Musicianmagic

A movie that will entertain you in several ways. Beginning is a story that mixes drama and comedy of all the characters getting together to audition and then prepare for a Broadway (never mind it opens elsewhere) play. Then we get to watch the play including music & several dance numbers staged by the great Busby Berkeley.

This was made in 1932. Released in 1933. Pre-code although only a couple of minor things would have been rejected in 1934 when the Hays code went into effect.

Good cast though no one outstanding. Good direction and script based on a novel. Just excellent entertainment. One of the classic films I recommend everyone should watch at least once.

The story is a brother, sister & the brother's fiancée travel to the home left to them after the father died. The father has a bottle collection with one particular called "The bottle of hopelessness." That bottle originally contained a note from another brother & sister (not related to the first set), marooned on an island that committed incest and seemed to entice the other brother & sister closer.

The story is actually very interesting. The bottle plays an important role throughout the movie. Well thought out script. The acting was alright but the actress that played the sister didn't look anything like the actor playing the brother. The actresses that played the girlfriend & sister on the island looked closer. Just something I kept thinking while watching.

As for the sex. This is a Nikkatsu Roman X film. Roman X was a line of films in the 1980's to compete with Adult Videos (Japanese porn) coming out, supposedly to contain unsimulated sex. Most of the sex here looked like probably simulated/fake. Or at the least you couldn't see anything as the Japanese censorship of the time was in effect. Some others films did contain real unsimulated sex like Daydream from 1981 and Woman In the Box: Virgin Sacrifice although mosaics & fogging prevented anything explicit being shown.

There are more than the normal number of sex scenes for a Pink Eiga but I didn't think they were all that exciting. So I wouldn't recommend this film to watch for the sex if that's important to you tho they are a part of the story itself.

Still I did enjoy the movie as a whole.

This starts out with the normal, wife feels like the husband is cheating on her story. Then it just becomes stupid and you are expected to forget most of what you just watched. Then it gets even more stupid.

The acting was just okay. Amanda Seyfried maybe the best but nothing outstanding. The story or more specifically the characters just stopped making much sense. Although the character Chloe never really did from the start. Just not a real-world character. I won't give any spoilers but the script all of a sudden tells you to forget most of what you watched earlier in this movie. Then I just wasted well over an hour!

One weird point. Julianne Moore is seen topless several times. Even at least once when it was unnecessary. But Amanda Seyfried avoided showing anything except from a distance or an obscured view. Just weird by its conspicuousness.

So I wasted an hour and a half in total. If you don't want to waste your time I suggest you find another movie to watch.