Footlight Parade (1933)

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

Director:

Lloyd Bacon

Writers:

Manuel Seff (screen play), James Seymour (screen play),

Stars:

James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
James Cagney	...	Chester Kent
Joan Blondell	...	Nan
Ruby Keeler	...	Bea
Dick Powell	...	Scotty
Frank McHugh	...	Francis
Guy Kibbee	...	Gould
Ruth Donnelly	...	Mrs, Gould
Hugh Herbert	...	Bowers
Claire Dodd	...	Vivian
Gordon Westcott	...	Thompson
Arthur Hohl	...	Frazer
Renee Whitney	...	Cynthia Kent
Barbara Rogers	...	Gracie
Paul Porcasi	...	Apolinaris
Philip Faversham	...	Joe

Storyline

Chester Kent produces musical comedies on the stage. With the beginning of the talkies era he changes to producing short musical prologues for movies. This is stressful to him, because he always needs new units and his rival is stealing his ideas. He can get an contract with a producer if he is able to stage in three days three new prologues. In spite of great problems, he does it.

---

Plot Keywords:

prologue | stage | secretary | dance | contract | 

---

Taglines:

All directed and staged by the internationally famous creators of "42nd Street", Lloyd Bacon and Busby Berkeley. CAN YOU EVEN THINK OF MISSING IT?

---

Genres:

Comedy | Musical | Romance

---

Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English French

Release Date:

21 October 1933 (USA)

Also Known As:

Belezas em Revista

Filming Locations:

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

Box Office

Budget:

$703,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros., Vitaphone Corporation, The

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Film debut of Dorothy Lamour.

---

Goofs

Before the bus leaves for the three prologue performances the call board reads Diana Theatre 8pm, Mercury Theatre 9pm and Jupiter Theatre 10pm. They arrive at the Jupiter Theatre first and proceed in reverse order from what was written on the call board.

---

Quotes

Chester Kent: Listen, Nan, send a new boy and girl on right away, and make sure they're not in love with each other.
Nan Prescott: Right.
Chester Kent: Uh, get a couple already married.

---

Connections

Features The Telegraph Trail (1933)

---

Soundtracks

"Lady Fair"
(uncredited)
Music by Sammy Fain
Played by the theater orchestra prior to the Shanghai Lil sequence

User Reviews

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 innovative moments in cinema. Let me cast my vote for Busby's incomparable last act to "Footlight Parade."