12/8/2023 0 Comments Cast of footlight parade 1933There's also lots of 1933 eye candy here, with dancer's legs, skimpy outfits, and bathing suits abounding, helped along by the movie being pre-Code. The banter and comedy throughout the movie keeps it entertaining, with the exception of Hugh Herbert, who's in a whiny, annoying role. He's marvelously light on his feet, both when he shows performers how it's done early in the movie, and then later when he 'fills in' for a guy who has had too much to drink to perform 'Shanghai Lil', which is set in a Chinese den of iniquity. The sets are spectacular, as are the visual effects Berkeley creates with overhead camera shots - just have a look on youtube.Ĭagney is a delight to watch in his film, which has him in a role different from his usual gangster typecasting. It ends with a couple of absolutely STUNNING musical numbers choreographed by Busby Berkeley - 'By a Waterfall' and 'Shanghai Lil'. It starts off as a good Cagney-Blondell pairing, with him playing a theater producer whose job is in trouble with the advent of "talkies", and her playing his hardworking, intelligent secretary. Keeler retired from the screen in 1941 and, after occasional TV appearances in the 50s and 60s, made one of the most heralded show business comebacks, charming Broadway in the 1971 revival of the musical "No, No, Nanette." She was married to Jolson from 1928 to 1940 and made only one musical film with him, "Go Into Your Dance" (1935).This is a fantastic film that saves its best for last. Also notable was Keeler's duet with Lee Dixon to "Too Marvelous for Words" in one of her last musicals, "Ready, Willing and Able" (1937), performed on the keys of a giant typewriter. Buck dancing was done without taps on the bottoms of one's shoes and aimed primarily at a percussive effect, with less concern for the movements of the upper body certainly Keeler's duet with James Cagney in the "Shanghai Lil" number in "Footlight Parade" (1933) is very fun to watch and listen to. Although as a dancer she wasn't as graceful or expressive as Ginger Rogers or as speedy and technically proficient as Ann Miller or Eleanor Powell, it should be noted that Keeler essentially began as a buck-and-wing dancer. I had that terrible singing voice, and now I can see I wasn't the greatest tap dancer in the world, either," her sincere and spirited portrayals of sweet, mostly working-class, ingenues trying to get a break touched a chord in audiences during the height of the Depression. Keeler was sometimes the decorative centerpiece of Berkeley's bizarre numbers buffs are unlikely to forget the jigsaw puzzle of Keeler's face in "Dames" (1934), assembled to the haunting strains of "I Only Have Eyes for You."Īlthough Keeler later claimed "I couldn't act. extravaganzas, most of them distinguished by their elaborate, surrealistic, Busby Berkeley-designed dance routines. She would be paired with the singing Powell in seven Warner Bros. Keeler made her film debut as an aspiring showgirl in "42nd Street" (1933), opposite newcomer Dick Powell. Former speakeasy dancer, chorine and Broadway lead who married musical star Al Jolson and moved with him to Hollywood, where she starred in some of the classic musicals of the 1930s.
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