Linkshoch Wonderful Movie

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

preppy-3 Classic movie. A dying producer (Warner Baxter) wants to put on one big successful musical before he dies. He starts one up and gets star Dorothy Brock (Bebe Daniels) to headline...but she's very temperamental. He also hires sweet Peggy Sawyer (Ruby Keeler in her film debut) for the chorus. The night before the opening performance Brock sprains her ankle and can't go on. Sawyer is hired to take her place but can't do it. Baxter gives her the now infamous "you go out an unknown and come back a star" speech and she does just that.Sure it's clichéd but this is the movie that invented the clichés! It's so well-done you ignore how predictable it is. The script is sharp, it's well-directed and moves quickly. All the songs are good (especially the title tune) and Busby Berkeley stages some incredible dance numbers. Also Dick Powell and Ginger Rogers have small roles. There's one problem here--Keeler. Her acting is TERRIBLE and she was the first one to admit she was no actress. Her dancing is also pretty clumsy but passable. However she has a beautiful singing voice and she's certainly very likable. So, all in all, a great movie musical. Well worth seeing.

gavin6942 Renowned Broadway producer/director Julian Marsh is hired to put together a new musical revue. It's being financed by Abner Dillon to provide a starring vehicle for his girlfriend, songstress Dorothy Brock.I suppose i shouldn't be too hard on this one. Although it is not my favorite musical, and probably not even in my top ten, I have to give them credit for being ambitious. This was 1933, and sound in film was relatively new. Going the extra step from talking to singing to full-blown musical... very brave and risky.I do wish there were bigger names attached to this picture. We have a couple, but this is not an all-star revue, and most people today (2015) will not know almost any of these folks. That could make up the difference between largely forgotten (except by historians and serious film lovers) and permanent classic.

gkeith_1 My observations: Let's hear it for the dancers. I am a tap dancer. All the boo hoo about Ruby's tap dancing is absurd. She was a star, and you are not. In the 42nd street title dance sequence, she is tap dancing in what we of modern tap dance styles call "rhythm tap", in which the dancer dances closer to the ground and may even pitch a little forward on the toe taps. The old style of tap dance is called "Broadway tap", where the woman is up on the higher heeled tap shoes and the carriage is held higher and posture more erect. As far as Ruby's "clumsy" dancing, that is also absurd. She was dancing in flat tap shoes, whereas when she and other women danced in higher heeled tap shoes they more tended to "dance on air". IMO, high heeled tap shoes are more elegant and sexy. I have tap danced in both types.Furthermore, most of the time you only saw women tap dancing in the higher heeled tap shoes, anyway, ala Ann Miller, Ginger Rogers, Eleanor Powell, Marge Champion, et al. Flat tap shoes ala 42nd Street number by Ruby Keeler always make a louder, stronger tap sound. They are what the men wear. I mean, did you ever see movie men tap dance in high heeled tap shoes? Additionally, notice other early tap movies. Old fashioned stories such as Shirley Temple (a child, of course), wearing her long dresses while tapping in flat tap shoes without much sound: tap's early days were done with wooden taps; metal taps came along much later. Lots of tap movies done with old wooden taps didn't have much sound. As a matter of fact, in tap movies the sound was added later; there were no microphones on the tap shoes or on the floors. This is why, I think, that upon seeing old tap movies today I can hear many more taps than the dancer could possibly dance in the time depicted.Further, high heeled tap shoes have smaller taps in general. The toe taps can be smaller than on the flat tap shoes, or what I call the men's tap shoes. A big man has gigantic toe taps. The high heeled women's tap shoes have tiny, little heel taps, that don't make much sound.More observations about this film: Julian Marsh reminds me of Florenz Ziegfeld. After the 1929 Stock Market Crash and ensuing Great Depression, Ziggy was bankrupt and in ill health, and later passed away, his wife Billie Burke going back to work to pay his bills (witness her daffy characters in some movies plus her later blockbuster Wizard of Oz).Julian Marsh was a desperate, formerly on top Broadway producer, in ill health and who I feel had a terminal illness diagnosis from his physician on the phone earlier in the film.1933 was six years after the 1927 Jazz Singer sound debut. 1933 was in The Great Depression. I thought that the film 42nd Street did very well, considering these things. Additionally, in Singin' in the Rain, 1951, it shows how early sound films had problems with production values such as microphones. I like 42nd Street. It still gets people interested in tap dancing.Broadway also fared badly during and after World War One. Audiences stayed away, men were sent off to war, shows closed, bankruptcies abounded. In my opinion, wars and economic downturns affect Broadway. There are some success stories, however. During World War Two, Broadway fared well with dancing musicals such as Oklahoma and Carousel; they both had ballet dances included in the storytelling.Broadway is still here. Musicals still abound. Silent movies, sound movies and television never killed Broadway. Movies and TV preserve actor's/dancers'/singers' performances, yes, but even those -- as they age -- are subject to faulty and expensive preservation techniques.Viva La Broadway Show, and filmed depictions thereof.10/10

utgard14 As many other reviewers have said, this is the grandfather of movie musicals. It gave birth to many clichés that would be used all throughout classic Hollywood musicals and even to this day, in one form or another. Warner Baxter is terrific as the slave-driving director ("I'll either have a live leading lady or a dead chorus girl"). Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell are the quintessential juvenile leads. Film debut for Keeler and first big role for Powell. Keeler doesn't have the best voice but she has a nice screen presence and immense likability. Plus her tap dancing is pretty good. Bebe Daniels is wonderful in her biggest film role. Ginger Rogers plays Anytime Annie ("She only said no once and then she didn't hear the question"). It's one of those 'tough dame with a snappy one-liner' roles Ginger did so well. The supporting cast is full of familiar faces from the '30s: George Brent, Guy Kibbee, Allen Jenkins, Una Merkel, Ned Sparks, and George E. Stone, among others. The script is fantastic with lots of that colorful lingo Warner Bros. movies were known for back in the day. Of course, the real highlight of the movie are the Busby Berkeley musical numbers like "Shuffle Off to Buffalo" and the climactic "42nd Street" number, my personal favorite. It's a fantastic movie. Obviously a classic and still entertaining from start to finish, over 80 years later.