42nd Street [Blu-ray]

Overview

The quintessential "backstage" musical, 42nd Street traces the history of a Broadway musical comedy, from casting call to opening night. Warner Baxter plays famed director Julian Marsh, who despite failing health is determined to stage one last great production, "Pretty Lady." Others involved include "Pretty Lady" star Dorothy Brock (Bebe Daniels); Dorothy's "sugar daddy" (Guy Kibbee), who finances the show; her true love Pat (George Brent); leading man Billy Lawlor (Dick Powell); and starry-eyed chorus girl Peggy Sawyer (Ruby Keeler). It practically goes without saying that Dorothy twists her ankle the night before the premiere, forcing Julian Marsh is to put chorine Peggy into the lead: "You're going out there a youngster, but you've got to come back a star!" Delightfully corny, with hilarious wisecracking support from the likes of Ginger Rogers, Una Merkel, and George E. Stone, 42nd Street is perhaps the most famous of Warners' early-1930s Busby Berkeley musicals. Based on the novel by Bradford Ropes (which was a lot steamier than the movie censors would allow), 42nd Street is highlighted by such grandiose musical setpieces as "Shuffle Off to Buffalo," "Young and Healthy," and of course the title song. Nearly fifty years after its premiere, it was successfully revived as a Broadway musical with Tammy Grimes and Jerry Orbach.

Product Details

Release Date:	04/21/2015
UPC:	0888574286286
Original Release:	1933
Rating:	NR
Source:	Warner Archives
Presentation:	[B&W]
Language:	English
Time:	1:29:00
Sales rank:	5,029

Special Features

3 vintage featurettes: ; Harry Warren: America's Foresmost Composer; Hollywood Newsreel; A Trip Through a Hollywood Studio; Retrospective featurette: ; From Book to Screen to Stage; 2 vintage Warner Bros. cartoons: ; Shuffle Off to Buffalo; Young and Healthy

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Warner Baxter	Julian Marsh
Bebe Daniels	Dorothy Brock
George Brent	Pat Denning
Ruby Keeler	Peggy Sawyer,Chorus Girl,Chorus Girl
Dick Powell	Billy Lawler
Guy Kibbee	Abner Dillon,News Spreader,News Spreader
Una Merkel	Lorraine Fleming
Ginger Rogers	Ann Lowell,Chorus Girl
George E. Stone	Andy Lee
Harry Akst	Jerry,Jerry
Harry Warren	Songwriter,Composer
Al Dubin	Songwriter,Songwriter,Composer
Robert McWade	Al Jones
Ned Sparks	Thomas Barry
Eddie Nugent	Terry Neil
Allen Jenkins	Mac Elory
Clarence Nordstrom	`Shuffle Off to Buffalo' Groom
Henry B. Walthall	The Actor
Toby Wing	`Young and Healthy' Girl,Chorus Girl
Tom Kennedy	Slim Murphy
Wallis Clark	Dr. Chadwick
Jack LaRue	A Mug
Louise Beavers	Pansy
Dave O'Brien	Chorus Boy
Patricia Ellis	Secretary
George Irving	House Doctor
Charles Lane	An Author
Rolfe Sedan	Stage Aide
Harry Seymour	Aide
Joan Barclay	Chorus Girl
Ann Hovey	Chorus Girl,Chorus Girl
Renee Whitney	Chorus Girl
Dorothy Coonan	Chorus Girl
June Glory	Chorus Girl
Jayne Shadduck	Chorus Girl
Adele Lacey	Chorus Girl
Loretta Andrews	Chorus Girl
Margaret La Marr	Chorus Girl
Mary Jane Halsey	Chorus Girl
Ruth Eddings	Chorus Girl
Edna Callaghan	Chorus Girl
Patricia Farnum	Chorus Girl
Maxine Cantway	Chorus Girl
Lynn Browning	Chorus Girl
Donna Mae Roberts	Chorus Girl
Lorena Layson	Chorus Girl
Alice Jans	Chorus Girl
Eve Marcy	Chorus Girl
Evelyn Joice	Chorus Girl
Agnes Ray	Chorus Girl
Grace Tobin	Chorus Girl
Kermit Maynard	Dancer Who Catches Girl
Lyle Talbot	Geoffrey Waring
Busby Berkeley	Actor
Dorothy White	Dancer

Technical Credits

Rian James

James Seymour

Whitney Bolton

Lloyd Bacon	Director
Rian James	Screenwriter
James Seymour	Screenwriter
Hal B. Wallis	Producer
Darryl Zanuck	Producer
Whitney Bolton	Screenwriter
Nathan Levinson	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Taking audiences to the bawdy, sassy, and rhythmic heights that characterized the edgier Depression-era musicals, Warner Brothers' 42nd Street established many of the backstage musical's most beloved and familiar tropes: the chorus girl who goes onstage a nobody but comes back a star; the hard-driving, brilliant director frantic for one more grand success; and the plucky tappers willing to dance till their feet bleed -- as long as the show will go on. There are wisecracking street-smart dames with nicknames like "Anytime Annie," a thick-skulled but wealthy theatrical "angel," investing more in an attractive woman than the play itself; and above all, those memorable tunes with Busby Berkeley's incredible choreography -- his camera tracking through a bevy of beautiful legs and looking from overhead as the dancers' bodies form intricate geometric patterns. Among the musical highlights are "Shuffle off to Buffalo," the innuendo-laden "Young and Healthy," and, of course, the buoyant title song itself, tied to a fascinating and dark sequence which captures both the energy and (unexpectedly) the violence of the city. 42nd Street is an absolute treasure, and the new DVD release from Warner Bros. has been digitally remastered from a beautifully restored negative.

Barnes & Noble - Karen Backstein

If MGM's 1929 The Broadway Melody invented the musical, Warner Bros.' 42nd Street saved it. The four years between the two movies had seen the genre driven practically into the ground, as the studios, still struggling with synchronized sound and what to do about it, ground out one ill-advised musical after another, few terribly good as music and most even less impressive as movies. It had gotten so bad that by 1932, theater owners were protecting their box office with signs announcing, for any "suspect" title, "NOT A MUSICAL!" It was into that environment in 1933 that Warner Bros. released 42nd Street, directed by Lloyd Bacon and choreographed by Busby Berkeley--and it revived and revolutionized the whole musical genre, by taking it to the long-delayed next step. It was during the making of The Broadway Melody that filmmakers discovered that they could separate the shooting of a musical number from the recording of its music. Berkeley and cinematographer Sol Polito took this notion to the next step by removing the camera from the studio floor. Under their direction, shots were done from overhead angles and other locations from which no person could ever actually observe in real life, and the dancers' motions were, in turn, designed to exploit those angles; in effect, they created the true movie musical, as opposed to a musical that happened to be on film. Bacon's direction of the dialogue portions of the story, with both dramatic and comic content, was also very sure, no surprise for a man later responsible for dramas like The Fighting Sullivans and comedies with Red Skelton, which meant that the movie held up even when there was no dancing or singing on the screen; and when there was, the music by Harry Warren and Al Dubin was downright clever; and the acting, though a little broad by modern standards, was of first caliber, also unusual for a musical, ranging from serious dramatic lead Warner Baxter to comic relief from George E. Stone as the mousy, lecherous stage manager and Guy Kibbee's befuddled, lecherous backer, with Bebe Daniels, Ruby Keeler, and Ginger Rogers at their most delectable. The audience devoured it, and Warner Bros., Berkeley, and company rose to the occasion of delivering more and better musicals like it for much of the rest of the decade.

All Movie Guide - Bruce Eder