Footlight Parade

Generally prized as one of the best movie musicals of the 20th century, filmmaker Lloyd Bacon’s Footlight Parade (1933) was honored and preserved by the Library of Congress in 1992. But the film remains an awkward marriage of comic charm and garish excess, with a couple of brief racist gags that are hard to overlook. This movie about showbiz is set in the early days of "talking pictures," a technological disruption that has undercut the nominal success of would-be impresario Chester Kent (James Cagney), whose stage musicals can’t compete with the new advancements on the Silver Screen. In a flash of inspiration, Chester realizes there’s money to be made in producing short stage shows (called "prologues") to precede movies in theaters, and he partners with two rats who chisel him out of profits while his attention is totally focused on conceiving and creating an endless stream of content. Dick Powell is charming as a rising singer who earns Chester’s faith, while Ruby Keeler is delightful as a plain-Jane secretary who suddenly blossoms into a great hoofer and songbird. Joan Blondell is wonderful as Nan, Chester’s long-suffering secretary who guides and protects him while waiting for Chester to figure out that they’re in love. Footlight Parade is most enchanting and funny during several rehearsal scenes (especially a duet featuring Powell and Keeler), but the final third features a ludicrous story development that calls for three over-the-top Busby Berkeley-directed numbers requiring oceans of water. Produced before the imposition of the infamous Hollywood Production Code policing movie morality, the film makes light allusions to prostitution and pre-marital sex, while some of Berkeley’s camera angles would make a voyeur blush. And a couple of cringe-worthy quips about blackface, slavery, and white skin versus black skin remind viewers of the era in which Footlight Parade was made. Extras include a behind-the-scenes featurette, and vintage featurettes and cartoons. Cinematically important but also problematic, this is still recommended. (T. Keogh)