by John Farr
Five films featuring epic set pieces and choreography.
The Busby Berkeley Collection Volume 1
What It’s About
The plots of these five early “backstage” musicals are all variations on a theme: in tough times, the (musical) show must go on, even if the leading lady falls ill, or the funding isn’t there, or one of the stars turns out to be a high society type whose family doesn’t approve of show people. And thankfully, with all the intrigues and anxieties of putting on a revue, not to mention the inevitable romantic complications, the show always does go on, and it’s there we see the genius of choreographer Berkeley, whose grand, stunningly kaleidoscopic dance sequences still take our breath away.
Why I Love It
Warner’s hit musical “42nd Street” spawned a wildly successful franchise of glittering follow-ups, with the common ingredients Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler (except for the last picture), and the spectacular staging and choreography of Busby Berkeley. Guests include James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Hugh Herbert, and Adolphe Menjou, among others. And those songs: “We’re In The Money”, “Lullaby of Broadway”, “Shuffle Off To Buffalo”, and “I Only Have Eyes For You” are highlights. Need I say more?
Busby Berkeley wasn’t really a dancer and he wasn’t really a choreographer, but he had a bizarre genius for very lavish, almost overwhelming choreographic design and an increasingly inventive use of the camera - his production numbers are almost always centered on a heavy overlay of eroticism or the prominence of the Female Form Divine - but his fondness in the Warner Bros. musicals for the female crotch! - could anybody even today get away with it? - one of the closing numbers in “42nd Street”, which is titled “Young and Healthy”, ends with that famous traveling shot through a parade of spread-apart female limbs and ends with a lying-down shot of Dick Powell and Toby Wing, who seem on the verge of taking part in the promised delights of “what’s clearly above them”.
busby berkley will really need you now!!!!!!!!!!! in these difficult times we all need escapism. how the younger generation cannot believe what this man could do with a camera, 60 beautiful girls, and pianos, violins, or a swimming pool.
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