Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Megamind To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

gavin6942 Chester Kent (James Cagney) struggles against time, romance, and a rival's spy to produce spectacular live "prologues" for movie houses.Cagney, a former song-and-dance man, actively campaigned the executives at Warner Bros. for the lead in "Footlight Parade", which became his first on-screen appearance as a dancer. Cagney had only fallen into his gangster persona when he and Edward Woods switched roles three days into the shooting of 1931's "The Public Enemy". That role catapulted Cagney into stardom and a series of gangster films, which throughout his career, Cagney found to be as much a straitjacket as a benefit.Although musicals are not my thing, I do appreciate the active role Cagney took in it. I am aware of his background as a dancer rather than the tough guy we think of, and it makes sense he would want to show that rather than be typecast. (Despite this film and "Yankee Doodle Dandy", though, he is probably still best remembered as a gangster.) The swimming choreography is well done, and the "Honeymoon Hotel" number is decent. Some of the themes in that song are a little scandalous -- is there a man flirting with another woman on his own honeymoon?

gkeith_1 Great showstoppers. Jimmy hoofing it up a storm, nine years before his boffo "Yankee Doodle Dandy". Ruby Keeler always excellent; superb. Joan Blondell -- spoiler -- gets Jimmy in the end, after she kicks his cheap trashy gold-digger, literally, to the curb, lol. Hugh Herbert with the famous hand-twirling -- always a delight. Jimmy's friend Frank McHugh terribly whiny as the dance director, and his wearing that huge cat's tail is totally hilarious. Cat number just divine, so is waterfall number. Honeymoon number full of pre-code innuendoes, but of course there is the justice of the peace just off the lobby. Berkeley always excellent, plus he is one of the cast. Look for him. 12/10

dougdoepke Not so much a musical as a mating call set to music. But then what else could be expected from three back-to-back production numbers from that carnally-obsessed choreographer Busby Berkeley. "Beside the Waterfall" alone has enough 'flowering o's', half-dressed chorines, and suggestive camera angles to make Hugh Hefner blush and send Dr. Freud into terminal overload. Then too, who else but the mad Mr. Berkeley could convert the complicated matter of sex into a mere conjugation of overhead geometry. There's also "Honeymoon Hotel", a celebration of the no-tell motel, with marching phalanxes of hormonally driven couples all named Smith, and led by a demonic cupid looking like an early Billy Barty. The sight of his tiny legs chasing after a fleeing Amazon is enough to drive Harpo Marx to distraction and cause the audience to doubt the laws of physics. While bringing down the curtain is the marching madness of "Shanghai Lil", where Berkeley proves-- in case you ever doubted-- that race, creed, and bad make-up make no difference to a Chinese bordello. It's sort of an early gathering of the UN, where people from all over come together to discuss the world's number one topic. All in all, there's enough sheer pizzaz, flash, and animal energy in these numbers to light up a thousand dark movie houses.Sure, Warner Bros. tries to cover the orgy with the fig leaf of two cheerful innocents played by a sappy Dick Powell and a virginal Ruby Keeler. But it doesn't work, because everyone else gets in on the fun, including that human buzz-saw Jimmy Cagney and everyone's favorite sassy dame Joan Blondell. Director Lloyd Bacon proves too he knows what to do, giving us an eyeful of Blondell endlessly rolling and unrolling her hosiery, while the writers pepper the conversation with suggestive one-liners. Yeah, it's a great movie-- good enough to help bring down the heavy hand of censorship the following year, and put an end to damp dreams like "Beside a Waterfall". But not even the Watchdogs of Public Morality could stop Berkeley's deliriously suggestive pageantry that would live on at even that most repressed of studios, MGM. Sure, Astaire-Rogers may have been more graceful and a whole lot more chaste, no doubt producing more sheer polish-- still and all, don't let this unabashedly pagan celebration pass you by. As they say around the owl cage, it's a real hoot.

MartynGryphon I have reviewed more James Cagney movies on this site than any other actor/actress. Now, after 8 odd years of being a IMDb reviewer, I have finally got around to reviewing my ultimate favourite James Cagney movie.This was the first musical Cagney had been allowed to star in as Jack Warner saw only the potential in Cagney's ability to play the tough guy. Cagney had learnt to dance in the 20's whilst appearing in countless vaudeville productions and always preferred to do musicals whenever the opportunity presented itself.Although Footlight Parade was Cagney's first musical movie, it wasn't the first time audiences had seen the man shake a shoe. He had danced in a short but memorable scene in the drama Other Men's Women (1931) and danced in a couple of scenes in Taxi! (1932) most notably in a dance competition competing against George Raft.It may have been these scenes that convinced the studio brass that Cagney was a viable musical commodity too.Footlight Parade reunites Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler and genius choreographer Busby Berkeley all veterans of Warner Brothers two other musical smash hits of that year 42nd Street and Gold Diggers of 1933.The whole main cast list of this wonderful movie also includes all the very best actors that Warner had on their books at the time. Joan Blondell, Guy Kibbee, Ruth Donnelly, Frank McHugh, Hugh Herbert and Claire Dodd.Chester Kent, (Cagney), is a producer of musical Comedy shows who's fortunes have been blighted by two main developments. The crash of '29 which saw the demand for expensive and lavish productions dwindle and a new gimmick from Hollywood - Talking Pictures.His showbiz backers Frazer & Gould, (Arthur Hohl & Guy Kibbee respectively), take Kent to the local movie theatre to show them why they're no longer doing the big shows and why they're making the move to become movie exhibitors. When the movie they are watching ends, (which incidentally is The Telegraph Trail starring John Wayne and also stars Frank McHugh). A bevy of dancers take to the stage in a routine that Frazer and Gould describe as a prologue a themed dance to accompany the preceding picture.Kent starts to produce these prologues for Frazer and Gould knowing that other movie exhibitors will pay good money for these ready made prologues rather then spending more money to put them on themselves.Kent is shown as a workaholic who seldom goes home and is dedicated to his job. However, his world is not as idyllic as he would think it. His assistant Harry Thompson, (Gordon Westcott), is actually spying for a rival prologue company and giving the competitors Kents prologue ideas and Frazer and Gould are cooking the books to their own advantage. In fact Kent's one true ally is his secretary and girl Friday Nanette 'Nan' Prescott, (Joan Blondell), who's so head over heels in love with Kent that her loyalty is unswerving but Kent's too wrapped up in business to notice.After reading a headline regarding the fate of un produced musical shows, Kent decides that they'll be transferred into prologues giving the audience a 20 minute musical comedy and a talking picture all for 50 cents. A business man with a string of movie theatres have offered him three prologues at three of his theatres in three days and if they're a success then a contract for forty theatres across the region is theirs.In order to ensure his ideas are not given to the rival prologue company, he orders a blockade of his studio, no one in and no one out for three days to ensure secrecy and originality.The real treat of Footlight Parade are the three prologues themselves which dominate the final half of the movie. 'Honeymoon Hotel' in which Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler elope, get married and spend their wedding night in the hotel renown for turning virgin brides into wives, all to the wonderful risqué music and lyrics of Harry Warren and Al Dubin.Then follows 'By A Waterfall' which is by far the most visual stunning of the three with Busby Berkeley doing what he does best, a water ballet with some great kaleidoscopic overhead shots. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Berkely was a genius and one day I'd love to see this sequence converted to 3D and perhaps full Technicolour. Berkely was so far ahead of his time and real 3D was invented just so we can convert Berkeley's sequences to it. I'd do it myself if I could though I have neither the money, knowledge or the technology to do so. Shame otherwise it would be done tomorrow.The final Prologue is 'Shanghai Lil' which sees Cagney take the role of a sailor searching for his oriental prostitute girlfriend in a bar come opium den. All of which is dazzling.Needless to say the shows go over big and Kent and the troupe get the contracts.Mention has to be given to Dick Powell for THAT voice, Keeler for THOSE feet, Frank McHugh giving us some comic relieve as a cynical and inept dance director, Claire Dodd as a social climbing tramp that gloms on to Kent in the hopes of ensnaring him into a honey trap. Ruth Donnelly as Goulds Money grabbing wife and Hugh Herbert as the fussy censor that ensures that Kent's prologues doesn't offend against common decency.Speaking of censorship, Footlight Parade contains some of the most riskiest dialogue and content that I've ever seen in a pre-code film and was probably solely responsible for the rigid enforcement of the production code the following year. All innocent now, but back in 1933, it must have had chins on the carpet. However, that's all part of it's charm.Footlight Parade is a triumph in every way thanks mainly to Cagney and Berkeley.Enjoy!