Production Company:
Warner Bros.
Starring:
Dick Powell
Adolph Menjou
Gloria Stuart
Alice Brady
Frank McHugh.
Director:
Busby Berkeley
The staff of a swank New England summer hotel prepare for the idle rich. Among the first guests to arrive is the millionairess Mrs. Prentiss (Alice Brady), with her much married son (Frank McHugh) and shy daughter Ann (Gloria Stuart) in tow. Wishing to prevent her daughter making the same foolish (and expensive) mistakes her son has made Mrs. Prentiss talks head clerk Dick Curtis (Dick Powell) into chaperoning her daughter with the inevitable result that they fall in love. All this is the backdrop to the annual charity show that Mrs. Prentiss backs, spending as little money as possible. She is convinced that everyone is out to fleece her of her fortune, and her sons marriage settlements prompt her to clamp down on their expenditure.
The plot of the original was most complicated with a dozen or more Characters involved in the romantic and financial going-ons. There is now left just enough of the plot to carry the splendid music that was padded out in the full length version. The Lullaby Of Broadway number runs for about 13 minutes and is regarded by many collectors and critics alike as the culmination of Busby Berkeley's work.
Whether you agree with this or not it certainly is a blockbuster, and was Berkeleys favourite number, and his most difficult to devise. Not that the other musical items are lacking - The Words Are In My Heart involves the moving of fifty-six piano playing females. Little men, dressed in black, and supposedly invisible (but I bet you spot them) are situated under each piano, moving it and its passenger as required. The other main musical item, a song, I'm Going Shopping With You, is situated in a department store as Dick and Ann spend Mrs. Prentiss's money and send her the bill, causing her to pass out in shock. There was a different version of this in the original when Dick sings to Ann in a speedboat, but this was cut due to problems of length and plot complications. Two more smaller musical items complete the bill and these are an opening number as the staff clean up in preparation for the guests and a rehearsal scene in which the impresario Nicoleff (Adolph Menjou) instructs a bevy of Berkeley blondes on the subtleties of moving like swans.
Rank Film Labs have done a good job producing quite a good print from what was not the best master that I've seen (The best was G/Diggers 1933) The definition is average, but the master was a bit grainy and not quite even in density and Ranks have done well in evening this out.
The sound is good, particularly for a film of this vintage. Packed with good music and musical set-pieces, this should be a must for any musical collector.
The film is split into two parts, the second of which starts off with and almost entirely consists of the very long Lullaby Of Broadway, which means you can show this outstanding number, if you so wish, without having to show the first part, which although it contains a great deal of music, also contains most of what plot there is.
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Distributed by: Derann
Films. |
The above review was printed in Super Eight Film Review |
This page was last updated 02 Dec 2002