Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Director:

Mervyn LeRoy

Writers:

David Boehm (dialogue)
Erwin S. Gelsey (writer)

Release Date:

27 May 1933 (USA)

Genre:

Musical

Tagline:

The Biggest Show On Earth!

Plot:

Millionaire turned composer Dick Powell rescues unemployed Broadway people with a new play.

Plot Keywords:

Composer | Broadway | Chorus Girl | Theater Producer | Milk Bottle

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win

Cast

Warren William	...	J. Lawrence Bradford
Joan Blondell	...	Carol King
Aline MacMahon	...	Trixie Lorraine
Ruby Keeler	...	Polly Parker
Dick Powell	...	Brad Roberts (Robert Treat Bradford)
Guy Kibbee	...	Fanuel H. Peabody
Ned Sparks	...	Barney Hopkins
Ginger Rogers	...	Fay Fortune

Also Known As:

Golddiggers of 1933 (USA) (alternative spelling)
High Life (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:G | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

At one point Barney Hopkins (Ned Sparks) yells, "Cancel my contract with Warren and Dubin!" Harry Warren and Al Dubin were the most successful songwriting team in Hollywood at that time, and Warren in fact wrote all the songs for this picture.

Goofs:

Continuity: During the violin sequence, the cord for the lights on the violin disappears and reappears throughout.

Quotes:

Trixie Lorraine: Exuse me. Come here Fay, I have something I wan-ta show you.
Fay Fortune: what do you want?
Trixie Lorraine: Do you see that?
Fay Fortune: See what?
Trixie Lorraine: Can't you read? Where it says 'Exit'?
Fay Fortune: Exit?
Trixie Lorraine: You said it, sister. You start walking and you keep walking, and if you ever come near him again I'll break BOTH your legs, now scram!
Fay Fortune: I could easily resent that!
[as Fay walks away, Trixie kickes her in the bottom, making Fay squeal/shriek]
Faneul H. Peabody: Did Little Fay cry out?
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in Indie Sex: Censored (2007) (TV)

Soundtrack:

The Gold Diggers Song (We're in the Money)

ereway inay the oneymay!!

I've heard of this movie for years, but didn't actually see it until last week when Turner Classic Movies ran it. And it is positively stunning!! On the surface, it moves almost like a carbon copy of 42ND STREET- right up to the last-minute switch in players before the curtain goes up (although in this film, it's Dick Powell instead of Ruby Keeler). But its astringent look at trying to play Tin Pan Alley smack in the middle of the Depression gives it a very adult and tragic significance. It still has the Berkley dazzle- from the "Shadow Waltz" chorus girls (and electric violins) to the now-legendary "We're In The Money" dress rehearsal fronted by a pre-Astaire Ginger Rogers. (I was a teenager when my mother mentioned that one verse of this song was actually sung in Pig Latin- and I swore for twenty-five years that she was pulling my chain. It is one of the cleverest vocal interludes I've ever seen and heard.) But the three girls implied in the film's title- Ruby Keeler, Aline McMahon, and especially the sharp, smart, and gorgeous Joan Blondell- are the best things in the movie. And Blondell fronts the sublime finale number "Forgotten Man-" which pays tribute to the men (and women) of WWI and the ironies which followed. The staging of it- the marching which goes from triumphant to tragic, the torchy, gospel-like vocal of Etta Moten (the black woman sitting in the window), and the pullback shot of everyone coming downstage at the fadeout- is truly spectacular.