Friday, February 20, 2004

42nd Street (1933)

Plot: A producer puts on what may be his last Broadway show, and at the last moment a chorus girl has to replace the star.

I got this out of the library having heard several of the songs from the show on my showtunes radio station ("Lullaby of Broadway," "Sunny Side To Every Situation," and "We're In the Money") ... and then proceeded to discover that NONE of those songs were in the movie! It had a grand total of four songs (one repeated twice) and none of the ones I knew. Aghast, I went and looked up a synopsis online... the Broadway production had NINE songs that the movie didn't. This leads me to believe that it was a vaguely musical movie that then was transformed into a fully musical stage production, because cutting nine songs and not even replacing them with anything would just be stupid. The movie itself, sans music, was only decent. The dialogue was stilted, and at a few parts my father pointed out that any movie with such fluff in it today would be laughed out of the theater. Although I don't know... The Wedding Planner was generally applauded... Oops. Did I say that out loud? *covers mouth* But in general, this movie was a waste of time (no money wasted no this, luckily). Don't bother with it. 1 star.

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