42nd Street

Stage director Julian Marsh (Warner Baxter) is starting a new show, Pretty Lady, despite his history of nervous breakdowns.  Abner (Guy Kibbee) will fund the production if his young girlfriend Dorothy (Bebe Daniels) is the star.  But Dorothy is only using old Abner as a sugar-daddy to move her career and she messes around with Pat (George Brent) on the side.  To stretch the love triangle further, Pat has taken an interest in a young, inexperienced chorus girl, Peggy (Ruby Keeler).  In only five weeks, Marsh gathers together scores of chorus girls and pulls the whole show together only for an accident to occur the night before the curtain rises and Peggy will have to rise to the occasion so that the show may go on.

Your first instinct would be to call this film dated, but there are some hilarious moments that transcend through the decades.  While the girls are auditioning, they have to lift their skirts to show their legs and old Abner sits forward in his seat, eyes wide and fingers wiggling.  The guy beside him delivers the perfect punchline: “Yeah, they got pretty faces too.”  During rehearsals, a pair of girls try to gossip between singing parts, where their chatter is only stopped when they have to move to different parts of the stage.  But when they’re not quacking away with each other, they’re cracking wise to their male counterparts, making sure they watch where their hands go.  And the final act during the production is full of laughs, from the Just Married sign stuck on the groom’s back to the great sung line, “Matrimony is baloney. she’ll be wanting alimony in a year or so.”  Also, watch the background in the scene with Peggy’s landlady, it had me in stitches.

If you get half way though this film and grow impatient for the musical numbers, have faith, all your prayers will be answered toward the end.  And it’s worth the wait. I’ve said before that I dislike musical numbers just wedging their way into the plot, so I personally like saving them for the end and not breaking up the flow of the story, but that’s just me.

The whole film is worth the wait for the ending production; it’s a real treat.  It’s a great way to end with all the beautiful visual choreography, toe tapping numbers and full of bits to put a genuine smile on your face. I especially enjoyed the long shots with the 42nd Street number.

Now, before I end, I have to ask did anyone else find the couple looking through the tunnel of legs just a little creepy?  That whole image traveling us through an army of legs to the look on their faces was just odd and unsettling to me, but maybe that wasn’t so odd in the thirties.

To reiterate: “Yeah, they got pretty faces too.”

Lady for a Day

As I popped the DVD in and pressed play, the first image to come up was full color.  It was Frank Capra Jr., the great director’s son, telling me what a milestone Lady for a Day was for his father.  He explained how Columbia Pictures was just itching for an Academy Award but none of their films had been nominated.  Suddenly, Lady for a Day had four nominations.  No wins, just nominations.  The way Capra Jr. says this is earnestly and grateful for his father’s work.  Little did I know that the film ahead would be about just as honest and kind virtues.

Annie (May Robson) is now a poor old woman who spends her time walking around Times Square selling apples.  For years, she’s been writing to her daughter Louise, who lives in Spain, telling her that she’s a member of high society.  That little white fairy tale lie doesn’t seem to do any harm, until Annie receives word that Louise (Jean Parker) is coming to visit her so that her fiancé and his father, Count Romero (Walter Connolly), can meet her.

Poor Annie is so upset, how can she tell her daughter that she’s a panhandler on the street?  Even worse, when the Count finds out, he’ll surely break off the marriage and Louise’s life will be ruined all because of Annie and her lies just to make her daughter proud.  All Annie can think to do is slink away to a bottle of gin, but her fellow panhandler friends get worried.  So they find David the Dude (Warren William) a mob man they work together with, and find Annie.  When they learn her problem, they concoct a scheme to make her look like high society for the time her daughter is in town.  The Dude is a little hesitant at first, he’ll be the one paying for it all, but agrees to help Annie.

Now Apple Annie, as her panhandlers and mob friends call her, is a sight that would frighten children away.  Her faded white hair sticks out under her worn hat like tufts of straw and she dresses in a long dark cloak that reminded me of the old witch in Snow White.  When the Dude’s friends fix Annie up, ah, it’s one of those heartwarming transformations.  Suddenly, her face just glows and shines softly against her head and the beautiful dress instantly removes all notions of a hunched old woman.  The best part is that Annie is the most surprised and so thankful.

To complete her transformation they have to find Annie a nice apartment, and a husband.  At a pool hall they find Judge Henry G. Blake (Guy Kibbee), their best choice for someone already rehearsed in proper etiquette.  When Louise is in town, it’s Blake’s idea to have a lavish reception in honor of the Count.  But how can the Dude fabricate an entire reception supposedly full of wealthy and important people from his gang of panhandlers?

Lady for a Day is just one of those movies that really warms your heart.  It’s just wonderful how all the people jumping through hoops to help Annie are all mob men and street beggars, you don’t usually associate them with such lengthy acts of kindness.  And the best part is how grateful Annie is for everything, she realizes she’s put everyone in trouble with her and she feels she doesn’t deserve any of it, yet everyone is so willing to help her in so many ways.

I must recommend Lady for a Day.  It’s perfect for all ages, has a wonderful message about kindness and it’s full of laughs along the way.

“You believe in fairy tales dontcha?”