FOOTLIGHT PARADE

Footlight Parade
Warner Bros. / Vitaphone, 1933, B/W, 104 minutes, ****
Released October, 1933

Footlight Parade is a sheer cinematic joy. In this Depression-era romp, a timid stenographer (Ruby Keeler) removes her glasses and - wow! - she's a star. A gee-whiz tenor (Dick Powell) asserts his independence. Plucky chorines tap, greedy hangers-on get their comeuppances and an indefatigable producer / dancer (James Cagney) and his Girl Friday (Joan Blondell) work show-biz miracles to stage live prologues for talkie houses to keep their company afloat during hard times. "Honeymoon Hotel," "By a Waterfall," and "Shanghai Lil" are the shows, directed by Busby Berkeley and filled with imagination-bending sets, startling camera angles, kaleidoscopic pageantry and a 20,000-gallon-per-minute waterfall.

Produced by: Robert Lord
Directed by: Lloyd Bacon
Numbers Created and Directed by: Busby Berkeley
Screen Play by: Manuel Seff and James Seymour
Dialogue Director: William Keighley
Vitaphone Orchestra Directed by: Leo F. Forbstein
Music and Lyrics by: Harry Warren and Al Dubin, Sammy Fain and Irvin Kahal
Numbers Created and Directed by: Busby Berkeley
Art Directors: Anton Grot and Jack Okey
Gowns by: Milo Anderson
Photographed by: George Barnes
Edited by: George Amy

Cast: James Cagney [Chester Kent], Joan Blondell [Nan Prescott], Ruby Keeler [Bea Thorn], Dick Powell [Scotty Blair], Frank McHugh [Francis], Guy Kibbee [Silas Gould], Ruth Donnelly [Mrs. Gould], Hugh Herbert [Charlie Bowers], Claire Dodd [Vivian Rich], Gordon Westcott [Harry Thompson], Arthur Hohl [Al Frazer], Renee Whitney [Cynthia Kent], Barbara Rogers [Gracie], Paul Porcasi [George Appolinaris], Philip Faversham [Joe Farrington], Herman Bing [Fralick, the Music Director], Additional Cast: Juliet Ware [Miss Smythe], William Granger [Doorman], Charles Wilson [Cop], Billy Taft [Specialty Dancer], Marjean Rogers, Pat Wing, Donna La Barr, Marlo Dwyer, Donna Mae Roberts [Chorus Girl], Dave O'Brien [Chorus Boy], George Chandler [Drugstore Attendant], Hobart Cavanaugh [Title Thinker Upper], William V. Mong [Auditor], Lee Moran [Mac, the Dance Director], Billy Barty [Mouse in "Sittin' on a Backyard Fence," Little Boy in "Honeymoon Hotel"], Harry Seymour [Joe, the Assistant Director; Desk Clerk in "Honeymoon Hotel"], Sam McDaniel [Porter], Fred Kelsey [Hotel Detective], Jimmy Conlin [Uncle], Roger Gray [Sailor-Pal in "Shanghai Lil"], John Garfield [Sailor behind Table in "Shanghai Lil"], Duke York [Sailor on Table in "Shanghai Lil"]

Musical Program: [0:00] Overture (played by Orchestra behind titles); [0:32] Ah, the Moon Is Here (rehearsal by Dick Powell, Frank McHugh and Chorus Girls); [0:40] Sittin' on a Backyard Fence (sung and danced by Ruby Keeler, Billy Taft and chorus); [1:08] Honeymoon Hotel (big production number performed by Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell and huge Chorus); [1:17] By a Waterfall (big production number sung by Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler with dozens of swimming chorines, lots of precision formations and kaleidoscope shots culminating in a human fountain); [1:31] Shanghai Lil (big production number performed by James Cagney, Ruby Keeler and huge Chorus); there are also many fragments of musical numbers in rehearsals, each less than a minute long