It's amazing that one person could be so talented and so versatile as James Cagney. Not as good a singer as Astaire, Cagney's singing, like Astaire's, sounded natural, unlike the crooning so popular at the time. Like Fred Astaire and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Cagney's dancing appeared natural and unrehearsed, although hours went into practice to get each step just right. The resulting three prologue musicals, which couldn't possibly have been presented on any cinema stage of the day, are as fresh and enjoyable today as they were over seventy years ago, "Honeymoon Hotel," "By a Waterfall," and "Shanghai Lil." Of special note is the song and dance of tough-guy James Cagney. A new singer from Arkansas College shows up in the form of Scotty Blain (Dick Powell) who turns out to be a real find and is paired with Bea Thorn (Ruby Keeler). Dick Powell) has the hots for Kent and is determined to expose the wiles of the temptress. His assistant, Nan Prescott (Joan Blondell - soon to be Mrs. He uncovers the traitor, fires him, then unbeknown to him a new leak is planted in the form a dazzling temptress. In preparation for the prologues, Kent learns that his ideas are being stolen by a rival. Could it be that Cagney's character is patterned after Berkeley? Could be. Kent is basically an idea man along the lines of choreographer Busby Berkeley. Kent gets the idea that a prologue chain would be the road to salvation for the dwindling live musical business. Shorts, news reels, serials, and cartoons would later serve the purpose.
His producers take him to see a popular talky of the day, John Wayne in "The Big Trail." Before each showing of the flick, a dance number is presented as a prologue. Chester Kent (Cagney) is about to lose his job and does lose his playgirl wife as a result of talking pictures squeezing out live stage musicals. The first half of "Footlight Parade" is preparation for a musical extravaganza which occupies the last half of the film.
These are all scenes from a 1933 musical. Footlight Parade is Busby Berkeley at his surreal best.Īn opium den, a dirty little boy (actually a midget), prostitutes galore, a violent fracas in a dive, a motel for sexual shenanigans, scantily clad babes with cleavage a lot, a boozer falling down the stairs, a racially mixed clientèle in a bar with Asians, Africans, and Anglos treated equally, does this sound like a film playing at the local shopping mall? Wrong.
I've got to believe that clip was deliberate. I think the brothers Warner were playing a little joke there. But what's even more unusual is that the brief clip shows him in a scene with Frank McHugh who plays another Cagney assistant in Footlight Parade.
Footlight parade movie#
And in a scene at the beginning of the film, producer Guy Kibbee takes Cagney to a movie theater where they are showing a B western starring John Wayne. John Garfield is seen briefly in the Shanghai Lil number. Look for Dorothy Lamour and Ann Sothern in the chorus as per the IMDb pages for both of them. Like in Blonde Crazy, she's the one with the real brains in that duo and it's her quick thinking that bails him out of some domestic problems he has on top of his theatrical ones. Joan Blondell is Cagney's no nonsense girl Friday at the theater. Ruby sings and dances with Powell in the last two and she partners with James Cagney in my favorite number from Footlight Parade, Shanghai Lil. Dick Powell gets to sing three songs in Footlight Parade, Ah the Moon is Here, Honeymoon Hotel, and By a Waterfall, the last two with Ruby Keeler further cementing that screen team. Of course the staging of these Busby Berkeley extravaganzas on the stage of a movie palace defies all logic and reason. He wished he'd done a few more musicals in his career and I wish he had. In his retirement Cagney said that while he screened his few and far between musicals a lot, he could barely be bothered with some of his straight dramatic films. It gives James Cagney a chance to display some of his versatility as a dancer as well as a tough guy. Footlight Parade is my favorite Busby Berkeley film. Some other competitors get wind of it and the competition is on. Stage live relevant prologues to the movies that are being shown at the various movie theaters that are springing up overnight from the old theaters. In an effort to stimulate the show business economy and his own personal economy, out of work theater director James Cagney comes up with a brilliant idea. Those behind the curtains were hit as bad as those in front. The Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Depression following almost ruined the American Musical Theater, in fact it was the final death blow to vaudeville.
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