Roxie Hart
by William A. Wellman
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Adolphe Menjou, George Montgomery, Ginger Rogers, Lynne Overman, Nigel BruceDirector: William A. Wellman
Brand: Fox
Cinematographer: Leon Shamroy
Editor: James B. Clark
Producer: Nunnally Johnson
Writer: Nunnally Johnson
Writer: Ben Hecht
Writer: Maurine Dallas Watkins
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 75 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-04-20
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Movie Reviews of Roxie Hart
Movie Review: Uproarious and wonderful cynicism
Summary: 5 Stars
"Not Guilty Verdict in Trial of Blond Who Shot Friend Six Times Accidentally!"
"He Refused to Take Me to See Victor Mature Claims Woman on Trial for Life!"
"No Recollection of Picking Up Axe, Jilted Girl Testifies!"
"Crowd Cheers as Jury Clears Red-Head of Driving Car Over Electric Refrigerator Salesman!"
Roxie Hart, one of the funniest and most cynical Hollywood comedies, starts out with these newspaper headlines, and it just gets better. It's 1927 and Roxie (Ginger Rogers) may or may not have shot her lecherous agent. Her dim, loving husband at first agrees to take the fall. Then he finds out about some hanky-panky, so Roxie is arrested and sent to the Cook County jail. She quickly realizes a great lawyer like Billy Flynn (Adolphe Menjou) can put on such a show that she'll get off and the publicity will finally bring that big break in show biz she's always dreamed of. Sound familiar? This is what the stage and film version, both named Chicago, were based on. Surprisingly, they followed the story line almost exactly.
And what a story it is. The movie takes ambition, greed, the media, the public, lawyers and the justice system and then squeezes every jaundiced laugh out of each one. "Laugh and the world laughs with you," says Flynn, "weep and they'll think you're a chump."
Ginger Rogers does a great job as the dumb but crafty, gum-chewing Roxie. She's "the prettiest woman ever tried for murder in Cook County," says Homer Howard (George Montgomery), a young reporter who falls for her. Roxie always has an eye out for the main chance, and if she were any smarter she'd be hard to like. Rogers even gets a chance to dance a couple of times, once a wonderful and surreal strut to The Black Bottom when she's in jail during a press interview. Suddenly, all the reporters, including Mary Sunshine, join in.
The real star, for me, is Adolph Menjou. He plays Flynn with just enough ham to be funny and just enough honesty to be uproarious. When some vital testimony is thrown out as hearsay, Flynn turns to Roxie and whispers, "You see in New York or Los Angeles or some other sissy town, that'd be the end of it. Nothing but law. But in Chicago the law doesn't count. It's justice we're after. What'ya say, kid?" And he puts her on the stand for a cross examination that would even have the talking heads on Fox and MSNBC singing his and Roxie's praises. I seldom laugh out loud during movies, but Menjou's florid, manipulative cynicism had me wiping my eyes.
Since this is a comedy, Roxie gets off, partly through the judicious exposure of her gams to the all-male jury. And because Roxie's story is told in flashback by Homer in 1942 while he's waiting in a bar during a rainstorm, there's a nice twist at the end.
There are no extras to speak of. The black and white DVD transfer looks great.
Summary of Roxie Hart
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