utgard14 Stage musicals are having a rough go of it due to the rise in popularity of movies. So musical director Chester Kent (James Cagney) moves to producing prologues, which are short live musical stage productions that are presented in movie theaters before the movies are shown. Chester's prologues are a huge hit but the pressure of having to come up with new ideas is getting to him. To make matters worse, a rival prologue director is stealing many of his ideas. Now he has three days to come up with three brand new prologues and prevent their being stolen in order to land a big contract.First-rate Busby Berkeley musical from Warner Bros. with a terrific cast and the wonderful choreography Berkeley was known for. Most of the musical numbers are saved for the last half-hour but they're all great. James Cagney and Joan Blondell are lots of fun. They always had perfect chemistry. There's also a lot of snappy pre-Code lines, particularly from Blondell. Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler are also enjoyable. Nice support from solid character actors Frank McHugh, Guy Kibbee, Arthur Hohl, and Hugh Herbert. Fast-paced and highly entertaining. Essential for fans of Berkeley or the great leads.

David Allen "Footlight Parade" (1933) is the best of the "Big 3" early '30's Warners' musicals."42nd St." (1932) and "Golddiggers of 1933" (1933) were both gems, both wonderful, but the smoothest and most complete, and most advanced of the "Big 3" early '30's Warners musicals is "Footlight Parade" (1933).James Cagney is the star of show, and his talent is immense.....he really was a true top level movie star, outshining all of his fellow movie stars in every show he ever acted in.This is a "pre-code" movie which pokes fun at the censorship organizations set up across the USA and the "on the set" cops who were supposed to keep the movies "moral" but didn't yet face the Joe Breen/ Will Hayes office, which didn't kick in until the following year (1934).The adult humor in the "Honeymoon Hotel" sequence (the first of the 3 big production numbers at the end of the movie) is wonderful, and never seen again, or done as well.The aquacade photography and production part of the "By A Waterfall" sequence (the second of the 3 big production numbers at the end of the movie) is lovely, tasteful, and breathtaking, and also never repeated as well again. The Esther Williams movies and other "water ballet" efforts were never matched by the one in "Footlight Parade" (1933).James Cagney's wonderful dancing and electric presence make the "Shanghai Lil" sequence (the 3rd of the 3 big production numbers at the end of the movie) wonderful, and seem to inspire Ruby Keeler, his lady dance partner in that sequence, to do the best dancing and acting she ever did in any movie (and her other movies were also wonderful).This movie is one of the precious examples of big time Hollywood movie musicals at their very, very best.The VHS cassette which contained "Footlight Parade" (1933) I got and screened also included a 1934 Warner Brothers color cartoon titled "Honeymoon Hotel," the same song seen and heard in the "Footlight Parade" (1933).The cartoon is very well done, set in "Bugtown" and danced and sung by cartoon bugs, and also includes quick snippet "homages" to other songs from Warner Brothers musicals, but mainly is a spoof about the "Honeymoon Hotel" song ......all sung and danced by cartoon bugs.One of the great, classic early cartoons, and one of the earliest color cartoons.--------------------- Written by Tex Allen, SAG Actor.Email Tex Allen at TexAllen@Rocketmail.Com Visit WWW.IMDb.Me/TexAllen for movie actor credits and biography details.

classicsoncall At the beginning of the movie there's a theater marquee from Hollywood Pictures that announces 'Silent Pictures are Finished'. With that concept being dealt with in real time, Warner Brothers casts it's rising star Jimmy Cagney as a go-getter, a producer of stage shows who has to quickly readjust to the new reality of moving pictures in order to make a buck. He decides on creating 'prologues', live musical numbers to complement what theater fans are about to see on the big screen.The set up for the large scale Busby Berkely production numbers takes up the first half of the story, as Cagney's character Chester Kent labors to come up with original ideas only to have them stolen and used by the competition. Pulling out all the stops for a major investor, Kent ushers his troupers from theater to theater to present his latest ideas before his rival has a chance to learn about them. The trio of Berkeley numbers are truly extravaganzas, with a lavish flair that would be hard to emulate even today. Presumably each production is meant to outdo the one before, so I probably go against consensus here by choosing the Waterfall sequence as my favorite, the middle prologue of the three. Cagney himself gets to hoof it in the third number, Shanghai Lil, with Ruby Keeler as an Oriental geisha. The production has an interesting international flavor with characters representing various ethnicities, something you probably wouldn't expect three decades prior to the Civil Rights era.Cagney film fans will enjoy his team up once again with Warner contract players Joan Blondell and Frank McHugh. Blondell was married to cinematographer George Barnes when the picture was being made; two years later she would divorce him and marry the picture's other headliner, Dick Powell. This was my first look at Ruby Keeler, and I can't say I was all that impressed with her performance. Nor Powell's for that matter, even though the movie-going public fell in love with them in Berkeley's first musical for Warner's, "42nd Street", soon followed by "Gold Diggers of 1933". I haven't seen those yet, so I don't want to be too critical here.Contrary to what one might think, Cagney himself preferred his musical films to the gangster flicks that captured the imagination of his many fans. For a long time, "Footlight Parade" was his favorite, although by the time author Doug Warren interviewed him for the biography "Cagney" published in 1983, he was quoted as saying "It was a dog". I'd say he was being a little hard on himself.

MartynGryphon I have reviewed more James Cagney movies on this site than any other actor/actress. Now, after 8 odd years of being a IMDb reviewer, I have finally got around to reviewing my ultimate favourite James Cagney movie.This was the first musical Cagney had been allowed to star in as Jack Warner saw only the potential in Cagney's ability to play the tough guy. Cagney had learnt to dance in the 20's whilst appearing in countless vaudeville productions and always preferred to do musicals whenever the opportunity presented itself.Although Footlight Parade was Cagney's first musical movie, it wasn't the first time audiences had seen the man shake a shoe. He had danced in a short but memorable scene in the drama Other Men's Women (1931) and danced in a couple of scenes in Taxi! (1932) most notably in a dance competition competing against George Raft.It may have been these scenes that convinced the studio brass that Cagney was a viable musical commodity too.Footlight Parade reunites Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler and genius choreographer Busby Berkeley all veterans of Warner Brothers two other musical smash hits of that year 42nd Street and Gold Diggers of 1933.The whole main cast list of this wonderful movie also includes all the very best actors that Warner had on their books at the time. Joan Blondell, Guy Kibbee, Ruth Donnelly, Frank McHugh, Hugh Herbert and Claire Dodd.Chester Kent, (Cagney), is a producer of musical Comedy shows who's fortunes have been blighted by two main developments. The crash of '29 which saw the demand for expensive and lavish productions dwindle and a new gimmick from Hollywood - Talking Pictures.His showbiz backers Frazer & Gould, (Arthur Hohl & Guy Kibbee respectively), take Kent to the local movie theatre to show them why they're no longer doing the big shows and why they're making the move to become movie exhibitors. When the movie they are watching ends, (which incidentally is The Telegraph Trail starring John Wayne and also stars Frank McHugh). A bevy of dancers take to the stage in a routine that Frazer and Gould describe as a prologue a themed dance to accompany the preceding picture.Kent starts to produce these prologues for Frazer and Gould knowing that other movie exhibitors will pay good money for these ready made prologues rather then spending more money to put them on themselves.Kent is shown as a workaholic who seldom goes home and is dedicated to his job. However, his world is not as idyllic as he would think it. His assistant Harry Thompson, (Gordon Westcott), is actually spying for a rival prologue company and giving the competitors Kents prologue ideas and Frazer and Gould are cooking the books to their own advantage. In fact Kent's one true ally is his secretary and girl Friday Nanette 'Nan' Prescott, (Joan Blondell), who's so head over heels in love with Kent that her loyalty is unswerving but Kent's too wrapped up in business to notice.After reading a headline regarding the fate of un produced musical shows, Kent decides that they'll be transferred into prologues giving the audience a 20 minute musical comedy and a talking picture all for 50 cents. A business man with a string of movie theatres have offered him three prologues at three of his theatres in three days and if they're a success then a contract for forty theatres across the region is theirs.In order to ensure his ideas are not given to the rival prologue company, he orders a blockade of his studio, no one in and no one out for three days to ensure secrecy and originality.The real treat of Footlight Parade are the three prologues themselves which dominate the final half of the movie. 'Honeymoon Hotel' in which Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler elope, get married and spend their wedding night in the hotel renown for turning virgin brides into wives, all to the wonderful risqué music and lyrics of Harry Warren and Al Dubin.Then follows 'By A Waterfall' which is by far the most visual stunning of the three with Busby Berkeley doing what he does best, a water ballet with some great kaleidoscopic overhead shots. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Berkely was a genius and one day I'd love to see this sequence converted to 3D and perhaps full Technicolour. Berkely was so far ahead of his time and real 3D was invented just so we can convert Berkeley's sequences to it. I'd do it myself if I could though I have neither the money, knowledge or the technology to do so. Shame otherwise it would be done tomorrow.The final Prologue is 'Shanghai Lil' which sees Cagney take the role of a sailor searching for his oriental prostitute girlfriend in a bar come opium den. All of which is dazzling.Needless to say the shows go over big and Kent and the troupe get the contracts.Mention has to be given to Dick Powell for THAT voice, Keeler for THOSE feet, Frank McHugh giving us some comic relieve as a cynical and inept dance director, Claire Dodd as a social climbing tramp that gloms on to Kent in the hopes of ensnaring him into a honey trap. Ruth Donnelly as Goulds Money grabbing wife and Hugh Herbert as the fussy censor that ensures that Kent's prologues doesn't offend against common decency.Speaking of censorship, Footlight Parade contains some of the most riskiest dialogue and content that I've ever seen in a pre-code film and was probably solely responsible for the rigid enforcement of the production code the following year. All innocent now, but back in 1933, it must have had chins on the carpet. However, that's all part of it's charm.Footlight Parade is a triumph in every way thanks mainly to Cagney and Berkeley.Enjoy!