“We’ve got to have three of the greatest prologues ever put on!”

 

Plot Summary: A Broadway stage director (James Cagney) tries to save his production company in the midst of the talkie revolution by putting on live musical numbers, called “prologues,” for movie houses.

Review:

This vintage Depression-era Warner Bros. backstage musical, which climaxes with a trio of spectacular Busby Berkeley production numbers, is the pinnacle of escapist entertainment. The snappy, fast-paced first hour is hugely enjoyable thanks largely to Cagney who’s as energetic and compelling to watch as a harried musical producer as he was as a manic ‘30s gangster. Plus, later in the film he gets to show off his ample musical performing ability in the “Shanghai Lil” number, which probably gave the Warner brothers the confidence to cast him in 1939’s classic Yankee Doodle Dandee. But Cagney receives fine support from crooner Dick Powell and tapper Ruby Keeler as the likeably wholesome romantic pair who star in his prologues; Hugh Herbert as the frazzled choreographer of the prologues; Guy Kibbee as Cagney’s underhanded partner; Ruth Donnelly as a sexy gold-digger; and above all, Joan Blondell, as Cagney’s trusty, wisecracking Girl Friday, Nan, who saves him from the gold-digger, exposes his crooked bosses, and inspires him creatively, all the while nursing an unrequited love for him. Funny, touching and thoroughly charming, Blondell is a standout and she almost steals the show.  

But the film achieves real distinction only in the last half hour during its three incredible Busby Berkeley production numbers. In the delightful “Honeymoon Hotel,” a jaunty mini-operetta in which all the rhyming dialogue is sung, newlyweds Powell and Keeler have their honeymoon romance continually interrupted, first by annoyingly intrusive family members (”Aren’t you glad to see your dear old mother?”), then by a hilariously mischievous kid (played by the dwarf Billy Barty!), and finally by Powell’s innocent but badly timed encounter with a buxom blonde. In the extraordinary “Shanghai Lil,” Cagney doffs his producer’s suit and dons his dancing shoes while looking high and low for his elusive china doll in a rotgut bar and smoky opium den, where unshaven tough guys and scantily-clad hotties hang out in delicious pre-Code iniquity.

But perhaps the best number is the eye-popping “By a Waterfall.”  As an aquacade of frolicking showgirls/water nymphs slide, dive, splash and swim in the water, Berkeley’s camera captures their pretty faces in loving close-up, dives underwater to catch their playful somersaulting and paddling legs, and, most spectacularly, observes them from on high with an array of stunning overhead shots as they shape themselves into myriad symmetrical patterns like a living kaleidoscope.  That the “By a Waterfall” sequence is supposed to be a theatrical number is highly ironic, as Berkeley’s purely cinematic visuals so thrillingly transcend the confines of the proscenium arch. An absolute wonder to behold, Berkeley’s visually stunning extravaganzas were as close as ‘30s Hollywood got to experimental cinema. 

Note: Special mention should also be made of the memorable songs by Harry Warren (music) and Al Dubin (lyrics), a talented songwriting team that worked closely with Berkeley to help create the stunning fusion of music and image in these incredible showstoppers. I also like how Warren’s tuneful musical themes waft melodically through the first part of the film, foreshadowing their use in the concluding numbers.

Watch all three numbers:

“Honeymoon Hotel”

“Shanghai Lil”

“By a Waterfall”

Posted on March 29th, 2008 by Mat Viola
Filed under: Reviews