Footlight Parade (1933)

Director:

Lloyd Bacon

Writers:

Manuel Seff (writer)
James Seymour (writer)

Release Date:

21 October 1933 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical | Romance

Tagline:

Climaxing Warner Bros.' glittering parade of musicals!

Plot:

Chester Kent struggles against time, romance, and a rival's spy to produce spectacular live "prologues" for movie houses.

Plot Keywords:

Male Female Relationship | Drunkenness | Fraud | Gold Digger | New York City

Awards:

1 win

Cast

James Cagney	...	Chester Kent
Joan Blondell	...	Nan Prescott
Ruby Keeler	...	Bea Thorn
Dick Powell	...	Scott 'Scotty' Blair
Frank McHugh	...	Francis, dance director
Ruth Donnelly	...	Harriet Bowers Gould
Guy Kibbee	...	Silas 'Si' Gould
Hugh Herbert	...	Charlie Bowers
Claire Dodd	...	Vivian Rich
Gordon Westcott	...	Harry Thompson
Arthur Hohl	...	Al Frazer
Renee Whitney	...	Cynthia Kent
Barbara Rogers	...	Gracie
Paul Porcasi	...	George Apolinaris
Philip Faversham	...	Joe Barrington

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:A (original rating, cut version) | UK:U | USA:Approved (PCA #2649)

Filming Locations:

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Dorothy Lamour's first film.

Goofs:

Continuity: The newspaper claims that Honeymoon Hotel has "400 rooms, 400 baths," and yet later we see all guests of each floor disappearing into a single bathroom on each floor.

Quotes:

Chester Kent: Well, I sure know how to pick 'em.
Nan Prescott: You said it, Papa.
Chester Kent: Maybe you should help me next time, huh?
Nan Prescott: What do you think I've been trying to do?

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)

Soundtrack:

A Vision of Salome

The Genius of Busby

Busby's genius --his "fantastic" use of camera and editing-- is even more remarkably innovative when you remember that only a few years before this film was made on the sound stages of Warner Bros. in 1933 cameras were stuck in sound proof booths in order to deaden the noise of the machine; many movies back then were no more than static reproductions of talky stage plays. Busby opened the door to pure cinema.

Busby is surely one of the first directors to realize that if you pre-recorded the music sound tracks before you filmed the musical numbers you could then move the actors and dancers as you wished; the performers would either be lip-syncing or dancing to playback and the camera could be anywhere high or low. Busby's previous experience as a drill master in the military also taught him how to train dancers and swimmers by giving them only a few steps (or strokes) to learn at a time; by clever editing a montage of shots in time to a set music track he could then give the impression of a continuously flowing extravaganza a la Zigfield. One can only imagine how many hours went into getting the never-to-be-equaled overhead snake design shot in "By A Waterfall."

Yes, the Odessa steps sequence in "Potemkin" is justifiably considered to be one of the great moments in cinema. Let me cast my vote for Busby's incomparable last act to "Footlight Parade."