Footlight Parade

Footlight Parade
File:Footlightparadeposter.jpg
Directed by	Lloyd Bacon
Written by	James Seymour Manuel Seff Robert Lord (story) Peter Milne (story)
Produced by	Robert Lord
Starring	James Cagney Joan Blondell Ruby Keeler Dick Powell
Cinematography	George Barnes
Edited by	George Amy
Release dates	September 30, 1933
Running time	104 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$703,000 (est.)

Footlight Parade (1933) is a Warner Bros. musical film starring James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell (whose character is almost autobiographical) and featuring Frank McHugh, Guy Kibbee, Hugh Herbert and Ruth Donnelly. The movie was written by Manuel Seff and James Seymour from a story by Robert Lord and Peter Milne. It was directed by Lloyd Bacon.

The spectacular Busby Berkeley musical numbers include "By a Waterfall", "Honeymoon Hotel", and "Shanghai Lil". Future stars Dorothy Lamour and Ann Sothern are among the bevy of beauties in these mammoth productions.

In 1992, Footlight Parade was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Plot

Footlight Parade tells the story of Chester Kent (James Cagney), who replaces his failing career as a director of Broadway musicals with a new one as the creator of musical numbers called "prologues," short live stage productions presented in movie theaters before the main feature is shown. He faces pressure from his business partners to constantly create a large number of marketable prologues to service theaters throughout the country, but his job is made harder by a rival who is stealing his ideas, probably with assistance from someone working inside his company. Kent is so overwhemed with work that he doesn't that realize his secretary, Nan (Joan Blondell), has fallen in love with him, and is doing her best to protect him.

Kent's business partners announce that they have a big deal pending with the Apolinaris theater circuit, but getting the contract depends on Kent impressing Mr. Apolinaris with three spectacular prologues, presented on the same night, one after another at three different theatres. Kent then stages "Honeymoon Hotel", "By a Waterfall", featuring the famous 'Human Waterfall', and "Shanghai Lil", featuring Cagney and Ruby Keeler dancing together.

Cast

• James Cagney – Chester Kent, creator of musical prologues
• Joan Blondell – Nan Prescott, his secretary
• Ruby Keeler – Bea Thorn, dancer turned secretary turned dancer
• Dick Powell – Scott 'Scotty' Blair, juvenile lead, former protege of Mrs. Gould
• Frank McHugh – Francis, dance director
• Ruth Donnelly – Harriet Bowers Gould, the producer's nepotistic wife
• Guy Kibbee – Silas 'Si' Gould, producer
• Hugh Herbert – Charlie Bowers, Mrs. Gould's brother, the censor
• Claire Dodd – Vivian Rich, Nan's friend, on the make
• Gordon Westcott – Harry Thompson, Kent's assistant
• Arthur Hohl – Al Frazer, the other producer
• Renee Whitney – Cynthia Kent, Kent's ex-wife
• Barbara Rogers – Gracie, a dancer
• Paul Porcasi – George Apolinaris, owner of a chain of movie theaters
• Philip Faversham – Joe Barrington, juvenile lead, protege of Mrs. Gould
• Herman Bing – Fralick, the music director

• Dorothy Lamour and Ann Sothern were among the many chorus dancers used in the film. It was Lamour's film debut.
• It is often written that John Garfield made his (uncredited) film debut in this film, but experts are divided if it is actually him in the very quick (5/6ths of a second) shot.

Production

Early casting had Stanley Smith playing the juvenile lead eventually played by Dick Powell, and Dorothy Tennant playing Mrs. Gould instead of Ruth Donnelly. Other actors considered for various roles included Eugene Pallette, George Dobbs and Patricia Ellis. Remarkably, consider that his musical numbers are the highlight of the film, Busby Berkeley was not the original choice to choreograph - Larry Ceballos was signed to direct the dance numbers, and sued Berkeley and the studio for $100,000 for breach of contract when he was not allowed to do so. (Ceballos also claimed to have created a number later used in the Warner Bros. film Wonder Bar, which was credited to Berkeley.)

Cagney's character, Chester Kent, was modelled after Chester Hale, a well-known impresario at the time, and the offices he worked in were based on the Sunset Boulevard offices of the prologue production company "Fanchon and Marco" in Los Angeles.

Footlight Parade cost an estimated $703,000 to make. It premiered on 30 September 1933, and was released generally on 21 October.

Pre-code era

The film was made during the Pre-Code era, and its humor is sometimes quite risqué, with multiple references to prostitution and suggestions of profanity largely unseen in studio films until the 1960s, when the Production Code collapsed.

One character in the film, played by actor Hugh Herbert, is the brother of the one of Kent's partner's wife, who forces her husband to hire her relatives. Herbert acts as the censor for Kent's productions, constantly telling Kent certain parts of his production numbers have to be changed. His character is portrayed as buffoonish and comical, saying disagreeable lines to Kent such as "You must put brassieres on those dolls..." (referring to actual dolls) "...uh huh, you know Connecticut." This character foreshadows the coming Production Code, which was in full force less than a year later.

External links

• Footlight Parade at IMDb
• Footlight Parade at the TCM Movie Database
• Footlight Parade at AllMovie
• Footlight Parade at Rotten Tomatoes
• Footlight Parade at Filmsite.org