#Footlight parade movie

Often the women in the rehearsal hall aren’t participating in the scene rather, they only serve to decorate the shot. The screen captures above demonstrate how often this happens throughout the first two acts of Footlight Parade. Occasionally, they even recline in the foreground… The first half of the film is packed with chorus girls, many of which have little to do, other than recline in the background. However, this film makes use of a different kind of set dressing: girls. Some films set their scene with gorgeous settings, or interesting backgrounds. With the exception of the two main female leads, a majority of the female cast is decidedly passive. She practically melts into his arms, barely resisting his desire for a kiss. What a change! You’re beautiful! How about a little kiss?”. However, he looks her over and quickly realizes this is Bea. When they do, he pulls her off-stage after a dance number, hoping to hit on the “new girl”. Where does she get that hair? Where does she get those dresses? It takes a while for Bea and Scotty to meet again after her transformation. She storms from the room, but the camera remains with Scotty, who strangely grins ear to ear.īea storms straight to Nan’s desk, begging the decidedly less bookish secretary to give her a make-over. He looks her over, “If I need you, I’ll send for you”. While Bea previously showed herself willing to stand up to Scotty, she barely fights back tears. Look at that dress, look at those glasses…”. In their last scene together before she overhauls her look, Scotty looks her over, “…All business, all efficiency. Furthermore, the change is made even more jarring by Scotty’s (Powell) treatment of her both before and after her transformation. However, all it takes is the introduction of love into her life, and Bea suddenly decides to change everything about herself. He repeatedly calls Bea the only girl in the office with any sense, and insists that she’s too valuable where she is. When Nan (Blondell) first proposes her idea to incorporate Bea into the musical numbers, Kent immediately shoots it down. As the film opens, Bea is a secretary for Chester Kent’s theater company. The character of Bea (Keeler) shows Footlight Parade taking a gargantuan step back after the advances of Gold Diggers of 1933. Related: Check out our previous installments of Classic Film Through a Feminist Lens, here.

With his competition surging around him, his company’s only hope is to produce, stage and orchestrate three lengthy prologues within three days, in hopes of getting a high profile contract. The film contains many of the same performers from the earlier movies, most notably: Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, and Joan Blondell.įootlight Parade follows Chester Kent ( James Cagney), a producer of musical prologues during the depths of the Great Depression. Related: Classic Film Through a Feminist Lens: Gold Diggers of 1933įootlight Parade is the third in the commonly accepted chronology of the Busby Berkeley musicals which lit up Warner Brothers’ marquees during the 1930s.

#Footlight parade movie

Despite coming from the same creative team, the movie reverses the progress of the previous film, instead representing the social conservatism of the 1930s. Meanwhile, Footlight Parade hit theaters later the same year.

The classic musical puts forward a surprisingly progressive narrative, especially when examining the treatment of its female characters. The musical is one of a number of Busby Berkeley produced films, released by Warner Brothers during the Great Depression. This is an extraordinary Blu-ray of an extraordinary film, which should be in every serious collection, containing some of the greatest Berkeley set pieces ever filmed.In a previous entry, this column examined the musical Gold Diggers of 1933. William Keighley, before he graduated to directing some of the great Cagney and Flynn vehicles, as dialogue coach. Ruby Keeler, proving that she really couldn’t dance James Cagney, proving that he really could dance The film is a veritable who’s who of WB talent – musicals of the ’30s, even though it was his third for the studio, after 42nd Street and Gold Diggers (both also 1933). Black levels, shadow detail, are both meticulously rendered.įootlight Parade is probably the perfect introduction to the Warner Bros.

The grain structure is velvety, gaining a bit at dupes, which are short cut. The Wizards of WB, have taken a recently produced fine grain master, derived from the almost 90 year-old nitrate camera negative, and taken it back to perfection. It truly does not get any better than this.įootlight Parade, the Lloyd Bacon directed musical extravaganza, photographed by George Barnes and choreographed by Busby Berkeley, once again looks much as it did at its premiere in 1933.