42nd Street (film)

• Release Date: 1933
• Director(s): Lloyd Bacon
• Writer(s): Rian James; James Seymour
• Principal Actors and Roles: Warner Baxter (Julian Marsh); George Brent (Pat Denning); Bebe Daniels (Dorothy Brock); Ruby Keeler (Peggy Sawyer); Guy Kibbee (Abner Dillon); Una Merkel (Lorraine Fleming); Dick Powell (Billy Lawler); Ginger Rogers (Ann Lowell)
• Book / Story Film Based On: 42nd Street by Bradford Ropes

42nd Street was an American black and white movie musical about the making of a Broadway musical. The film was a box office hit and it saved Warner Brothers studio from bankruptcy. It also revived the popularity of musical films, especially those set backstage.

Ruby Keeler made her film debut in 42nd Street, dancing and singing beside Dick Powell. They went on to make seven musicals together for Warner Brothers. This was also the first Warner Brothers movie for choreographer Busby Berkeley, whose spectacular dance routines and innovative camera work gave a new look to the movie musical.

Lloyd Bacon was not originally chosen to be the director of 42nd Street. When first choice Mervyn LeRoy became ill, Bacon was chosen as his replacement. Bacon filmed the movie in twenty-eight days at a cost of $340,000. Although the film is about putting on a musical production in New York City, the entire film was shot in California.

Warner Brothers repeated its success with many more musicals based on the idea of putting on a show. These films usually incorporated Busby Berkely’s elaborate choreography, and included Footlight Parade, Dames, and the Gold Diggers movies. Warner Brothers was not the only studio to use the backstage musical idea. Other films about the offstage lives of people making a musical movie or play include Show Boat, Gypsy, Cabaret, A Chorus Line,and The Phantom of the Opera.

So many later films repeated the elements of 42nd Street that they became clichés. An example of this is the storyline where the leading lady is injured and the understudy saves the show, becoming a big star. Even a single line from the show is still used over and over with slight changes. The original line, spoken by the desperate director to the understudy, is "Sawyer, you’re going out a youngster, but you’ve got to come back a star."

Plot

Julian Marsh is a famous director who is in poor health but cannot take it easy as his doctor orders because he has lost most of his money. Pretty Lady will be his last film and he needs it to be a hit. The film’s backer insists that his girlfriend, the Broadway star Dorothy Brock, be cast as the lead. The rest of the casting requires several auditions and novice Peggy Sawyer is cut on the third round, after making friends with several experienced dancers, including Anytime Annie. Peggy also meets the young male lead Billy Lawler, who gets her into the show when they discover they need one more girl.

Meanwhile, Dorothy is secretly meeting with another lover, her former partner Pat Denning. When Marsh finds out, he knows he must scare way Denning before the backer discovers that Dorothy is two-timing him. Marsh cannot have the backer pulling his money from the show, so he calls an old friend to intimidate Denning.

Marsh drills the dancers unmercifully, and Peggy faints during rehearsal. Denning helps her recover, they become friends, and she witnesses Marsh’s thugs hit him. Denning tells Dorothy he is tired of sneaking around to see her and takes a job in Philadelphia. Dorothy agrees that it is best for them to part.

The night before the opening performance, Denning surprises Peggy at the stage door and she agrees to go out with him. Dorothy is dismayed to see them get into a taxi together. She drinks too much and tells the backer that she does not want to see him again. Dorothy calls Denning and he rushes to her hotel room. Meanwhile Peggy hears the thugs planning to go after Denning again so she enters Dorothy’s suite to warn him. Dorothy drunkenly argues with Peggy, falls, and breaks her ankle.

Marsh is desperate when he discovers he has no leading lady. The backer tells him that his new girlfriend, Anytime Annie, will be his star. Annie turns down the chance, saying she is not strong enough to carry the show, and that Peggy should be the star.

After hours of grueling rehearsals, Peggy shines on stage and makes the show, and herself, a big success. Peggy realizes she loves Lawler and Dorothy reunites with Denning, determined to follow him wherever he goes.

Significance

42nd Street garnered Academy Award nominations for best picture, best sound recording, and best sound editing. It was selected for the National Film Registry in 1998. The National Film Registry chooses films that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" to be preserved in the Library of Congress. In 2005 the American Film Institute included 42nd Street in its list of the Greatest Movie Musicals of All Time. It was ranked thirteenth.

42nd Street’s songs, with music and lyrics by Al Dubin and Harry Warren, were a success with its Depression era audiences and several became classics, including "42nd Street," "Shuffle Off to Buffalo," "Young and Healthy," and "You’re Getting to Be a Habit with Me."

This was the first Warner Brothers film to use Busby Berkeley’s elaborate choreography and film techniques. Innovative camera angles were used throughout the movie, such as shooting from overhead or through the stair steps. Berkely’s iconic dance routines that appear to geometric patterns or flowers when shot from overhead, reveal themselves to be lines of dancers moving in unison, often on different levels and in different directions. In one famous scene the camera moves through the legs of the chorus girls to land on the smiling stars.

42nd Street was adapted and produced as a Broadway play in 1980 starring Jerry Orbach as Julian Marsh and Tammy Grimes as Dorothy Brock. Nine additional hit songs from other Warner Brothers films were added, including "Lullaby of Broadway" and "We’re in the Money." Gower Champion was the director and choreographer but he died on opening night. The play went on to become the biggest hit of producer David Merrick’s career, running for 3,486 performances. The show won a Tony award in 1981 for best musical, and was nominated for best book for a musical. 42nd Street had a Broadway revival in 2001 and was again a success. It ran for 1,524 performances and received good reviews.

Awards and nominations

Nominated

• Academy Award (1932/1933) Best Picture
• Academy Award (1932/1933) Best Sound Recording

Bibliography

Barrios, Richard. Dangerous Rhythm: Why Movie Musicals Matter. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2014. Print.

Bloom, Ken, and Jane Powell. Hollywood Musicals: The 101 Greatest Song-and-dance Movies of All Time. New York: Black Dog, 2010. Print.

Hischak, Thomas S. The Oxford Companion to the American Musical: Theatre, Film, and Television. New York: Oxford UP, 2008. Print

Kniffel, Leonard. Musicals on the Silver Screen. Chicago: Huron Street, 2013. Print.

Robinson, Mark A. The World of Musicals: An Encyclopedia of Stage, Screen, and Song. Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio, 2014. Print.

Schneider, Steven Jay. 1001 Movies You Must See before You Die. Rev. ed. Hauppauge: Barron’s, 2013. Print.