Director: Lloyd Bacon
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Top Billed Actors: Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels, George Brent
Won 0 Oscars
Nominated for 2 more:
Outstanding Production - Warner Bros.
Best Sound Recording - Nathan Levinson
Plot: A cutthroat director puts on his last show and legs, legs, music, cat-fight, legs, drama, and music.
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Top Billed Actors: Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels, George Brent
Won 0 Oscars
Nominated for 2 more:
Outstanding Production - Warner Bros.
Best Sound Recording - Nathan Levinson
Plot: A cutthroat director puts on his last show and legs, legs, music, cat-fight, legs, drama, and music.
At first glance, 42nd Street (1933) is just a run of the mill Depression-era musical by Warner Bros. However, it is due to the popularity of this particular film, along with Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), that the on-screen musical survived. Musicals were on the way out due to some financial failures in the early 1930s. However, Warner Bros. brought it back with the backstage musical genre, much like the second Best Picture winner, The Broadway Melody (1929). It is this film that backstage musicals (musicals about the production of a Broadway musical) are measured against. It is also this film that may have saved Warner Bros. from financial collapse. 1933 was a hard time for nearly every entertainment industry and it is thanks to this picture that it was able to keep afloat. A few American Film Institute achievements include the #97 song in it's top 100 songs for "42nd Street," the #87 movie quote for "Sawyer, you're going out a youngster, but you've got to come back a star!," and the #13 spot in it's top 25 musicals list.
The director of the Broadway play in the film is none other than the second Best Actor winner, Warner Baxter. He does a much better job here than in In Old Arizona (1928). He reminds me of the recent performance of J.K. Simmons in Whiplash (2014) in that he works his acting company to the point of severe exhaustion. The rehearsal scenes are highly entertaining in this regard and Baxter is a big part of that. The music is also very catchy. I did not expect to like it so much but the songs are still stuck in my head as I write this. The set design on the stage and the cinematography during the sequences in which the Broadway play is being shown is superb. It is neat that the movie is about putting on the play and the final fifteen or twenty minutes actually shows unabridged numbers from said play. It is a nice payoff.
Where the movie suffers is not in the Broadway play but the backstage acting itself. This is Ruby Keeler's first movie and you can really tell. Her way of speech is forced and sounds scripted and her ditsy personality makes her a little unlikeable. Her dancing is also unnatural and looks a forced as her dialogue. I also did not care for the plot. Certain events happened because they had to. In order for Keeler to get her shot, drama had to happen to the star, Bebe Daniels. This could be seen from a mile away. Ultimatums were set and plot points were simply laid out. It all felt like an outer shell for the musical aspect of the movie.
Overall, this is a fun drama-filled musical that keeps you reeled in long enough, despite some sketchy acting and dull plot points, for the lavish sets and songs towards the end of the film.
My Score: 7/10
The director of the Broadway play in the film is none other than the second Best Actor winner, Warner Baxter. He does a much better job here than in In Old Arizona (1928). He reminds me of the recent performance of J.K. Simmons in Whiplash (2014) in that he works his acting company to the point of severe exhaustion. The rehearsal scenes are highly entertaining in this regard and Baxter is a big part of that. The music is also very catchy. I did not expect to like it so much but the songs are still stuck in my head as I write this. The set design on the stage and the cinematography during the sequences in which the Broadway play is being shown is superb. It is neat that the movie is about putting on the play and the final fifteen or twenty minutes actually shows unabridged numbers from said play. It is a nice payoff.
Where the movie suffers is not in the Broadway play but the backstage acting itself. This is Ruby Keeler's first movie and you can really tell. Her way of speech is forced and sounds scripted and her ditsy personality makes her a little unlikeable. Her dancing is also unnatural and looks a forced as her dialogue. I also did not care for the plot. Certain events happened because they had to. In order for Keeler to get her shot, drama had to happen to the star, Bebe Daniels. This could be seen from a mile away. Ultimatums were set and plot points were simply laid out. It all felt like an outer shell for the musical aspect of the movie.
Overall, this is a fun drama-filled musical that keeps you reeled in long enough, despite some sketchy acting and dull plot points, for the lavish sets and songs towards the end of the film.
My Score: 7/10