A new singer from Arkansas College shows up in the form of Scotty Blain (Dick Powell) who turns out to be a real find and is paired with Bea Thorn (Ruby Keeler).
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Dick Powell) has the hots for Kent and is determined to expose the wiles of the temptress. His assistant, Nan Prescott (Joan Blondell - soon to be Mrs. He uncovers the traitor, fires him, then unbeknown to him a new leak is planted in the form a dazzling temptress. In preparation for the prologues, Kent learns that his ideas are being stolen by a rival. Could it be that Cagney's character is patterned after Berkeley? Could be. Kent is basically an idea man along the lines of choreographer Busby Berkeley. Kent gets the idea that a prologue chain would be the road to salvation for the dwindling live musical business. Shorts, news reels, serials, and cartoons would later serve the purpose. His producers take him to see a popular talky of the day, John Wayne in "The Big Trail." Before each showing of the flick, a dance number is presented as a prologue.
Chester Kent (Cagney) is about to lose his job and does lose his playgirl wife as a result of talking pictures squeezing out live stage musicals. The first half of "Footlight Parade" is preparation for a musical extravaganza which occupies the last half of the film. These are all scenes from a 1933 musical. Have a look at this incredible scene in the video below from the Warner Archive.An opium den, a dirty little boy (actually a midget), prostitutes galore, a violent fracas in a dive, a motel for sexual shenanigans, scantily clad babes with cleavage a lot, a boozer falling down the stairs, a racially mixed clientèle in a bar with Asians, Africans, and Anglos treated equally, does this sound like a film playing at the local shopping mall? Wrong. Just think of all the hard work and planning they went through- with no CGI to help out. The scene puts special effects in film today to shame. The “By a Waterfall” scene of the film employed the use of a lighted pool with 20 diving platforms and a team of 300 swim dancers in scanty diamanté illusion swimsuitsto create a host of visual effects, many of which were filmed from overhead so as to capture the designs created by the swimmers.
He decides that live action “prologues” for films are the ticket to his renewed success and so the folly begins. The film centers around a Broadway director whose career is flopping as audiences cease their trips to the theater in favor of going to the movies. Some of Berkeley’s most memorable film scenes include feats that simply couldn’t be achieved in real life, like the choreography for dancers in giant white Jenny Lind rocking chairs from Gold Diggers of 1933or his extravagant couples dance scene from Fast and Furious (no relation to the modern franchise) featuring dozens of tap dancing women dressed in scandalous harem costumes.īerkeley’s 1933 film, Footlight Parade, was one of these films that set the imagination flying. During the Great Depression many people sought the cheap seats and air conditioning that going to the movies offered, not to mention the escapism of fantasy and whimsy.
#Footlight parade film movie
One of the masters of this latter style was the choreographer, Busby Berkeley, who was able to create movie scenes that literally awed people. Film productions ranged from more humble dramas to glamorous musicals filled with every conceivable type of glitter and glitz.
Many Hollywood films of the 1930s could be truly dazzling spectacles.
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