{"id":9131,"date":"2014-05-13T20:00:30","date_gmt":"2014-05-14T00:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/?p=9131"},"modified":"2014-05-11T19:26:02","modified_gmt":"2014-05-11T23:26:02","slug":"gold-diggers-of-1933-1933-mervyn-leroy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/archives\/9131","title":{"rendered":"Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933, Mervyn LeRoy)"},"content":{"rendered":"

After all his latest musical theater projects have fallen apart due to shaky financing during the Great Depression, fast-talkin’ producer Ned Sparks (in Imitation of Life<\/em> the following year) has an idea for a sure-fire hit, a musical about “the forgotten man,” the unemployable Depression masses, a dour march through the grim realities of today. When we finally see the play, bankrolled by the secret millionaire\/composer down the hall, it looks suspiciously unlike what we were imagining, full of naughty love songs and massive Busby Berkeley numbers in glittering costumes. This isn’t a plot twist or ironic commentary on artistic intentions vs. end results once money gets involved – it’s just an inconsistent movie.<\/p>\n

The movie opens with Ginger Rogers, but she turns out to be just a friend of the main characters Polly, Carol and Trixie. Polly is Ruby Keeler (Mrs. Al Jolson, just off 42nd Street<\/em>), a round-faced innocent cutie. Carol is Joan Blondell (later Mrs. Dick Powell, a successful actress through the seventies), the scheming beauty. And Trixie is Aline MacMahon (mostly a stage actress), the smartass. Polly falls for Dick Powell (star of Christmas In July<\/a><\/em> and Susan Slept Here<\/a><\/em>), the millionaire\/composer, and the show is cast and everything is gonna be fine.<\/p>\n

Conflict! Powell’s millionaire family finds out about his distasteful dabblings in showbusiness and brother Warren William (Caesar to Colbert’s Cleopatra<\/em>) comes to town with lawyer Guy Kibbee (noble newspaperman in Power of the Press<\/a><\/em>) to stop all this nonsense and threaten to cut off his fortune. But due to a fake gold-digger plot by Polly’s roommates, William and Kibbee end up falling in love with them, triple-wedding is planned and the show goes on, with a last-minute “forgotten man” musical number to remind us of an earlier point.<\/p>\n

LeRoy directed the year after I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang<\/em>, and musical scene director Busby Berkeley was on a roll after 42nd Street<\/em>, and would helm the 1935 sequel himself. Also appearing: Sterling Holloway (Remember the Night<\/a><\/em>) as a messenger boy, Eric Blore (The Lady Eve<\/a><\/em>) as a stuffy rich guy, and Billy Barty (a little guy known for playing babies and hobbits and creatures) as a leering, naughty kid during a big dance scene. Songs include “We’re in the Money” (not exactly in keeping with the Depression theme), the catchy “Pettin’ in the Park,” and a waltz featuring a dance of neon violins, and of course the musical numbers and fun performances are the entire point of the movie, not any of the crap I’ve written above.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After all his latest musical theater projects have fallen apart due to shaky financing during the Great Depression, fast-talkin’ producer Ned Sparks (in Imitation of Life the following year) has an idea for a sure-fire hit, a musical about “the forgotten man,” the unemployable Depression masses, a dour march through the grim realities of today. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[343,1723,1341,304,1785,1347,1308],"class_list":["post-9131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie","tag-1930s","tag-busby-berkeley","tag-dick-powell","tag-ginger-rogers","tag-joan-blondell","tag-mervyn-leroy","tag-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9141,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9131\/revisions\/9141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}