42nd Street
Director: Lloyd Bacon
Year Released: 1933
Rating: 3.0
Still charming adaptation of the Broadway hit and all the backstabbing, heavy drinking, and endless flirtation that goes on backstage - some of the altercations between the characters comes across as artificial, but that's more or less expected with the genre. All elements lead up to the fantastic dream-world ending - the musical itself - choreographed with typical inventiveness by Busby Berkeley, who moves the camera suggestively between the dancers' legs and lifts it high above them while they spin in circles below. I don't know what your mental picture of Pure Cinematic Heaven looks like, but that's pretty close to mine.
