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50 out of 56 people found the following review useful:
Great Pre-Code Stuff, 25 January 2006

Author: Doug Deuchler (deuchler@sbcglobal.net) from Chicago

This is the most perfect example of "history on the silver screen" that I can think of. When Ginger Rogers says, "It's the Depression, dearie" at the beginning to explain the chorus girls' bad luck, it's the key to the whole film. While the "Shadow Waltz" number was being filmed during an actual 1933 earthquake in L.A. a number of the girls toppled off the Art Deco "overpass" where they were swaying with their filmy hoop skirts and their neon violins short-circuited. The electrical hook-ups were also rather dangerous, especially if the neon bows came in contact with the girls' metallic wigs in that number. The culminating production number, "Remember My Forgotten Man," is the most significant historically and illustrates Warner Bros.' "New Deal" sensibilities. Warner Bros. was the only studio that "bought" the whole Roosevelt approach to economic recovery. The year before, under Hoover, WWI vets were not only neglected in terms of benefits but were run out of their shanty town near the Capitol building. Starving guys were camping on the edges of most communities who'd served in the Great War fifteen years before. Of course, why or how this number fits into such a '30s girlie-type musical revue is anyone's guess. Berkeley never looked for reality, just eye-popping surrealistic effects.

About ten years ago I found myself sitting next to Etta Moten Barnett at a Chicago NAACP banquet. I was flabbergasted. She was in her 90s yet still looked lovely. She's the singer who sang "Forgotten Man" in the window. She also sang "The Carioca" in Astaire and Rogers' first pairing, "Flying Down to Rio." She was quite gracious, though she did not have wonderful things to say about Hollywood of that era. The African Americans in both pictures were fed in a tent away from the general commissary area.

Ruby Keeler has a certain odd-ball appeal, like a homely puppy. She can't sing, she watches her leaden feet while she dances, and almost all her lines are read badly. Yes, she was married to Al Jolson, but that may have HURT her career more than anything. He was not exactly always likable. He was much older than Ruby and so full of himself.

This film is also a classic example of the PRE-CODE stuff that was slipping by---the leering "midget baby" (Billy Barty), the naked girls in silhouette changing into their "armor," the non-stop flashing of underwear or lack of underwear, Ginger Rogers having her large coin torn off by the sheriff's office mug so she's essentially standing there in panties, and so forth.

A good comparison of before and after the code would be to examine this picture and "Gold Diggers of 1935." The latter is so much more chaste, discreet, and less fascinating except for the numbers. There's not the lurid, horny aura of the Pre-Code pictures. And it's not quite as much naughty fun, either.

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36 out of 38 people found the following review useful:
Classic Depression Era Musical, 7 May 2000

Author: Ron Oliver (revilorest@juno.com) from Forest Ranch, CA

New York City - the height of the Great Depression. Four showgirls, starving, scheming for that next role in a Broadway musical comedy. Looking for the Big Break. Auditioning for every part. Often down, but never downhearted. Using men, loving men, cheating men. These are the GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933.

This is a wonderful comedy - funny, tuneful & easy on the intellect. Plus, the magic of Busby Berkeley's musical numbers. It's the kind of entertainment that kept audiences happy for a few hours during the dark days of economic despair in the early 1930's.

The cast is first-rate: brassy Joan Blondell; cynical Aline MacMahon; innocent Ruby Keeler & on-the-make Ginger Rogers. Keeler lands handsome & mysterious Dick Powell, (who gets to croon some attractive Harry Warren tunes); and acerbic but loyal producer Ned Sparks.

Warren William & Guy Kibbee turn up late in the proceedings, playing priggish bluenoses who are nonetheless highly susceptible to alcohol & feminine wiles. Movie mavens will recognize Charles Lane as a society reporter; Ferdinand Gottschalk as a disgruntled club member; and Sterling Holloway as a messenger boy.

Some years back, in an introduction to a book about THE WIZARD OF OZ's Munchkins, dwarf Billy Barty stated that he was `too young' to appear in that 1939 movie. This, of course, is nonsense, and he can easily be spotted in the `Pettin' In The Park' number here. As he would in FOOTLIGHT PARADE, he rather disturbingly portrays a lecherous tot, a sure indication, if nothing else, that this is a pre-Production Code film.

Mr. Berkeley does get to have some fun. The film starts with `We're In The Money' featuring Ginger Rogers & girls clad in coins large & small; Rogers even gets to sing one chorus in pig Latin. `Pettin' In The Dark' extols the joys of bucolic lovemaking, segues to simulated, silhouetted female nudity and rather bizarrely ends with the chorus all metal-corseted (Powell is given a can opener to use on Keeler). `The Shadow Waltz' is Berkeley at his most romantic, with its helix-skirted ladies pretending to play fluorescent, fake violins, all moving in a multitude of weaving patterns staged for the famous overhead camera shots. The film's emotional punch comes at the end, with Blondell's tempestuous rendition of `Remember My Forgotten Man' - with its endless marching men, a blues wail for the doughboys of the Great War, ruined by the Depression. The movie ends on this somber note. (Powell also gets to warble `I've Got To Sing A Torch Song').

And just who are those hilarious, Yiddish Kentucky Hillbillies, anyway?

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37 out of 40 people found the following review useful:
Superb--one of the 3 best 30s musicals...., 21 June 2004

Author: drednm

with 42nd Street and Footlight Parade... Snappy, risqué, funny, great cast, great music. What more could you ask for? Joan Blondell, Aline McMahon, and Ruby Keeler are the gold diggers. Warren William, Dick Powell, and Guy Kibbee are their targets. Ginger Rogers is swell singing "We're in the Money" in Pig Latin. Ned Sparks, Sterling Holloway, Charles Lane, and Billy Barty are good. Great musical numbers including the opening "We're in the Money," the terrific finale "Forgotten Man" with Blondell and Etta Moten (singing in the window); "Petting in the Park" and "In a Shadow"---Powell and Keeler.... all classics. Fun all the way......

Look for Hobart Cavanaugh, Grace Hayle, Busby Berkley, Clarence Nordstrom, and one of the roller skating cops sure looks like Jack Carson.

Aline McMahon steals the show, and what a show it is!

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33 out of 34 people found the following review useful:
Marvyn Leroy and Busby Berkeley, what a combination!, 3 December 2005

Author: jotix100 from New York

"Golddiggers of 1933" is a fun movie to watch because all the right elements that went into the making of this motion picture. Mervyn Leroy was truly inspired, and his direction clearly shows he was in total command. The contribution made by the incomparable Busby Berkeley is one of the best things in the film. His choreography for the big production numbers is one of the most impressive thing he did for the movies.

The film is a sweet story about young hopefuls in New York trying to make it in the musical theater. Thus, we find the impoverished room mates, Carol, Trixie and Polly, who are so poor they have to steal their neighbor's milk! These young women are at the end of their rope when Barney, the Broadway impresario comes by to tell them about the new show he is working on. The only trouble, he has no money for it.

How naive and wonderful those movies that came during the great depression were! Everything was possible, in spite of what was happening in the country at the time. In fact, this film, as well as others of that era, served as an excuse for people that were facing a hard time making ends meet for escaping it all when watching a movie like this one.

The cast is excellent. Warren William, Joan Blondell, Aline McMahon, Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Ned Sparks, Ginger Rogers, and Guy Kibbee giving performances that endeared them to the American public of the time.

The production number of "Shadow Waltz" has to be one of the best ones in this musical genre ever produced. The number is an amazing one and a tribute to the man who staged it, Busby Berkley. It also help the chorus girls were dressed by Orry-Kelly and the music was by Harry Warren and Al Dubin.

"Golddiggers of 1933" is one of the best movies to come out of the Hollywood of those years.

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27 out of 28 people found the following review useful:
ereway inay the oneymay!!, 31 October 2003
Author: movibuf1962 from Washington, DC

I've heard of this movie for years, but didn't actually see it until last week when Turner Classic Movies ran it. And it is positively stunning!! On the surface, it moves almost like a carbon copy of 42ND STREET- right up to the last-minute switch in players before the curtain goes up (although in this film, it's Dick Powell instead of Ruby Keeler). But its astringent look at trying to play Tin Pan Alley smack in the middle of the Depression gives it a very adult and tragic significance. It still has the Berkley dazzle- from the "Shadow Waltz" chorus girls (and electric violins) to the now-legendary "We're In The Money" dress rehearsal fronted by a pre-Astaire Ginger Rogers. (I was a teenager when my mother mentioned that one verse of this song was actually sung in Pig Latin- and I swore for twenty-five years that she was pulling my chain. It is one of the cleverest vocal interludes I've ever seen and heard.) But the three girls implied in the film's title- Ruby Keeler, Aline McMahon, and especially the sharp, smart, and gorgeous Joan Blondell- are the best things in the movie. And Blondell fronts the sublime finale number "Forgotten Man-" which pays tribute to the men (and women) of WWI and the ironies which followed. The staging of it- the marching which goes from triumphant to tragic, the torchy, gospel-like vocal of Etta Moten (the black woman sitting in the window), and the pullback shot of everyone coming downstage at the fadeout- is truly spectacular.

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24 out of 27 people found the following review useful:
Forgotten Musical Gem, 8 June 2001

Author: James Brian Hardman from Charlotte, NC USA

Mervyn LeRoy directs this irresistible and touching depression-era musical. Busby Berkeley's choreography is as breath-taking as ever, as are the bevy of beautiful women in the elaborate productions. Many great musical numbers highlight this film including "We're in the Money" in which a then unknown, Ginger Rogers sings in Pig Latin. A host of other oddities can be found as always when Mr. Berkeley is involved. Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell are sensational as dancing and singing lovebirds and all works out well in the end. The show does close on a noticeably strange note with the very powerful protest number regarding the depression called "Forgotten Man" masterfully delivered by bombshell, Joan Blondell. A truly original and memorable musical.

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19 out of 20 people found the following review useful:
"A Woman's Got To Have A Man", 24 December 1999
Author: Michael Coy (michael.coy@virgin.net) from London, England

Made in the year when the global economic crash hit rock bottom, and the first signs of recovery began to appear, 'Gold Diggers' is very much a product of the Depression. Bread lines and penury are all around, but there is a jaunty air of optimism, too: "the long-lost dollar has come back to the fold".

Polly, Trixie and Carol are three vivacious and attractive showgirls who room together and scrape a precarious living by getting hired for each new Broadway musical as it crops up, and riding their luck until it closes - which is often before it even opens. On the fringe of their group hovers Fay, the smart blonde with the waspish tongue (Ginger Rogers).

The girls are 'gold diggers' in that they waste no opportunity to batten onto rich men. It is hinted during the course of the film that showgirls inhabit a shadowy region on the borders of prostitution, and the harsh economic realities of 1933 force the girls to regard their good looks as a marketable commodity.

A kind of innocent carnality runs through the film. Our three heroines actually sleep together. Fay thinks nothing of changing clothes with Carol, and she gets her backside slapped several times - by both men AND women. Trixie bathes with the door wide open, while Carol preens herself in the scantiest of negligees. The girls contrive to embarrass a rich snob by having him wake up undressed in Carol's bed. The script is loaded with playful smuttiness - taking 'Back Bay codfish' for a ride, making bedroom eyes and so forth.

It is in the show numbers, however, that the real naughtiness is on display. Busby Berkeley had had a phenomenal impact earlier in the year with his staged routines for "42nd Street", and a similar (but more risque) format is used here. Girls strip naked in silhouette, Ginger sings and dances all but nude for "We're In The Money", and metal chastity bodices are breached using can openers.

Ruby Murray and Dick Powell once again team up as the ingenue lovers, this time playing Brad and Polly - "a knockout for the mush interest". Murray is all coy charm and Powell's tenor voice is magnificent. Ginger is, as always, a beautiful and intelligent performer. Watch her pull off the gibberish verses in 'Money', and breezing through the comic dialogue in the apartment scene. Joan Blondell as Carol is simply adorable. Her sad face during the trick played on Lawrence is enough to tell us that she is falling in love. Her performance as The Spirit Of The Depression in "My Forgotten Man" is one of the great images in cinema history.

Warren and Dubin wrote the songs - and what songs! There are amusing, playful numbers like "Pettin' In The Park", with Berkeley choreography to match, and "We're In The Money" is deservedly famous. "In The Shadows" is a lovely ballad, with a set of geodesic walkways and electrically-illuminated violins. The spine-tingling climax is the anthemic "My Forgotten Man".

"Pettin' In The Park" was originally intended to be the closing number (hence Polly in her park outfit during the final reel), but the running-order was changed. A reprise of "Pettin'" as aural wallpaper in the restaurant scene is an understated gem, with a lovely arrangement featuring muted cornets. In a nice little in-joke, the producer likes Brad's songs so much, he decides to fire Warren and Dubin. By the way - who is the girl who sits silently in the armchair throughout that long scene?

The conception for "My Forgotten Man" was "men marching, marching, marching!" A sweeping epic is told in song and action as we see breadlines, tenements, Great War doughboys and much, much more - all in one song! Joan Blondell deters the heartless cop by pulling back the bum's lapel in a vignette of great emotional power. The musical styles range through torch song, jazz, blues and more. Listen out for the trumpet's counter melody as Joan speaks the verses, the negress on the window sill with the divine alto voice, the clarinet and sax obbligato after each sung line, and the gospel-style descant. "Gee, don't it get ya?"

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23 out of 28 people found the following review useful:
The best of the Warren/Dubin/Berkley musicals, 18 June 2004

Author: d_john2 from Oregon

Even better than the splendid "42nd Street," this first of the many "Gold Diggers" films is hitting on all its cylinders. When you have Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, and Ginger Rogers in the cast, the music of Harry Warren and Al Dubin, AND the choreography of Busby Berkley at his best, how can it be otherwise.

Okay, so Ruby Keeler still can't sing on key and her stomping dance style leaves many cold. She does still have that aura of innocence that helped her so much in "42nd Street" and which makes her performance tolerable. She does have the magnificent Joan Blondell and the soon-to-be-legendary Ginger Rogers to fall back on and, believe me, both ladies are more than equal to the task. (I have long believed that Blondell was one of the finest comic actresses in Hollywood history and Ginger Rogers - well, there was a reason Fred Astaire partnered with her more than with any other. No one could do musical comedy and dance better than Rogers at her peak.)

Yes, Berkley is an acquired taste. I find much of his later work a bit too precious for my tastes. Here, however, where he was still developing his style, it comes across as fresh and invigorating. Some of the numbers could have used a bit more rehearsal (low budget and a short shooting schedule probably nixed that) but they still all work and some are astonishingly good.

Dick Powell is, as usual, splendid and in great voice. Those of us who remember his later career as an award winning dramatic actor and director may not be aware that he was originally a singer - and a damned fine one until cigarette smoking and age took its toll.

Many might be a bit shocked by the bawdiness (naughtiness?) of some of the numbers. This was one of the pre-Hayes code films and it one of the reasons why certain groups of viewers were upset. None of it is dirty but some certainly disturbing to the sensitive. (See "Flying Down to Rio" or "Footlight Parade" for other examples of pre-code examples.) I find it all pretty tame but, in 1933, some considered this scandalous and nearly pornographic. We are talking skimpy clothing and innuendo, nothing more, but this was the 1930s and censorship was getting ready to rear its ugly heads. (See Chaplin's masterful "Monsieur Verdoux" for his not-so-subtle jabs at censorship.)

"Gold Diggers of 1933" is a certified classic and should not be missed by fans of the musical or early Hollywood. Just remember that its a product of its time and not the present age and enjoy it for what it is.

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16 out of 18 people found the following review useful:
Striking Gold on Broadway, 19 January 2001
Author: lugonian from Kissimmee, Florida

GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 (Warner Brothers, 1933), based on the 1919 play by Avery Hopwood, is a worthy follow-up to the recent backstage musical success of "42nd Street" (1933). Previously filmed as a 1923 silent, then an early 1929 musical talkie, THE GOLD DIGGERS OF Broadway, followed by sequels in title only, "GOLD DIGGERS OF 1935, 1937," and "IN Paris," the Hopwood plot was later reworked again by Warners in 1951 as PAINTING THE CLOUDS WITH SUNSHINE with Dennis Morgan, but the 1933 edition, in the opinion of many, is the best of them all and one of the few 1930s musicals that can still be seen and appreciated today, thanks to choreographer Busby Berkeley's genius of inventing such remarkable production numbers, and director Mervyn LeRoy's fast-paced story-line.

The plot is divided into two parts. PART I: Roommate show girls, Carol (Joan Blondell), Trixie (Aline MacMahon), Polly (Ruby Keeler) and Fay (Ginger Rogers), give up their present jobs in order to appear in Barney Hopkins' (Ned Sparks) latest musical revue, FORGOTTEN MELODY. Barney wants to do a show about the Depression. In the meantime he is introduced to Brad (Dick Powell), an unknown composer, by Polly who loves him. Brad so happens to have the score Barney wants to use for the upcoming show. After rehearsals comes opening night. The juvenile leading man (Clarence Nordstrom) is unable to go on and Brad is chosen to take his place. After the show clicks, Brad and Polly become overnight stars. PART II: Millionaire snob J. Lawrence Bradford (Warren William), and his family attorney, Peabody (Guy Kibbee) arrive in New York from Boston in order to prevent Brad, J. Lawrence's younger brother, from disgracing the family name by appearing in the shows and getting himself mixed up with show girls, who have the reputation of being nothing but "chisslers, parasites and gold diggers." Because Brad wants a career in the theater and to now marry Polly, he refuses to listen to his brother. J. Lawrence decides to break up the relationship by meeting Polly and buying her off, but instead he meets Carol and mistakes her for Polly. Carol and Trixie decide to J. Lawrence and Peabody "for a ride" and "gold dig" their way into their wallets.

Beginning and ending with production numbers, the movie opens with "We're in the Money" sung by Ginger Rogers both in English and in Pig Latin; followed by Dick Powell crooning "The Shadow Waltz" to Ruby Keeler from across her apartment window. Powell then sings the beautiful tune, "I've Got to Sing a Torch Song" while auditioning for Sparks. That song is underscored during the film's love scenes and tender moments. The stage shows include the lively and racy "Pettin' in the Park," followed by chorus girls in hoop skirts playing neon violins to "The Shadow Waltz," ending with the Depression theme, "Remember My Forgotten Man" a dark and moody number with Joan Blondell (wearing tight blouse and skirt)/sung by black singer Etta Moten, underscored in serious tone presenting dough-boy soldiers fighting at the front during World War I, and returning home to the states finding themselves hit by the Depression, becoming homeless and unemployed. Only Berkeley could take a very lively movie and end it like this. Of the four show girls in the story, only Ginger Rogers has little to do. Aline MacMahon and Guy Kibbee make an excellent "odd couple." Powell and Keeler continue to delight with their innocent charm, while sassy Blondell and no nonsense William make go with their love/hate relationship.

While musicals have a reputation for having thin plots and strong production numbers, or visa versa, GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 is strong on both counts and never ceases to entertain during its 96 minutes. Mistaken identity plot par excellence make this a breezy and merry affair. There are some Hollywood "in jokes" here that some viewers might not understand, with pre-production code risqué dialogue and scenes that will open many eyes before beginning to chuckle with amusement. Look for it. Excellent score by Harry Warren and Al Dubin, with choreography by Busby Berkeley, make this one movie musical of the 1930s highly recommended to be seen and enjoyed, if above all else. (****)

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15 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
THE HAPPY ENDING IS NOT THE END., 5 November 2000

Author: marksweeney (marksweeney@iol.ie) from Dublin, Ireland

There is a pattern to 1930's Hollywood musicals; struggle to put on show proceeds alongside struggle for love to conquer all. And in the end both struggles are successfully concluded. It is a pattern that is broken by "Gold Diggers Of 1933". Sure, all of the usual elements are in place, including the Hungry, Penniless Showgirl Depression setting. But where this movie differs is in the fact that after the various plot strands are neatly tied up, it doesn't end. Instead, we are treated to the last big production number,"My Forgotten Man", as downbeat as it was possible to get in 30's Hollywood. All the Busby Berkeley musicals paid lip service to the Great Depression, but this one goes much further, as "My Forgotten Man" was the last, most enduring image of the film, and the one that audiences left the theatre with. It's placement was a brave decision on the part of whoever made it, and it would be interesting to learn of the public reaction at the time. Because while it is undoubtedly true that in an era of deprivation, you can't blithely make movies that are totally divorced from reality, it's equally true that people want to be reassured there is a better life, and they won't be scratching around in the dirt forever. Personally, I love the number, and it's placement. It's something that has fascinated me since my very first viewing 7 years ago, but it seems to be a point that not a lot of critics have picked up on. Perhaps it wasn't so unusual after all!

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