Albert Johnson presents an illustrated lecture on the American musical, focusing on Busby Berkeley, followed by a screening of Footlight Parade. For an introduction to Albert Johnson, please see note for September 11.
Surely the best Warners musical, Footlight Parade features James Cagney as a musical comedy director who finds himself unemployed when talkies take the place of live theatrical presentations. He comes up with a new idea--the production of short musical acts to accompany first-run films. Into the witty backstage story--which doesn't exactly paint a rosy picture of the theatrical world--the film's musical numbers are integrated with ingenious skill by director Lloyd Bacon. And the numbers themselves, designed by Busby Berkeley and including the fantasy, “By a Waterfall,” are simply mind-boggling in their surrealist geometry and sexual sublimations.