FOOTLIGHT PARADE

US, 1933, 100 minutes, Black and white.
James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell.
Directed by Lloyd Bacon.

Footlight Parade is one of the enjoyable Warner Brothers musicals of the early 30s. Directed and choreographed by Busby Berkeley, it is an example, along with 42nd Street, of the basic backstage film musical. It features James Cagney in a singing and dancing role at a time when he was emerging as an expert gangster. Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler are once again prominent as the singing and dancing central couple. Joan Blondell is also present as an attractive comedian. The plot is very conventional now, but the treatment and especially the staging of the musical numbers still has a fascination.

1. The film as an example of early sound techniques, acting, screenplay, musical?

2. The qualities of the 30s musicals, the theatre background, the clash between stage and screen? the blending of stage entertainment with film? The Busby Berkeley style of songs, sets, dancing, choruses? How well do these ingredients stand up now?

3. The background of the entertainment world of the 30s, stage musicals and their atmosphere, the people - good and bad, the cliches of the backstage draw, the goading for success, failures and successes, double deals etc? How well were these used?

4. How credible were the basic situations, the background of theatre and films? The nature of prologues and their being a big business? The atmosphere of the Depression?

5. The personality of Chester Kent? James Cagney and his continual movement and vitality? As a person, as a man? The break-up with his wife? His persuading businessmen to follow his lines? His success in the prologue business? The humour of the sequences where he was thinking, Creating, running particular business lines at the same time? The devotion of Nan, the infatuation with Vivian, the reliance on Bea? His energy, creativity, push and threats, money and success? A musical comedy presentation of the American dream?

6. Joan Blondell's portrayal of Nan as the devoted secretary, the hard case, the comedienne, devotion in love, devices to save the hero from predatory women? A happy ending?

7. Bea and Scotty as fulfilling a dream. the secretary and the protege becoming the real-life stars? Their songs and dances together, their charm?

8. The world of businessmen, spies, family patronage, wives and their proteges, the hangers-on?

9. The presentation of the troupe, the dance instructor, the skills needed for this kind of musical comedy? The presentation of the various prologues, the background of the three days when the troupe worked together, their moving from one theatre to another with their prologues? The atmosphere of backstage?

10. The impact of the musicals, the three different prologues, their staging, melodies, lyrics, the use of the stars, the elaborate sets, the choreography?

11. The quality of entertainment for the 30s? As a necessary entertainment for those times? For now?