely numbers that end the movie are spectacular, but what makes this film so wonderful is the incredible non-stop patter and the natural acting of Cagney and Blondell. (Keeler is also lovely, even though she may not have been a great actress). While most musical movies happen in a neverland place, this at least try to put itself in its particular time and place (the Great Depression). There's a freshness in the movie that you don't see in flicks today, much less in the usually stilted 30s films, even though the plot, involving the setting up of movies prologues, is quite dated. And check the homage to FDR in one of the musicals.
Rating: -
At the height of the Depression, Warner Brothers scored a hat trick with 3 memorable films in a year - "42nd Street", "Golddiggers of 1933" and "Footlight Parade". Each was unique: the sombre coarseness and desperation of the first, the Depression theme and comedy of the second and the optimism of the third with reference to Roosevelt's New Deal. "Footlight Parade" in particular had a sting in its tail which could be summed up in two words - James Cagney. Cagney has quickly established his reputation as a gangster but his vaudeville training was on display for the first time in "Footlight Parade" and audiences were charmed and dazzled.
Cagney plays the producer of Prologues, live musical numbers to be shown on stage in theatres before the main feature. Joan Blondell, who complimented him perfectly, is his right hand girl. Their skill with the dialogue and obvious rapport is infectious. Other Warners regulars are on hand. Ruby Keeler plays a mousy secretary who removes her ... Read More
Rating: -
Not so much a musical as a mating call set to music. But then what else could be expected from three back-to-back production numbers from that carnally-obsessed choreographer Busby Berkeley. "Beside the Waterfall" alone has enough `flowering o's', half-dressed chorines, and suggestive camera angles to make Hugh Hefner blush and send Dr. Freud into terminal overload. Then too, who else but the mad Mr. Berkeley could convert the complicated matter of sex into a mere conjugation of overhead geometry. There's also "Honeymoon Hotel", a celebration of the no-tell motel, with marching phalanxes of hormonally driven couples all named Smith, and led by a demonic cupid looking like an early Billy Barty. The sight of his tiny legs chasing after a fleeing Amazon is enough to drive Harpo Marx to distraction and cause the audience to doubt the laws of physics. While bringing down the curtain is the marching madness of "Shanghai Lil", where Berkeley proves-- in case you ever doubted-- that race, creed, and ... Read More
Rating: -
Silent films are out and talking pictures are in, which means big musicals shows are going from stage to screen. A group of musical exhibitors are out of a job when one of them, Kent (James Cagney), gets a bright idea. Why not do musical previews like a chain store would to save money? They're in business and soon business is booming with beautiful girls, crazy ideas, and a great cast (Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Guy Kibbee).
The best part of this movie is the music done in Busby Berkeley style with a grand finale. First is "Honeymoon Hotel," a snappy number about adultery and swapping partners in a sinful but fun hotel. It is eye-popping and fun, a story within the film starring Keeler and Powell. Next, the troupe runs off to another theater to put on the extravagant "By a Waterfall" with the same stars. This is probably the best example of typical Berkeley on overdrive; there is a giant waterfall surrounded by beautiful girls in, out, and by the water. It's a visual ... Read More
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