Roxie Hart (1942)

Roxie Hart signs a murder confession in order to attract publicity for her dancing career as dames don't swing in Cook County. Will everything go as planned?

Director:

William A. Wellman

Writers:

Nunnally Johnson (written for the screen by), Maurine Dallas Watkins (play) (as Maurine Watkins)

Stars:

Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou, George Montgomery

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ginger Rogers	...	Roxie Hart
Adolphe Menjou	...	Billy Flynn
George Montgomery	...	Homer Howard
Lynne Overman	...	Jake Callahan
Nigel Bruce	...	E. Clay Benham
Phil Silvers	...	Babe
Sara Allgood	...	Mrs. Morton
William Frawley	...	O'Malley
Spring Byington	...	Mary Sunshine
Ted North	...	Stuart Chapman
Helene Reynolds	...	Velma Wall
George Chandler	...	Amos Hart
Charles D. Brown	...	Charles E. Murdock
Morris Ankrum	...	Martin S. Harrison
George Lessey	...	Judge Cannon

Storyline

To try and kick-start her show-business career, our heroine admits to a Chicago murder. But although Cook County don't seem to let dames swing, and even with top slippery lawyer Billy Flynn, it's all something of a gamble.

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Plot Keywords:

screwball comedy | murder | lawyer | bar | rain | 

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Taglines:

A girl who could do no wrong -- but brother, how she tried!

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 May 1942 (Mexico)

Also Known As:

La folle histoire de Roxie Hart

Filming Locations:

Stage 9, 20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Gross USA:

$2,398,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox

Technical Specs

Runtime:

75 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When the two girls get into a scuffle in jail, the sound of two cats fighting and hissing is heard. A colloquial term for girls fighting is "catfight".

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Goofs

During the trial, the jury foreman, O'Malley, asks Roxie a question. He is sitting straight up at the time. As Roxie answers, the camera pans out. O'Malley is bent over with his arms leaning on the railing and now moves slowly back to an upright position.

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Quotes

Jake Callahan: Honey, I keep tellin' ya, this county wouldn't hang Lucrezia Borgia.

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Crazy Credits

This Picture is dedicated to all the beautiful women in the world who have shot their men full of holes out of pique.

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Connections

Version of Chicago (1927)

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Soundtracks

Pretty Baby
Music by Egbert Van Alstyne and Tony Jackson
Played during the newspaper montage at the beginning

User Reviews

Stylish, Witty, But Overly Cynical

I'm a cynical person but this famous oldie seems to go beyond cynical. Its humor has a jaded quality I find unappealing.

Ginger Rogers, away from her home studio of RKO and in dark curls, is fun. She was a fine comedienne and -- as we get to see a bit of here -- of course a fine dancer. The rest of the cast is good. In fact, it's a great supporting cast.

George Montgomery's performance is a revelation. He tells the story, noir-style, in flashback. He's good as the tired, disappointed man in the present. And as the reporter who's wary of Roxie's plots with her show-biz lawyer (Adolph Menjou), he is very strong.

I think of him as the onetime husband of Dinah Shore and as an actor in Westerns. Maybe the direction his career took was his own choice. But he could have been an excellent comic straightman and he would have been sensational in noir.

Strange how many actors with varied, interesting careers in the 1930s and 1940s turned to, and are best known today, for Westerns. These include Randolph Scott, who was no loss the other genres, and the suave, immensely appealing, and talented Joel McCrea.