Die 42. Straße

This is one fun movie if you like singing, dancing and adore the whole atmosphere of the early 30's. A back stage story that sets the standard for all those "unknown becomes overnight star" films. The weakest part of it all is Ruby Keeler and I apologize in advance to all of her fans and there are many. She was an Irish Step Dancer, which does not come across very well in film. Step dancers concentrate on their feet only and upper body movement is not a consideration. This makes the dancer appear as heavy footed and clumsy. Plus she wasn't a very good actress and didn't sing very well either. But she was as cute as a button with those big eyes and innocent face,so all is forgiven.

Warner Baxter gives the best performance of his career as the driven director who verges on madness. Dick Powell is delightful as the juvenile; many who only know him from his later films are not aware that he had a beautiful tenor voice and made his first splash in films as a singer and light comedian. Ginger Rogers is perfect as the slightly dishonorable chorus girl with the sugar daddy and Una Merkle playing Ginger's pal is surprisingly cute. Bebe Daniels is beautiful as the star of the play and does a great rendition of "You're Getting To Be A Habit With Me"., The rest of the supporting cast is right on target...with some good support from Ned Sparks, Guy Kibbee and the ubiquitous George E. Stone.

A lot got by the censors in this film to the delight of the audience....things were tightened up the next year as the Hayes Office started cracking down. Enjoy this film...enjoy, enjoy, and enjoy!!

I have heard lots of criticism of Ruby Keeler in this movie. Of her dancing--"She makes it look like such hard work!" But I thought she was just great, innocent and adorable.

I definitely would have liked to see either more musical numbers, or the existing ones spread out more.

I also must say that I think the songs and vocalists from this movie are far superior to those in any recordings of the Broadway show I've found. Their sound is much more authentic of the time period, and the broadway voices really ruin the aura of the film.

Overall, though, this movie is great--wonderful songs, dances and acting. The dialogue is fast-paced, witty, and cynical (really gives the outlook of the culture during this depression time).

Berkeley's famous pattern-dancers become more than an example of self-focusing art. Unlike several other of Berkeley related films, 42nd Street has more heart than "eye candy." Ruby Keeler returns to the musical genre as another small town girl wanting to become a Broadway dancer. There's less comic relief in this one. Unlike all the Gold Digger films of the 1930's, 42nd Street stands out as a movie about hopes and dreams. One of the all time classics for musical lovers, its a must see if you're a Ruby fan!

Most of the negative comments posted below seem to be from people who either just don't like musicals or who are unaware that all the "cliches" in this movie were essentially invented by "42nd Street." It's sort of like complaining that Shakespeare is full of quotations. This movie is absolutely brilliant, which is why it's been imitated endlessly for the last seven decades.

Sure, Keeler's not the end-all of tap dancing, but she fits the bill as an ingénue and is generally amiable and perky. The plot is predictable, but only because we've seen it duplicated so often. If you hadn't seen the same sort of thing a million times, you'd notice that it's tightly assembled and even somewhat suspenseful. The show is full of first-rate comic asides, even if some of the material is dated by obsolete slang and contemporary pop culture references.

And do people still take the trouble to complain that Busby Berkeley's dance numbers couldn't have been seen properly by the audience in the theater? That's like complaining that an ape couldn't really grow to be as large as King Kong. The whole point is that it's a movie, and Berkeley is able to do things that can't happen in the real world. Hence the transformation of background settings while the camera is close up on an actress's face. There isn't even such a thing as a close-up in a stage production. Carping that a '30's musical isn't realistic enough is like complaining that Venus couldn't actually have been born out of a clamshell.

In any case, this is one of the great '30s musicals... and one of the great Hollywood movies of all time. If you don't like the genre, then so be it. It always amazes me that so many film fans strongly prefer "Singin' in the Rain" to such predecessors as "42nd Street," "Dames," "Top Hat," "Swing Time," etc., when "Singin' in the Rain" is simply an homage to the '30s musical and generates quite little fresh material of its own. Mind you, it's a brilliantly executed homage, and it arguably benefits from its overt tongue-in-cheek attitude, but I can't help thinking many are simply swayed by the fact that it's in color (really good Technicolor) and has clearer sound quality than its '30s predecessors. Either way, you need to see and appreciate the original movie musicals before you can really understand what "Singin' in the Rain" was about... just as you should see some Hong Kong action flicks and blacksploitation films to get what's going on in "Pulp Fiction."

But I digress. See "42nd Street," and try to keep an open mind. Just because it's old is not a reason to assume that the people who made it didn't know their business extremely well.

I can't be objective -- I love everything about this movie, from the clunky tapping of Ruby Keeler to the wisecracks of Ginger Rogers et al. It's not as dark as other Berkeley films,such as the Golddiggers, but it is bittersweet. Marsh is a lonely man (though we shouldn't read too much into his request that Andy Lee come home with him), and he may be dying. But it isn't something the script dwells on, it's too busy flinging lines like "In a star it's temperament, but in a chorus girl it's just bad taste" and just being outrageous. (That is Gandhi who gets the girl at the end of "You're Getting To Be a Habit With Me," isn't it?) Julian Marsh is a master of psychology -- all those speeches about the hundreds of jobs resting on Peggy Sawyer's shoulders would give Ethel Merman a nervous breakdown! I've given up all hope of making sense of the plot of "Pretty Lady" -- it's easier that way. If you haven't seen this, see it now. If you have, watch for Dave O'Brien (future star of "Reefer Madness") dancing in the chorus.