The Busby Berkeley Collection (Footlight Parade / Gold Diggers of 1933 / Dames / Gold Diggers of 1935 / 42nd Street)
by Bernard B. Brown, Busby Berkeley, Earl Duvall, Friz Freleng, George Bilson
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Bebe Daniels, George Brent, Ruby Keeler, Warner Baxter, Warren WilliamDirector: Bernard B. Brown, Busby Berkeley, Earl Duvall, Friz Freleng, George Bilson
Brand: BERKELEY,BUSBY
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
DVD Release Date: 2006-03-21
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: 67846
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product features:
- The Busby Berkeley Collection is a 6-disc compilation of five remastered Warner Bros.ics from one of the greatest motion picture choreographers of all time. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR Age: 012569678460 UPC: 012569678460 Manufacturer No: 67846
Movie Reviews of The Busby Berkeley Collection (Footlight Parade / Gold Diggers of 1933 / Dames / Gold Diggers of 1935 / 42nd Street)
Movie Review: Pure Depression era escapism
Summary: 5 Stars
I had never seen a Busby Berkeley musical before I got this boxed set, and I must say that the whole experience was a pleasant surprise. It took time to get used to Ruby Keeler as a romantic and musical lead, but after watching for awhile she and Dick Powell get to be quite enchanting. To really appreciate these films you have to understand two things. First, these films were made as pure Depression era escapism. Thus there is plenty of comedy, memorable music, and visually stunning choreography. Just don't expect films with complex or even believable plots. Second, although these films are all backstage musicals, you just have to accept the fact that it would be impossible for a theatrical performance to provide the sets and the views necessary to appreciate any of the numbers and just enjoy the movies. The following movies are included in the collection:
42nd Street - The first talkies had a generous helping of musicals, unfortunately the vast majority of them were bad - bad music, bad acting, inane plots, and poor production standards in general. Thus by 1931 the public was fed up with musicals, and this was the movie that brought the genre back in vogue after two years of exile. Of course the best number is the title number, which I find impossible to get out of my head, but "Shuffle of To Buffalo" is great too. Ginger Rogers gives us a glimpse of the greatness that is to be as she plays a chorus girl with a fake British accent and monacle looking for a big break. Extra features are:
3 Vintage Featurettes: Harry Warren: America's Foremost Composer, Hollywood Newsreel, A Trip Through a Hollywood Studio
Notes on Busby Berkeley
"Gold Diggers of 1933" - This is supposed to be a pseudo-remake of 1929's "Gold Diggers of Broadway", except in the four year interim the Great Depression is in full swing and our gold diggers have hit on bad times like everyone else. The second Berkeley film in the series starts off with Ginger Rogers singing "We're in the Money" in an outrageous number in which the chorus girls are all dressed in oversized coins. As Ginger sings part of the number in pig-Latin, the whole thing seems surreal, and in a way it is. The sheriff breaks in on the number to repossess everything on the set to settle the debts of the show's producer, and the gold diggers are out of work again. Dick Powell comes to their rescue when he comes up with the money to finance a new show. The girls think he is a bank robber on the run, but in fact he is a young man from a wealthy family who is hiding his work in the theatre from his old-money relatives who soon arrive to reclaim him. There's some great pre-code comedy here from Joan Blondell, not to mention her stirring performance of "Forgotten Man" about World War I soldiers who are now marching in Depression Era bread lines. Also not to be missed is "Shadow Waltz" with the chorus girls playing fake flourescent violins that would occasionally short out and shock the girls. Extra features are:
2 New Featurettes: Good Diggers: FDR's New Deal...Broadway Bound, 42nd Street: From Book to Stage to Screen
3 Vintage Featurettes: Rambling 'Round Radio Show #2, Seasoned Greatings, The 42nd Street Special
3 Vintage Cartoons: I've Got to Sing a Torch Song, Pettin' in the Park, We're in the Money
Busby Berkeley Musicals Trailer Gallery
"Footlight Parade" - This 1933 film stars James Cagney as a producer of Broadway musicals who seems to have been put out of work by the new craze of talking pictures. Thus it is the first of Berkeley's films to not be set in the Depression. When Cagney's character learns that talkie audiences are being entertained by live musical numbers called "prologues" he gets the brilliant idea of going into the musical prologue business himself. Unfortunately, he has to deal with a competitor who is stealing his ideas, partners that are cheating him, and a new girlfriend that is not what she seems to be. This film comes closer to having a full-fledged plot than the others, and Cagney gives both a strong dramatic performance and a great musical one as he shows off his dancing prowess in the number "Shanghai Lil". The goof in this picture is that this film is supposed to be set in the late 20's, yet the men in this number organize to appear as the NRA Eagle and then reassemble with flash cards to produce an image of FDR...five years before he is even President and thus before the NRA even exists. But then, a flash card image of then-President Calvin Coolidge would have just not been that inspiring. The most memorable number is "By a Waterfall" with the chorus girls all doing impressive geometric patterns in a pool that sports a three-story fountain. Extra features are:
New Featurette - "Footlight Parade: Music for the Decades"
2 Vintage Featurettes: Rambling 'Round Radio Row #8, Vaudeville Reel #1
2 Vintage Cartoons: Honeymoon Hotel, Young and Healthy,
Theatrical Trailer
"Dames" - This 1934 film is weaker than the previous three, but has the best comic performances from both Guy Kibbee and Hugh Herbert of any of their Berkeley films. The premise is that wealthy puritan Ezra Ounce (Herbert) is going to bequeath ten million dollars of his fortune to his cousin Horace Hemmingway (Kibbee) provided that he is an upright moral man. Unfortunately, on the train back to his home, Horace finds a chorus girl (Joan Blondell) stowing away in his compartment. She threatens to scream if he has her removed. Afraid of what his cousin will think, he agrees to let her stay there overnight. She later uses this to blackmail Horace into backing the show of "bad seed" of the family, James Higgens (Dick Powell), who has been exiled from the family by Ezra because of his Broadway ties. Again, there is some great pre-code comedy from Joan Blondell as she continuously puts Kibbee's character in compromising situations. Also, the number "I Only Have Eyes For You" is wonderfully performed by Dick Powell along with some stunning choreography by Berkeley. The extra features are:
New Featurette - "Busby Berkeley's Kaleidoscopic Eyes"
3 Vintage Featurettes: And She Learned About Dames, Good Morning Eve, Melody Master: Don Redman and His Orchestra
2 Vintage Cartoons: I Only Have Eyes for You, Those Beautiful Dames
Audio-Only Bonus: Direct from Hollywood Radio Promo
Theatrical Trailer
"Gold Diggers of 1935" - This is the weakest film of the bunch as it is missing the cast of characters that have become familiar in the past Berkeley films - Ruby Keeler, Joan Blondell, and Guy Kibbee. On top of that, the now strict enforcement of the Hays code really inhibits what has worked in the past for the Berkeley musicals. However, Adolphe Menjou is a great addition to the cast as a gold digger in his own rights. He plays a dance director who agrees to work off his debts to a swank hotel in return for being dance director for the annual musical put on at the hotel for charity. Dick Powell plays a medical student working at the hotel who agrees to chaperone the daughter of a wealthy but stingy matron. To make up for the fact that pre-code dialogue and numbers are no longer possible, Berkeley delivers perhaps his most memorable number to the tune of one of the most memorable songs of his series of movies - "Lullaby of Broadway". The whole number has a surreal and even noirish quality to it as it tells the tale of a "Broadway baby" who sleeps all day and plays all night and her tragic end. The extra features are:
New Featurette: A Study in Style
Vintage Featurette: Double Exposure
2 Vintage Cartoons: Gold Diggers of '49, Shuffle Off to Buffalo
Direct from Hollywood Radio promo
Gold Diggers Trailer Gallery
There is also a bonus disc with 20 complete musical numbers from nine Warner movies of the 1930's. It is identical to the bonus disc circulated with the Berkeley laser disc set with the exception that "Goin' To Heaven on a Mule" from Wonder Bar has been removed.
More The Busby Berkeley Collection (Footlight Parade / Gold Diggers of 1933 / Dames / Gold Diggers of 1935 / 42nd Street) reviews:
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Summary of The Busby Berkeley Collection (Footlight Parade / Gold Diggers of 1933 / Dames / Gold Diggers of 1935 / 42nd Street)
Collection of films choreographed or directed by Busby Berkeley.Genre: Musicals
Rating: NR
Release Date: 21-MAR-2006
Media Type: DVD
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