Amateur movie with Big budget

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

'Tough guy' James Cagney finally got a chance to dust off his vaudeville-honed stage dancing skills, along with a central role as the harried ex-producer of Broadway shows, trying to start a new career as the producer of 'prologues': short live stage performances done just before the film is shown, designed to increase faltering movie attendance during "The Depression". As discussed as the web site entitled "Matinee at the Bijou: movie prologues", although I was born too late to experience them, such performances were a common reality during "The Depression", when many movie theaters were converted stage theaters, or were newly built, including a stage area in front of the film screen. Cagney's character is modeled after the Mike and Fanny Wolff team, who began mass producing prologues, created at their Hollywood studio, then sent out to various theaters near and far, at a cheaper price and with generally better(but cheap) talent than in house-produced prologues. This institution was eventually rendered uneconomical when movie studios changed the arrangement of this film rentals to a percentage of proceeds and began adding more film shorts to film packages, and when movie attendance became great enough without the added attraction of a prologue. Of course, most of these mass-produced prologues were relatively simple shows, hardly resembling the more complex Berkeley-choreographed film productions, and were mostly sold to the smaller theaters, which couldn't afford an in-house prologue troop.If you like Cagney's typical hyperactive, fast-talking, domineering , screen persona, you won't be disappointed here. Since this is the 'dirty '30s', this hard- working, on the level, ex-producer of lavish Broadway shows, played by Cagney, is the victim of a variety of parasites, traitors and incompetents, along with a few honest competent associates. There's his unfaithful, gold-digging wife, who walks out when his income slows to a trickle. There's Vivian, a tall, gold-digging, phony sophisticate blond friend of Cagney's secretary(played by Joan Blondell), who puts the squeeze on the new Cagney to become his new wife, while stabbing him the back, by informing his chief competition of his new show ideas, which they can't think of. Things get really crazy just before the 3 big musical productions, which consume the last half hour. First Cagney's supposed ex-wife shows up, announcing that she didn't get a divorce, demanding a $25,000. bribe to hush up his 'affair' with Vivian. Then, Joan somehow discovers that Cagney's business associates, who handle the finances, have been underreporting earnings from his prologues. Thus, she demands $25,000. for keeping quite, which she gives to Cagney, so he can continue his business. Soon after, Vivian is discovered in a clinch with the film censor, thus ending her affair with Cagney, and opening the way for a happy ending with a Cagney-Joan romance, Cagney having been blind to her virtues until now. ...As a side note, Frank McHugh plays Cagney's whining, overwhelmed, dance director, forcing Cagney to often take over the dance direction himself. These backstage scenes can get a little repetitious. Among Cagney's other friends, we have Ruby Keeler, as his sometimes secondary secretary and sometimes star dancer, with whom he dances a bit in the final production: "Shanghai Lil". Dick Powell, who functions as Ruby's romantic admirer, at least superficially brushed off until just before the big productions, when they are an important romantic pair in 2 of them.The dance productions are formulated as in the previous "Gold Diggers of 1933", there being 4: one of them a 'minor' production, early or midway in the film, instead of just the 2 or 3 big productions late in the film, as in the other films in this series. Thus, the relatively short and simple "Setting on a Backyard Fence", with chorus girls dressed in full feline costumes, prancing around, is functionally equivalent to the rather short production 'We're in the Money", in the beginning of "G.D. of '33". "Honeymoon Hotel" clearly is functionally equivalent to "Pettin' in the Park", of "G.D. of '33": sexually -oriented numbers that the censors would have the most objections about. It' a bouncy romantic-themed number, light on Berkeley's signature features. Clearly, it's implied that this hotel functioned more like the 'love hotels' of current Japan and Taiwan, rather than a true honeymoon hotel. The very impressive "By a Waterfall" production clearly is functionally equivalent to "The Shadow Waltz" number in "G.D. of '33, which featured girls with neon-lit violins. The "Shanghai Lil" production is the functional equivalent of the last production in "G.D. of '33": "My Forgotten Man". Both initially dramatize seamy subjects: extreme poverty in the one case, and an oriental bar and prostitutes, followed by many marching military men in the latter part. The team of Harry Warren and Al Dubin, who composed all the songs in some of this film series, and only the songs for the major productions in others, only composed "Honeymoon Hotel" and "Shanghai Lil" in this film. Sammy Fain and Irving Kahal composed the other novel songs, including "By a Waterfall". I think I would have put this latter production last, as it is, by far, the most impressive and unique of the productions, thus would be best remembered by leaving audiences. It provides a primer for most of Esther Williams' film career, specializing in water ballets, one of which was choreographed by Berkeley...Also, Cagney's rather brief dancing scenes provided the main visual evidence for his suitability to play George M. Cohen, in Cagney's most famous film role, nearly a decade later, in "Yankee Doodle Dandy", as well as in the subsequent "The Seven Little Foys"

Why it's dumb: First off, for the first half of this musical there are really no production numbers. Second, the sets for the musical numbers in the second half could not have been built on a movie theater stage, and not overnight...which is what the plot was about. Third, both in terms of singing and dancing (at least in this film), Ruby Keeler could do neither.And yet, it works! And here's why it works: First, James Cagney in a refreshing non-gangster role. Second, Joan Blondell in a very appealing role as secretary/love interest. Third, Frank McHugh in what seemed at first to be poor casting turns in a very entertaining performance as a dance director. Fourth, some nice humor by Hugh Herbert. But most importantly, a nice plot even with its holes; some musicals are high on musical numbers, this one is almost the reverse.

I don't have anything original to add to the justified encomia others have offered for this remarkable movie.Watching it again tonight, I was, however, struck yet once again by the genius of Busby Berkeley in staging the last three numbers, the "prologues." Most remarkable of a very remarkable trio for me is "By a waterfall." It just keeps building and building and building. Yes, of course, some of the shots of the women in the water are very erotic. It was 1933, after all, and before the Hayes Code. Berkeley and Warner Brothers understood that pretty women posed erotically had a real appeal to men, But these erotic poses are not JUST erotic poses. They keep building and building and building. What will he do next, you wonder? Oh, that. But "that" is even more incredible than what has come before. By the time you get to the end of this number, you're exhausted, not just physically and erotically, but imaginatively as well. How could anyone have maintained and built on that suspense for 10 whole minutes? I can't tell you, but he did.Third of the three prologues, "Shanghai Lil," is definitely not something that could have been filmed the same way just a year or two later when the Production Code was put in force. We see an opium den, a lot of prostitutes, at least one interracial couple, etc. Having watched it again tonight, I will add that this is a strange "musical." There is almost no music for the first hour and a half. It's all in the three closing numbers. But what numbers!

"Footlight Parade" is the best of the backstage musicals. The grand finale of this 1933 film -- three unbelievable Busby Berkeley productions -- is the most entertaining 30 minutes of film ever produced. The songs are so good, the productions so lavish, and performances so full of heart, I can watch the finale over and over. Ruby Keeler plays so well to the camera in all three of these very different story-songs. "Honeymoon Hotel" is the first number, it's adorable. The second number, "By A Waterfall," is a climax before the climax, when the overhead camera captures hundreds of swimming of girls in amazing synchronized swimming to a beautiful tune. The music is wonderfully arranged and catchy, all three, but none more so than the grand finale, "Shanghai Lil." James Cagney, the producer of this show upon which so much depends, must replace the leading man at the last minute and of course puts it over in style. "Shanghai Lil" starts out in a wonderfully grimy bar, with opium and prostitutes, where AWOL sailor Cagney is looking high and low of his Shanghai Lil to that great melody. All three tunes have been going around in my mind constantly for a few months, that's entertainment.