Chercheuses d'or de 1935

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.

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.

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. (***)

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.

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.