Benutzerrezensionen

"Golddiggers of 1935" stars Alice Brady as a cheapskate determined that her daughter will marry a wealthy older man as planned.

In order to make sure this happens, she gives her daughter a last wish as a single woman, which is to let her do what she wants (i.e., have fun) all summer at the resort where they're staying.

So mom hires the student doctor at the reception desk, Dick (Dick Powell) to escort her around. Oh, and then there's the show for the milk fund. And what a show!

The daughter in question is the beautiful Gloria Stuart, who a mere 60+ years later will receive an Oscar nomination for "Titanic" and make it at last! 96 at the time of this writing, Stuart today is completely recognizable as that dazzling blond of her youth. There's no mistaking those incredible eyes or wonderful voice. It was really a treat to see her in this.

The film is remarkable for its milk fund numbers only - the rest of it isn't much. Berkeley pulled out all the stops with a mesmerizing array of moving white pianos played by chorus girls in gowns, and follows it up with "Lullaby of Broadway."

Sensational - so imaginative, dark, and atmospheric, truly one of the best numbers in cinema. Its unusual beginning (also done at the end) will cue you in immediately that you're about to see something different.

The cast is first rate - Powell, Stuart, Brady, Hugh Herbert, Dorothy Dare, Glenda Farrell, and Adolphe Menjou. Parts of it are overacted, almost as if the actors were on stage, but you won't be sorry you saw Berkeley's work at its best.

Seventy-three years have elapsed since this Gold Diggers movie was released, and it is well worth remembering that for many Americans The Great Depression was still fairly well depressing. Two years into the first administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the overall level of unemployment was dropping, but entirely too many people were what we would now call "underemployed." They were working -- like the hotel staff in the fictional resort where all of the events in this movie occur -- "for tips." Not only that, they were required to pay their managers 'a tithe' of whatever they collected. All of that is laid out in the first sequences of this incredible film.

In a very real way, this movie was an employment bonanza all its own.

The extraordinary dancing sequences in "Lullaby Of Broadway" clearly required about a hundred dancers and the musicians: this means that there were also dozens of supporting personnel required for the task of doing rehearsals ( including musicians ). Perhaps it wasn't the best pay-day for most of these people but it was a pay-day in Hollywood.

Busby Berkeley has received many accolades for his work in 42nd Street, which is quite possibly one of the greatest American films ever made. But the energy and style and the enthusiasm which is on display in the dancing routines for "Lullaby" was not faked. Maybe this movie has all the intellectual 'nutrients' of cotton candy and maybe that's a valid criticism, but it was work and honest work at that. This is a greatly entertaining film built out of the flimsiest of dramatic components, yet one thing remains true, it's a hell of an entertaining ride.

The comedic elements were clearly drawn comic-book style, and I do not find that objectionable in the least, for the goofiness of the lead comic actors is still charming all these decades later. OK, it is true that many millions of modern film fans may not have the slightest idea what 'snuff' is -- finely powdered tobacco -- but funny is funny, and the obsession of the screwball expert who is collecting them is still really funny !! If it wasn't funny, then why are 'nerds' still getting laughs in movies today ?? It's the same basic kind of humor.

The rating of 8 for this film does take into account the tissue-thin plot for this second "Gold Diggers" episode, but it remains one of my personal favorites and that is said after having given it several viewings. Look back on this as an historical document. See how people behaved before being constantly tethered to their cell phones, before being obsessed with 'global warming' or the price of gasoline.

Oh, and Gloria Stuart is so incredibly beautiful that she stops the action in almost every scene she's in, as does Wini Shaw's singing.

A great film for a cozy Saturday night, and it is also certified as being 100 % zombie-free.

GOLD DIGGERS OF 1935 (Warner Brothers, 1935), directed by Busby Berkeley, is a lavish musical set in New England's Wentworth Plaza, a summer fashionable hotel, featuring a cross section of people working or staying there, many wanting to make some extra money for themselves, hence the title "Gold Diggers." In this edition, the "Gold Digging" is done by both men and women, with the exception of the romantic leads. Dick Curtis (Dick Powell), a desk clerk working his way through medical school, is engaged to marry Arline Davis (Dorothy Dare), employed as a the hostess there. Guests at the swank hotel include Ann Prentiss (Gloria Stuart), the daughter of the ultra wealthy but stingy widow Matilda Prentiss (Alice Brady), who wants Ann to marry eccentric middle-aged millionaire, T. Mosley Thorpe (Hugh Herbert), but before Ann will commit herself into a loveless marriage, she wants to go out and enjoy herself first. Mother Prentiss consents to this, but with protection, by hiring Dick as her escort. In the meantime, Arline becomes interested in Humbolt (Frank McHugh), Ann's girl-chasing brother with four previous marriages. While Mosley gets time away from Ann to write a book about snuff, he is pursued by Betty Hawes (Glenda Farrell), a gold-digging stenographer. More complications ensue when the freeloading Nikolai Nicoleff (Adolphe Menjou), a Russian theatrical producer mooching off the hotel, is asked by the manager, Louis Lamson (Grant Mitchell) to stage a musical show that will not only help pay for his bill, but to help benefit the Charity Milk Fund. Sponsored by Mrs. Prentiss, she wants everything in the show to be "small and cheap." With all this is set aside, the real entertainment begins with two lavish production numbers choreographed by Busby Berkeley.

With the score by Harry Warren and Al Dubin, GOLD DIGGERS OF 1935 opens instrumentally to "I'm Going Shopping With You," where employees, including bellboys and chambermaids, musically preparing the hotel for the upcoming guests. The song is later introduced by Powell as he escorts Stuart on a shopping spree, charging everything to her mother. This is later followed by the tender love song, "The Words Are In My Heart" sung by Powell to Stuart on the motor boat. For the charity show, the first number is "The Words Are In My Heart" introduced by Powell to Stuart in period clothes, followed by a parade of chorus girls playing the tune while sitting on movable white pianos. An excellent number that needs to be seen to be appreciated. When one thinks Berkeley cannot outdo that piano segment, stay tuned for the 14 minute finale, "The Lullaby of Broadway." Sung by Winifred Shaw, the big climax of hundreds of dancers in the night club sequence is an instant classic. This segment alone is usually clipped into movie documentaries, especially a segment into public television's 1971 90-minute presentation of "The Movie-Crazy Years," a look back into the history of Warner Brothers movies of the 1930s. "The Lullaby of Broadway" went on to win the Academy Award as best song of the year. While "Shopping" and "Words" are underscored throughout the story, with insert of "Tango Del Rio" from WONDER BAR (1934), only "Lullaby of Broadway" gives indication of one being inserted here from another movie or musical short, considering the fact that the song isn't heard at all until its grand finale, thus saving the best for last.

In closing, GOLD DIGGERS OF 1935 is grand scale musical showing that Berkeley handles his production numbers better than the weak plot. Alice Brady's character can often be annoying while the Warners reliables of Frank McHugh and Hugh Herbert tend to strain a bit for laughs. For character acting, Adolphe Menjou acquires a thick Russian accent to match with his comedic moments opposite Joseph Cawthorne as another heavily accented August Schultz.

Distributed to home video in 1989, and DVD many years later as part of the Busby Berkeley collection, GOLD DIGGERS OF 1935 often plays on cable television's Turner Classic Movies. (***)

Shot in crisp B&W with some lavishly designed sets and brilliant lighting techniques, the musical numbers in this film shine because of the sheer genius of Busby Berkeley's fantastic routines.

The story is thin and silly, but from start to finish it's an entertaining show with Dick Powell and Gloria Stuart in the romantic leads supported by such stalwarts among character actors as Alice Brady, Frank McHugh, Hugh Herbert and Adolphe Menjou. Dorothy Dare and Wini Shaw are added delights.

It's the typical boy meets girl story with Powell assigned to be a protective escort (as a business proposition posed by wealthy Alice Brady) whose daughter wants some excitement in her life before promising to marry stuffy Hugh Herbert.

But once the songs start spinning and the clever camera work gets going, the viewer will appreciate all the effort that went into this undertaking. Especially striking is the final musical sequence built around "Lullaby of Broadway," first the segment with the white pianos and then the actual dance routine choreographed brilliantly by both Busby and the Warner cameras.

Striking talent on display here, worth a peek if you're a fan of the old Warner Brothers musicals. Alice Brady is a riot as the world's stingiest wealthy woman always devising ways to do things on the cheap.

Caught this one on TCM the other night.

Good music, lots of beautiful girls and an inane plot, humorously acted out by a talented cast. What more could anyone ask for? This is what the "movies" were all about when life outside the theater was in the middle of the Great Depression. You might be making 25 bucks a week and probably forked over a quarter to see this picture. For your money you were able to forget your troubles as you watched the Busby Berkeley dance numbers and listened to the tunes of Harry Warren and Al Dubin. Not a bad deal then and still enjoyable now on cable, video or DVD.

It seems to me that the actors of that era had more talent than most of those plying the craft these days. I also like the cast introductions, common to the era, showing a brief moment from the film, portraying the introduced in a flattering way. Style and class unfortunately seem to be in short supply in most films of the present era which has become much more concerned with finding new ways to shock or offend us as they happily take our money (9 bucks?).

Sure, there were better examples of the 1930s musical genre but this one really ain't all that bad. You could do worse than sit down and watch.

As in Berkeley's earlier (and weaker) 'Dames', a pretty silly one-note plot is balanced by some amazing camera work and visual story telling in the musical numbers.

At least the story we have to put up with to get to the dancing is a bit less annoying, and the acting a bit better. Adolph Monjou is fun as a con-man, Dick Powell is a bit toned down and less annoyingly 'gee-whiz' as our hero and Hugh Herbert is a bit more fun as 'the rich buffoon' than Guy Kibbie in the earlier film.

And I will admit to sitting there, mouth open, saying 'how did he get those huge old cameras to do that?!?' And the huge, complex, dance number 'Lullaby of Broadway', often considered Berkley's greatest, is oddly, wonderfully dark in its implications. A whole story told in dance unto itself.

... this is not Gold Diggers of 1933, Dames, or Footlight Parade. The story is downright disappointing. I realize that the story is not the main point of a musical, but still, the narrative and its execution here are inane. The reason is not that Warner Brothers or Berkeley or Warren and Dubin have lost their touch, but the Production Code put a dreary blanket of censorship over American films made after 1934 that was impossible to evade. Gloria Stuart, as the poor little rich girl being pushed into a loveless marriage with a middle aged millionaire with a goofy hobby, is lovely, but she just doesn't have the precode bite of the stunning Joan Blondell or the fascinating Ginger Rogers, nor is she the good girl shrouded in an air of mystery like Ruby Keeler.

There are only two decent Busby Berkeley numbers here. The first is "The Words are In My Heart", which has those interesting white pianos. To say that "Lullaby of Broadway", the second of two really interesting numbers here, is great, is an understatement. It combines eroticism, surrealism, and flat out psychedelicism to be one of the high points of the Hollywood musical. And like all of Berkeley's numbers, this is supposed to be a staged number but could only be done in film. How else do you transform the face of Winny Shaw into the island of Manhattan and back again? Not in the rest of his career, IMHO, will Busby Berkeley top this number. Without it this film would probably only be a 5/10. With "Lullaby of Broadway" it rises to a 7/10.

The GOLD DIGGERS OF 1935 converge on a resort hotel and get involved in staging a lavish charity stage show.

With this film, Busby Berkeley, Warner Bros.' genius choreographer, produced another tuneful, eye-popping spectacle to beguile Depression audiences out of their spare change. With some gutsy performers unhampered by anything remotely resembling an intelligent plot, Berkeley provided plenty of laughs & glitz in this follow-up to his popular GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933.

The large cast is all attuned to the nonsensical merriment. Preppy Dick Powell is in excellent good voice as the hotel employee wooing rich girl Gloria Stuart, who only has to look lovely for the cameras. Alice Brady is properly shrill & strident as a miserly millionaire insistent on getting her own way in all things. Hugh Herbert is delightful as a daffy fellow interested only in his collection of snuff boxes.

Hilarious Adolphe Menjou steals his every scene as a penniless Russian impresario who is obviously slightly crazed. Bold & brassy, the marvelous Glenda Farrell gets to play the only true gold digger in the film. Frank McHugh is Brady's son, desperate to enjoy a forbidden romance. Grant Mitchell oozes unctuous charm as the somewhat smarmy hotel manager.

Movie mavens will recognize Nora Cecil as the head hotel housekeeper & E. E. Clive as Herbert's chauffeur, both uncredited.

While the cast is all shamelessly willing to entertain, it is the two production numbers near the film's climax which have given it its place in movie history. ‘The Words Are In My Heart,' with its gorgeous girls and hypnotically undulating white pianos, showcases Berkeley's love for regimented precision & choreography, engendered years before during his stint with the military. The seminal ‘Lullaby Of Broadway' is a perfect example of Berkeley's way of telling a story through music & dance--in this instance the tale of a Big City girl's ultimately horrific night. These two completely different numbers are tied together by the skein of Berkeley's genius and counterpoint each other beautifully.

I make no apologies for saying that Busby Berkeley's incredible sequence to "The Lullaby of Broadway" is one of the most beautiful, chilling, and exuberant moments in the history of American cinema. Not only is the number amazing from a visual standpoint, but is a fantastic illustration of urban isolationism, and attitudes of "The Great Depression." Dreamlike and hypnotic, the song easily seduces the moviegoer as its short character study takes flight, then leaves its viewers in a bizarre state of discomfort as its story takes an abrupt and disturbing turn. I know it's cliched, but they really don't make 'em quite like this anymore!

While Busby Berkeley provided only the choreography for the Mervyn LeRoy directed Gold Diggers of 1933, he directed this Musical and provided its dance direction, which earned him his first Academy Award nomination. His "Lullaby of Broadway" number, which includes the Harry Warren-Al Dubin Oscar winning Song performed by Winifred Shaw, is a spectacle featuring dozens of choreographed pianos! The story written by Robert Lord and Peter Milne, with a screenplay by Milne and Manuel Seff, is typically silly with enough hijinks and romance to move things along through the musical numbers, which include "I'm Going' Shoppin' With You" and the big finale "The Words Are In My Heart".

Dick Powell and Gloria Stewart sing, perform and provide one romantic pairing: he's a desk clerk in medical school, and she's a sheltered heiress staying at the lavishly appointed Wentworth Plaza hotel for the summer season, which culminates in a milk fund charity show. Dorothy Dare and Frank McHugh are another: she's the hotel's hostess, who was originally engaged to Powell's character, and he's Stewart's 4-time divorced brother, and son to Alice Brady's multi- millionaire tightwad mother. She, and Stewart's original fiancé - Hugh Herbert as an even wealthier expert on the history of snuff - are harassed and/or sponged off of by Adolphe Menjou's deadbeat eccentric show producer Nicolai Nicoleff, his set designer (Joseph Cawthorn), the hotel's streetwise stenographer (Glenda Farrell) and even its manager (Grant Mitchell). Singer Shaw plays the cigarette counter girl.

While the stars of this film Dick Powell,Gloria Stuart,Adolphe Menjou And the vocal by Wini Shaw all were very good, it was Busby Berkeley's film.Many say it was his finest effort, and stands alone today.His production number "Lullaby of Broadway" will never be duplicated again. There were over 100 dancers that took part in it with absolute precision,none of them ever missed a step.Hollywood could not produce such a film today, the talent is just not there. And Dick Powell and Gloria Stuart had a cute little number, in "I'm going shopping with you". The other production number "The words are in my heart" with 56 miniature pianos also great.

Romantic antics galore among the guests at a luxurious hotel.

Despite the title, this has nothing to do with the previous Gold Diggers of 1933. I actually think I prefer this to the previous entry, despite the absence of Joan Blondell.

The plot is forgettable, although the cast is memorable: Adolphe Menjou as a stage director, Gloria Stuart (in the part Ruby Keeler normally would have played) as Dick Powell's love interest; Hugh Herbert as a millionaire who collects snuff boxes; Alice Brady as stingy millionaire Mrs. Prentiss; Frank McHugh as Mrs. Prentiss' womanizing son; and Glenda Farrell as a gold-digging stenographer.

The two Busby Berkeley production numbers are very memorable. We start out with Dick Powell crooning "The Worlds Are in My Heart"; it's a forgettable song, but the dance number that involves pianos is unforgettable.

"Lullaby of Broadway" ranks up there with "Shanghai Lil" from Footlight Parade and the titular number from Dames as one of Berkeley's crowning achievements. The song is tremendously catchy. The dance number is excellent, mainly due to Berkeley's use of extreme camera angles to create uneasiness.

Overall, a perfectly entertaining, fun film. Rewatch. 3.5/5

Putting aside the stunning 'Lullaby of Broadway' closing number - which is an excellent separate film within this film, this is a terrible disappointment. Don't expect it to be similar the wonderful Gold diggers of 1933, 42nd Street etc., this is not the same, it's feel is totally different.

All those original shows, made during the start of the Great Depression, we're made for men and women struggling to survive, wondering where their next meal would come from and were about men and women struggling to survive, wondering where their next meal would come from. This however is about silly, one dimensional rich people with too much money, throwing it away on ridiculous follies. As evinced by the popularity of Fred and Ginger over at RKO, times and indeed tastes had changed. What '35 tries to do is copy RKO by offering escapism....but not very well. This film was popular in 1935 because people had had enough of being reminded of how bad their lives were so wanted a taste of the exotic. That's understandable but for us, years later with our absurd romanticised vision of how different and interesting it must have been back then, we miss seeing their misery - or rather them crawling out from the misery. This is a fantasy world for the folks of '35; unlike it's predecessors, we're not transported back to the 30s, we're just watching a product made to make a profit.

This is Busby Berkeley's first go at directing a complete film but unfortunately he's not quite up to it. To him, the look and the set design seems to take precedence over the story. He also invests most of his efforts into what he's really good at- the spectacular 'Lullaby' finale but at the expense of making this drivel watchable . The story is stupid, the songs are poor, there's no Joan Blondell or even Ruby Keeler and the whole thing relies too much on humour which is not in any way remotely funny.

THE SECOND PART. This isn't really connected to the the main film so you can fast forward to it past all that nonsense. This IS worth watching.

Lullaby of Broadway sounds such a jolly little ditty but nothing could be further from the truth. Coming after the the banal nonsense of the main film, your mind isn't prepared for what comes next. This brilliant little film is truly shocking and very disturbing; it is is not what you're expecting. Like a classic ballet, using just choreography and a very a poignant lyric it unfolds it's terrible story packed with emotion, expectation, and genuine horror. Absolutely spectacular, absolutely amazing and guaranteed to leave you open mouthed.

Who cares if this plot has been seen before, and/or how many times? There is pure magic in this film, and the magic is the production number, "LULLABY OF Broadway". This picture deserves classic status for that number. It starts with the very affecting voice of a woman singing right to the audience. We are treated to an elderly Fred-and-Ginger type of dancing which, in spite of the ages of the dancers, is one of the smoothest, slickest, thrillingly romantic dance sequences you'll ever see. Then there is the tippy, tappy magic of ALL those dancers, tapping their way onto the screen. There is no better production number ever to appear in any movie. (I am allowed exaggeration; I am Sicilian). Do yourself a great favor and see this dance number.

I knew it would be a step down from the 1933 version, but didn't realize just how steep that step would be. The 1935 installment is watchable only for those final two musical numbers, "The Words Are in My Heart" (with all of those moving grand pianos) and "Lullaby of Broadway" (with that incredible slow zoon and fade in on Wini Shaw's head leading to a marvelous ensemble tap dancing number). Well, ok, a third was seeing Gloria Stuart 62 years before her role as the elderly Rose in Titanic, and if you're a Dick Powell fan, you might like hearing him croon a few numbers.

For me though, I would advise just skipping through the first 66 minutes, bypassing all the lame attempts at comedy (and as a side note, beware any film with both Hugh Herbert and Frank McHugh in it...one is enough for any film!). The romance that develops between a rich woman (Stuart) and the hotel employee hired to escort her around (Powell), and how easily his fiancé accepts this is ridiculous. There is a critique of the rich in how miserly the old woman is, but it's mild. And that's the biggest issue in general - it's all so very tepid, and a far cry from the pre-Code sass and the devastating grit from a couple of years earlier, e.g. in Blondell's Forgotten Man number. What we have is a neutered version, quaint in a way, but boring for most of the film. Just enjoy those final big two numbers, the latter of which was Busby Berkeley's favorite from his career.

A nicely done musical, with Busby Berkeley at his peak. The "white piano" number and the Melody of Broadway number make this worth watching alone, but the rest of the movie is worthwhile too. Also interesting because this is the only movie that Berkeley had complete directorial control over.

In 1935 with the country in the midst of the Depression this kind of escapist entertainment is just what the public wanted. And the studio best equipped to give it to them was Warner Brothers.

The Brothers gave complete creative control to Busby Berkeley having him direct the whole film instead of just the musical numbers. And the talented Mr. Berkeley hit one big home run with this.

Back during the late sixties when the nostalgia craze was going on Warner Brothers re-released this and Footlight Parade back in the cinema. It was quite the treat for me to see this first on the silver screen as it was for my parents and grandparents.

You never worry about plot or story in these films, they're just an excuse to plant musical numbers in the film. What plot there is involves tightfisted dowager Alice Brady both financing a charity show at a favorite summer resort hotel of her's. She's brought her two children along, the beautiful Gloria Stuart and the idiot drunken son Frank McHugh.

She's worried about some gigolo sweeping Stuart away as so many women have done with McHugh so she hires hotel clerk/medical school student Dick Powell to escort her. I think you can figure out the rest.

But we also have from the Warner's stock company Hugh Herbert as another eccentric millionaire staying there and goldigging stenographer Glenda Farrell and Dorothy Dare a goldigging clerk who respectively land their intended targets.

But borrowed from his usual haunts at MGM is Adolphe Menjou who steals the acting honors in a scenery chewing performance as a hammy Russian theatrical director who's a deadbeat chiseler as well. This film should be watched for him alone.

Harry Warren and Al Dubin contributed three songs for this film. Dick Powell sings The Words are in my Heart and I'm Going Shopping With you. But the real hit song was done by Wini Shaw in the huge production finale. I'm speaking of Lullaby of Broadway which won the second Best Song Oscar given out. it's Busby Berkeley at his surreal best.

Compared to the first instalment of the 'Gold Diggers'-series (1933), this film is forgettable fluff. 'Gold Diggers of 1933' had a better plot, better cast and better numbers. The 1935-edition is set in a posh hotel that caters to the super rich rather than among people trying to cope with the Great Depression, it has Gloria Stuart and Glenda Farrell in place of Joan Blondell and Ruby Keeler, and it is lacking a closing number of the stunning quality of the 'Forgotten Man' about which Blondell sang two years earlier. That's not to say 'Gold Diggers of 1935' is a bad film. Taken on its own merits it is pleasing enough, with Adolphe Menjou being a highlight despite his overacting. And the two numbers it is offering are impressive: both typical Busby Berkeley stuff, with masses of dancers forming caleidoscopic patterns visble only to the camera above, but not to the audience that is supposed to be watching in the theater. Then again, I have seen Alice Brady doing better (for example in 'My Man Godfrey' or '100 Men and a Girl'). Also, I found Dick Powell a little bland at the best of times, and here I can't think of a better adjective to describe his performance either. All in all, 'Gold Diggers of 1935' is a nice musical but I am sure no one would call it outstanding.

I liked the way this movie began. You see the staff of a hotel readying the place for customers. However, Busby Berkeley gets them to actually parody his own style of movies as you notice that the staff start behaving in a choreographed manner--replicating some of the movies Berkeley had made prior to 1935. It's pretty cute and a nice start.

What follows are some amusing plots that really aren't all that important. In other words, while the antics of the cheapskate old lady and the huckster producer (Adolph Menjou) are fun, the plot doesn't amount to very much and just seems like padding until the amazing finale--a finale that is every bit Busby Berkeley. If you like this sort of over the top schmaltz, then you are in for a treat as you see scenes like the many white pianos (trust me--you just need to see it to understand), the extremely well choreographed dancing and the nice music. In particular, their rendition of "Lullaby of Broadway" is toe-tapping good.

While all of this is VERY familiar, you can't help but admire the work that went into making "Gold Diggers of 1935". As far as whether or not to see it, it all depends on if you like this style of musical--a style that went out of style soon after this movie debuted. Up until about 1937, such huge extravaganzas were the norm for Warner Brothers and they made a ton of them. But the style was completely obsolete by the 1940s--and it is something that probably will surprise most modern viewers not acquainted with this type of film. For what it is, it's very well made. Not the best of the type, but very good.

Perhaps my expectations were a bit lower considering this was during the Production Code, and this doesn't exactly hit the heights that Berkeley did earlier in the decade, but I'll be darned if this wasn't so much more magical than it had any right being. The "plot" was the usual rote set-up, with adequate comic shenanigans by Hugh Herbert and Frank McHugh. What really sold me were the two main musical numbers. While the Code might have restricted how risqué they could be, there was an astonishing dip into surrealism that presaged Lynch (and Bjork music videos). Sets within sets within sets, expressionistic cinematography, Dutch angles, creative match cuts, etc. It pulled me in and practically made me forget how mediocre the rest of the film was. Definitely going to add this to my collection now.

Busby Berkley directed this silly but very fun musical. The plots have Alice Brady, a very rich widow, losing a great deal of money while financing a huge musical put on by con man Adolphe Menjou (chewing the scenery); Dick Powell romancing Gloria Stuart and Glenda Farrell blackmailing Hugh Herbert. For once the dialogue isn't as bad as it is in most 1930s musicals with some truly funny comic relief. Also Berkley throws in two just unbelievable production numbers. One of them is set to "The Lullaby of Broadway"--the tap dancing in this one is incredible and it tells a story with a surprisingly depressing ending. Aside from the Berkley numbers however this is no great shakes but very pleasant and lots of fun.

Look for the hilarious scene where Powell and Stuart are on a lake supposedly at 9:00 at night but a wide shot shows the sun shining and a clear sky! And in the very next shot they're in a moonlit grotto! Didn't anyone ever catch this?

Director Busby Berkeley was truly an auteur, and nothing illustrates that better than "Gold Diggers of 1935". The big production number of the film demonstrates he was a director of big ideas, who was able to indulge his creative impulses. Sometimes he would over-indulge and focus on the scale of his creations, creating scenes where the film principals were small specs in a panorama of sets or extras. And he would include some scenes that were not compelling just to illustrate his ability to create those scenes.

But this film is not all production numbers. The story which encompasses the song and dance extravaganzas is about a hotel and the guests who stay there. It is rather like "Grand Hotel" but peppered with comedy gags and populated with eccentric characters.

One such character is T. Mosley Thorpe, played by Hugh Herbert---a rich man who is working on a comprehensive compendium of decorative snuff boxes. Because of his money, he is the target of unscrupulous women with designs on his fortune, with or without his romantic intentions.

The film is also a romance, primarily about Dick Curtis (Dick Powell) and Ann Prentiss (Gloria Stuart). Powell and Stuart display their vocal talents, especially when singing the catchy "I'm Goin' Shoppin' with You." The orchestrations are a highlight; they sound inspired by Gershwin's "Rhapsody".

Berkeley might have overreached with this film, but his lack of editing just gives us an even broader collection of memories from the "bawdy' thirties. This film almost defines the state of the art with regard to song, dance, and special effects.

I have to disagree with many of the posters here. I had seen Golddiggers of 1933 a month or so earlier and was enthused to see this one. I am disappointed.

I know the story is not the main point of a musical, but still, the story here is silly. The one in 1933 is far more interesting. Worse, there are only two decent Busby Berkeley numbers here, The Words Are In My Heart and Lullaby of Broadway. The first has interesting white pianos, but the tune itself is only fair. The second is good, yes, but the many more in 1933 are far superior. Also, 1933 has a stunning Joan Blondell, a gorgeous Ruby Keeler, and a fascinating Ginger Rogers. Sorry Titanic fans, but Gloria Stuart was a big letdown here. The male secondary characters in 1933 were much better than those here, who just ham it up. This movie has nothing like the fantastic concluding number in 1933.

Oh well, I guess I'll try "Dames" next.

-henry