42nd Street (1933)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Lloyd Bacon

Writers:

Rian James (screenplay) &
James Seymour (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

11 March 1933 (USA)

Genre:

Musical | Romance | Drama

Plot:

A producer puts on what may be his last Broadway show, and at the last moment a chorus girl has to replace the star...

Plot Keywords:

Director | Chorus Girl | Broken Ankle | Opening Night | Jealousy

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 1 win

US Showtimes:

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Cast

Warner Baxter	...	Julian Marsh
Bebe Daniels	...	Dorothy Brock
George Brent	...	Pat Denning
Ruby Keeler	...	Peggy Sawyer
Guy Kibbee	...	Abner Dillon
Una Merkel	...	Lorraine Fleming
Ginger Rogers	...	Ann
Ned Sparks	...	Barry
Dick Powell	...	Billy Lawler
Allen Jenkins	...	Mac Elroy
Edward J. Nugent	...	Terry
Robert McWade	...	Jones
George E. Stone	...	Andy Lee

Also Known As:

Forty-Second Street (USA) (alternative spelling)

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | Argentina:Atp | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #2718-R: 26 September 1936 for re-release) | USA:TV-G (TV rating) | UK:U | Australia:G

Filming Locations:

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

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

The film was so financially successful that it saved Warner Brothers from bankruptcy.

Goofs:

Continuity: The opening credits say "COPYRIGHT MCMXXXIII [1933]," but the closing credits say "COPYRIGHT MCMXXXII [1932]".

Quotes:

Slim Murphy: Hey got a match?
Pat Denning: Yep... why I guess so... yeah.
Slim Murphy: Don't happen to know a guy named Pat Denning do ya?
Pat Denning: Why yes.
Slim Murphy: We got a message for him. This guy Pat Denning's a pretty wise mug but he ain't wise enough and if he don't lay off that Dorothy Brock dame, it's gonna be just too bad... for Denning, get me?
Pat Denning: Alright I'll tell him.
Slim Murphy: Yeah well...
[punches Pat in the mouth and Pat falls down]
Slim Murphy: that's so ya don't forget.
Mug with Murphy: Yeah
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Hair-Raising Hare (1946)

Soundtrack:

Young and Healthy

A Whole Lot of Heart and a Whole Lot of Ham

If your knowledge of "42nd Street" comes from seeing the stage musical, you'll be surprised to find how much less of a musical the film actually is, and how much darker it is than its stage counterpart. The spectre of the Great Depression pervades every frame of the film. These Broadway hoofers never once look like they're enjoying themselves; instead, they look like any other group of factory or assembly workers, desperately holding on to the job they have no matter how miserable it may be.

Busby Berkeley's groundbreaking choreography bursts on to the screen late in the film in a couple of dazzling production numbers. Though actually there is something disturbing about his obsession (and the entire film's obsession) with objectifying women until they are nearly indistinguishable from one another. To the producers of the musical within the film, the women are nothing more than pairs of legs. In the audition scene we are privy to, they select the chorus by asking them to hike up their skirts so that their legs will be more easily visible!! If there are any auditions to actually find out if the women can sing or dance, we don't see them. And again, in Berkeley's dance numbers, the women become little more than individual body parts, swirling around in kaleidoscopic images that blur one into the next.

These early Depression-era musicals are known for launching the career of Ruby Keeler, but I was quite taken aback by how awful she is. She can't act, and her dancing is atrocious. She clomps around and flails her arms like a chimpanzee impersonating a human. Of the actors, Ginger Rogers makes an impression in a small role as the acerbic Anytime Annie (and get a load of the scene where she insists that Ruby Keeler take on the lead role in the musical, because she can dance rings around poor Ginger....yeah, right). Bebe Daniels and George Brent do well with their parts, and Warner Baxter serves up the ham and gets to deliver the film's most famous line.

I know this review sounds more critical than positive, but I actually enjoyed this film very much. It's corny, silly and melodramatic to be sure, but it's also earnest and well crafted. It's a fascinating slice of film history and one that any serious film buff should see.

Grade: A-