90m USA Dir: Lloyd Bacon
Whilst I'm not particularly into musicals but even so, I was looking forward to some huge Busby Berkeley musical numbers. I was surprised then that they take so long before they happen. The majority of this film sees the cast and crew of a stage musical called Pretty Lady complete with a director whose career is coming to and end and a cast that spend every free minute having sexual antics (but in a PG, 30s friendly style).
I really wasn't very keen on the behind the scenes stuff that make up the majority of the film. The focus drifts from one character to the next and never settles on anyone for very long which means it's really hard to care very much about any one of the individual stories. Though this is a pre-code film it certainly follows the code more closely than other films of it's era which simply waters down the tension and passion of the characters.
When the actual production of Pretty Lady finally gets underway we finally get the musical numbers I was looking forward to. Pretty Lady is incomprehensible with no apparent connection between the songs. But frankly that doesn't matter a great deal because the songs are great and the production of them is stunning. There's a classic Busby Berkeley overhead shot and the famous tracking shot running through the dancer's legs. It's utterly breathtaking and it's just a shame that this section is so little of the run time and that we don't get a few more songs dotted throughout the behind the scenes stuff.
When it is a musical, it's an absolutely fantastic one but unfortunately 42nd Street is mostly a pretty corny comedy drama about putting on a musical production.
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