And then considering that the movie is set in- and involves a story around the great depression of the '30's. A combination of industry variety, high workforce educational attainment and low labor costs helped the city beat out over 1,200 other markets with fewer than 100,000 residents. Nicoleff Adolphe Menjou to Dick Curtis Dick Powell , a desk clerk raising the money. Unlike some of the other Berkeley musicals the story here is more than just an excuse to show some musical numbers, which I think elevates it above the pack. When she appears in the Forgotten Man number she not only becomes a singer, she carries on being an actress. The African Americans in both pictures were fed in a tent away from the general commissary area.
Berkeley got the idea for this number from a vaudeville act he once saw - the neon on the violins was an afterthought. Show after show gets canceled when the girls finally get a rich financier posing as a poor song writer, played by Dick Powell, to back a new production. You see, it happened by accident, but not without overwhelming creative genius from all corners. Click picture to enter websight. By the way, great article! While America may never have a depression like they did in the 30's, the themes of the film resonate today, making this an important record of one of our greatest domestic crisis in our history. Gold Diggers of 1933 is, I argue, the most complete document of the Great Depression and pre-Code Hollywood. Okay, so Ruby Keeler still can't sing on key and her stomping dance style leaves many cold.
Ned Sparks, Sterling Holloway, Charles Lane, and Billy Barty are good. And at last we come to the music. Click picture to view websight. She is the sister of actor Warren Beatty. Powell's brother and head of the clan Warren William gets wind of what Powell's been doing and threatens to cut him off and cut off the budding romance with Keeler. And thankfully, while they are prominent in the song and dance numbers, they are really supporting players in the drama.
There's only one problem: he doesn't have the money to bankroll it all. It also help the chorus girls were dressed by Orry-Kelly and the music was by Harry Warren and Al Dubin. There are so many moments of this film that step beyond greatness that I can't mention them all. Joan Blondell as Carol is simply adorable. This, the first in the series of Gold Diggers films still in existence, is the best, the sparkiest, the funniest, and the strongest. The cast is a fine one which produces several entertaining performances.
The only trouble, he has no money for it. Buzz took aside some studio craftsmen and told them to bore a hole through the roof. A young Ginger Rogers is here too, still getting villainous roles thanks to her mean-looking face, but nevertheless proving herself to be a superb performer. But what starts as gold-digging turns into something else, and when the dust settles, Carol and Lawrence are in love and Trixie marries Fanuel, while Brad is free to marry Polly after all. Just imagine: an era in which Broadway set the tone and took the lead in popular culture.
I find much of his later work a bit too precious for my tastes. When you think it's over it pulls off one last masterstroke in the highly effective 'Remember My Forgotten Man' musical number, as Joan Blondell sings about how her man fought for her country and now begs for food and resorts to picking up discarded cigarette butts, as bloody soldiers march through the street. Taking the disparate urges of the era, from the poverty and starvation to the liberated sexual attitudes and sophisticated sense of humor, it manages to balance them to great success. These unhappy times call for the building of plans that rest upon the forgotten, the unorganized but the indispensable units of economic power, for plans like those of 1917 that build from the bottom up and not from the top down, that put their faith once more in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid. Was a musical theater choreographer and director, screenwriter and film director.
And, best of all, that wonderful finale 'Forgotten Man', where Great War veterans shuffle through a world that doesn't care while the women left behind remember their happier days. Looking for the Big Break. . The only hint of it left in the picture is a long establishing shot of the nightclub with who appears to be Rogers standing in front of the piano in the center. A prominent figure in the history of jazz, his music stretched into various other genres, including blues, gospel, film scores, popular, and classical. I find it all pretty tame but, in 1933, some considered this scandalous and nearly pornographic.
A secretary threatens to complain to the agency for Sparks dismissing her so early. I also enjoyed the art work on the walls of the girls apartment and the fact that they all slept in bed together because they could barely pay rent on a one bedroom. The plot reminded me of the later movie, How To Marry A Millionaire' with Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe, and Lauren Bacall. She has had a wonderful career in films, playing Polly Benedict in the 1930s and 1940s in the Andy Hardy series, and on The Bob Newhart Show as Newhart's character's mother-in-law. When he refuses, they tell him to end his relationship with Polly or face having his income cut off.
This is the best musical made about the depression, focusing on chorus girls MacMahon, Rogers, Joan Blondell and Ruby Keeler, all unemployed after Sparks' previous show closed before opening, and the hope that his new show with the help of mysterious songwriter Dick Powell will actually open. The fact that the comic escapades are backed by very real and harsh truths gives an unexpected layer of poignancy to the proceedings. At the unglamorous apartment shared by three of the four actresses Polly, Carol, and Trixie , the producer, Barney Hopkins , is in despair because he has everything he needs to put on a show, except money. It's a greatly fun musical comedy, with a good story, fun characters and great musical moments. Calloway continued to perform until his death in 1994 at the age of 86.