42nd Street

Released in 1933 by Warner Bros., which specialized in snappy, fast-paced films with working-class heroes and street-smart characters, 42nd Street launched a series of great backstage musicals featuring lavish production numbers in a Broadway culture where the Depression was a reality just offstage and the dancers were one flop away from the breadlines. It also gave legendary dance choreographer Busby Berkeley his first opportunity to re-imagine production numbers for the possibilities of cinema. Warner Baxter stars as Julian Marsh, a Broadway producing legend who after losing everything during the market crash puts it all on the line to create one last hit, while Bebe Daniels costars as leading lady Dorothy Brock, who hooks a sugar daddy (Guy Kibbee in leering old man mode) to finance the show. Ruby Keeler plays the chorus girl who will take over the leading role on opening night, a showbiz cliché that played out in real life: 42nd Street elevated Keeler and Dick Powell—her boy-next-door costar and love interest—to movie stardom. The great character actors of the Warner Bros. stock company fill in the supporting roles, with Una Merkel and Ginger Rogers standing out as veteran chorus girls, along with Ned Sparks as a wise guy investor dropping wry remarks with a cynical sneer. Directed by Lloyd Bacon, the film also boasts three classic songs: "You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me," "Shuffle Off to Buffalo," and the title number, while Berkeley's dance sequences are magnificently unreal, performed on a stage that could only exist in a Hollywood studio. His transformation of chorus girls into geometric patterns became a signature trope that is still copied (and parodied) to this day. Bowing on Blu-ray, extras include vintage featurettes and cartoons, as well as a retrospective featurette. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)