When I was at university in London in the 1970s, I used to have to spend one Monday morning a week in Notting Hill. After my lecture, the day was my own. The local cinema, I think it’s The Coronet these days, showed two old black and white musicals for not very much money for old people, and me.
So I got to see Fred and Ginger on the big screen, and Busby Berkeley films.
Berkeley was a film director later, but for these films he handled the, er, choreography. Let’s say, the musical numbers.
The films inevitably seemed to star Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler and Joan Blondell. Others popped up: Ginger Rogers and Hugh Herbert were regulars.
“Footlight Parade” (1933) is not the best Berkeley film, or the best known (“42nd Street” is probably that) but it is interesting.
It stars James Cagney. Cagney loved doing song and dance films, and made one stupendous musical film (“Yankee Doodle Dandy”) that we will come back to later. The regulars are here.
The story is slight: Cagney produces musical introductions for cinema, live acts preceding a film. There’s some nonsense about rivals stealing his ideas, but the film finishes with three of these ‘prologues’ being shown.
One is the legendary By A Waterfall. Berkeley brings out all his skills, creating patterns like a kaleidoscope.
There’s water everywhere, and scantily clad girls.
It’s mad, of course, but looks stunning.
Before that comes Honeymoon Hotel, where Powell sings some slighly risque lyrics about everyone registering as ‘Smith’. And the girls get to take their clothes off.
The third song is Shanghai Lil. Cagney sings the tune and does his trademark dancing and Ruby Keeler plays the woman who steals men’s hearts.
It’s pre-code Hollywood, so there are some slightly naughty references, but nothing your mum would object to.
Harold Lloyd made a huge number of silent, and sound comedy films. For a long time he was Lonesome Luke, a kind of Chaplin clone. But so many people did that.
But if you know about Lloyd, that’s not the image you think of. Harold Lloyd hit his most famous character with the spectacles and the hat:
This Harold was the rather meek, gentle victim of circumstance.
His most famous film is “Safety Last!” Released in 1923, black and white and a silent film running about 75 minutes.
In it, Harold plays a country boy who comes to the big city to be famous. He writes home, telling the folks, and his girl, how successful he has become. It’s a lie. He is working in a store dealing with difficult customers:
The girl comes to visit. The store is looking for publicity. Harold and his friend have an idea, the friend will climb up the outside of the store. But there’s a problem – the police are after the friend. Harold will have to start the climb and then the friend will take over.
As Harold climbs the outside of the store, circumstances force him higher and into more precarious situations. It’s funny and scary.
Of course, Lloyd himself did not climb the outside of any building. Insurance wouldn’t allow that, for a start. There was a stuntman who did the shots of the building, plus a carefully constructed set on top of other buildings to give the illusion of the climb.
Lloyd became associated with this kind of comedy, though others had done similar (eg Laurel and Hardy). He remade it, as “Feet First” in 1930, with sound.
Lloyd made more films and some are quite fun, but eventually he moved away and occupied himself wth other interests, especially photography.
“Safety Last!” is available on home media and is worth watching in its entirety.
