42nd Street [DVD] [1933]

Made in 1932 and released during 1933, this superb musical began an unfortunate trend in musicals which persisted during the 1930s. A spate of copycat musicals were then released, most of them rubbish. Not one of them came up to the standard set by Busby Berkeley in this classic which is now recognised as one of the all time great musicals. The story is simple enough, a new show is commissioned, Julian Marsh (Warner Baxter) struggles to rehearse the show and to get the balance right for its opening night. Some of the scenes are quite simply hiliarious, and some quite daring for its time too especially with the skimpy costumes on show. This was before the Hays Commission imposed strict censorship and almost ruined Hollywood. Just before the opening night, the leading lady Bebe Daniels is injured so a newcomer Peggy Sawyer (Ruby Keeler)is drafted in as a last minute replacement and saves the show. Of course, the show is an astounding success. A great story with great songs and music. There are many fine actors who appear in this film, most of them legends in their own right such as Ginger Rogers, Una Merkel, Dick Powell, George Brent and Guy Kibbee. Busby Berkeley must also be mentioned for his direction and his work on the cameras which caused a sensation at the time, using different angles and other techniques which were quite revolutionary for those days.

Picture quality for such an old film, is very good indeed. Sound adequate on a Home Cinema system. Enhanced with subtitles and some short documentaries for Home Movie buffs.

This 1933 classic is a brilliant example of Warner Bros at their grittyand glamorous best. It has drama, sophistication and adult themes allhandled superbly by a great cast. They genuinely don't make 'em like thisany more. Ruby Keeler's disarmingly amateurish performance enhances thewhole enjoyment of this movie. Great songs and outstanding Busby Berkleychoreographed routines make this a master class in entertainment. Brilliantly funny one liners and tongue in cheek humour add to the overallmagic that is 42nd Street!

42nd Street is one of my favorite movies. It's the granddaddy of "put on a musical" musicals, and if it seems full of cliches now it's because cliches have to start somewhere. They weren't cliches when 42nd Street opened. When young Peggy Sawyer (Ruby Keeler) has to take the place of the star, gets a pep talk from Julian Marsh (Warner Baxter) and then dances from the wings into the big production number of Shuffle Off to Buffalo...well, is there any doubt that Peggy is going to come back a star? (Even if Marsh's talk is enough to scare the tap shoes off Fred Astaire, much less little Peggy Sawyer. "Sawyer, you listen to me, and you listen hard. Two hundred people, two hundred jobs, two hundred thousand dollars, five weeks of grind and blood and sweat depend upon you. It's the lives of all these people who've worked with you. You've got to go on, and you've got to give and give and give. They've got to like you. Got to. Do you understand? You can't fall down. You can't because your future's in it, my future and everything all of us have is staked on you. All right, now I'm through, but you keep your feet on the ground and your head on those shoulders of yours and go out, and Sawyer, you're going out a youngster but you've got to come back a star!")

The story is endearing because we've seen it so many times. The movie is still so fresh, so good and so entertaining, however, because of the songs, the actors and Busby Berkeley's turn-tables, disappearing benches, moving cameras and high-kicking chorus girls. I can watch many times over the musical numbers (songs by Harry Warren and Al Dubin) performed by a young, energetic and perfectly confident Dick Powell (I'm Young and Healthy), Una Merkel and Ginger Rogers, Ruby Keeler and Clarence Nordstrom (Shuffle Off to Buffalo), the big 42nd Street extravaganza with Ruby Keeler and half the population of New York City, and a great song that still holds its own, You're Getting to Be a Habit With Me (sung by Bebe Daniels).

Ruby Keeler was such a long shot for actual stardom. She couldn't act. She sang well but without much emotion. Her tap dancing was all elbows and thumping feet. Yet she was so innocent and earnest you just can't help rooting for her. When Warner Baxter gives his impassioned pep talk to Keeler as Peggy Sawyer, he is all intensity, driving home just how important it is for Sawyer to succeed. Keeler is facing him with a pleasant, utterly emotionless expression on her face. Try watching the scene but focus on Keeler, not Baxter. Her lack of expression is so incongruous it's absolutely endearing. Perhaps that's why she was such a success. She might be a klutz like us, but she's going to give it her all in front of an audience, something most of us wouldn't have the courage to try.

One of the delights of the musical numbers is watching Una Merkel and Ginger Rogers in an upper birth, Merkel eating a banana and Rogers an apple, giving the other side of the story of Shuffle off to Buffalo. First we watch Keeler and Nordstrom (unbilled and with an odd vibrato):

I'll go home and pack my panties
You go home and get your scanties
And away we'll go.
Off we're gonna shuffle,
Shuffle off to Buffalo.
To Niagara in a sleeper
There's no honeymoon that's cheaper
And the train goes slow.
Off we're gonna shuffle,
Shuffle Off to Buffalo.

But then Merkel and Rogers give their point of view between bites of banana and apple:

Matrimony is baloney,
She'll be wanting alimony,
In a year of so.
Still they go and shuffle,
Shuffle off to Buffalo.
When she knows as much as we know
She'll be on her way to Reno
While he still has dough.
She'll give him the Shuffle
When they're back from Buffalo.

The movie is filled with similar wise-cracking attitude. And if you're into drugs or love or just exceptionally well-written songs, you cant beat You're Getting to Be a Habit With Me:

Every kiss, every hug,
Seems to act just like a drug.
You're getting to be a habit with me.
Let me stay in your arms,
I'm addicted to your charms.
You're getting to be a habit with me.
I used to think your love was something
That I could take or leave alone.
But now I couldn't do without my supply.
I need you for my own.
Oh I can't break away, I must have you every day,
As regularly as coffee or tea.
You've got me in your clutches and I can't get free,
You're getting to be a habit with me.

With 42nd Street at least, nostalgia is everything it's said to be.

The DVD transfer is excellent. There are several extras including a short vintage feature on composer Harry Warren.