Kept husbands 1931 - Saucy Mackaill with a young McCrea

Dorothy Mackaill & Joel McCrea circa 1931

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IMDB rating: 6,0

Director: Lloyd Bacon
Main Cast: Clara Kimball Young, Joel McCrea, Dorothy Mackaill, Ned Sparks, Mary Carr

"A moderately amusing trifle, Kept Husbands is worth watching for a very young Joel McCrea and the little-seen Dorothy Mackaill. McCrea had a very long and successful career in movies, and seeing him this early in the game is a lot of fun; he's a bit unformed, not quite as sure of himself as he would very shortly become, but there's still that combination of steely stubbornness and vulnerability that would serve him well in future films. He handles the assignment well, although many modern viewers will find his character insufferable; indeed, the 'man's role-woman's role' dialogue will irk quite a few. Mackaill is also fun to watch. A former chorus girl who had a special beauty, her film career never really took off, but she has a unique flair. One suspects that her dramatic range was not unlimited, but she fits this part well and manages to keep the spoiled brat aspect of the character at bay and emphasize her considerable charms instead. As stated, the plot is quite dated, and there's little reality to the screenplay. The drama is bit overblown, but there are a few scenes that have a nice ring to them." - www.allmovie.com

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A slight case of murder 1938 - A well-written comic gem

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030764/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 7,2

Director: Lloyd Bacon
Main Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Jane Bryan, Allen Jenkins, Ruth Donnelly

"A Slight Case of Murder is a non-stop laugh riot and a brilliant parody of the classic Hollywood gangster film. Blessed with a screenplay that is not only flawlessly constructed but also drop-dead funny, Murder also benefits from a peculiar, quirky and, at times, surreal sensibility that makes it stand out from many other studio comedies of the period. The hand of Damon Runyon is clearly evident in much of the dialogue, but the trio of writers who collaborated with him on the screenplay have kept many of Runyon's bad habits - such as an occasional willingness to go for cheap sentiment - in check. Director Lloyd Bacon is operating in top form, almost as if he were competing with Howard Hawks to keep things moving in the most crackling manner possible. In the demanding lead role, Edward G. Robinson is delightful, a presumed tough guy who can't help but be a cuddly softie; no one handles the fish-out-of-water routines in quite the same way, and his offhanded way with a punch line is delicious. Ruth Donnelly is a stitch as his wife and Bert Hanlon has an amusing turn as Sad Sam the bookie. Unlike Robinson's cheap, bootleg booze, Murder just gets better with age." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/a-slight-case-of-murder-v110601/

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Footlight parade 1933 - A bravura exercise in song and dance

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024028/
IMDB rating: 7,7

Director: Lloyd Bacon
Main Cast: James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell

"The last - and to some aficionados, the best - of choreographer Busby Berkeley's three Warner Bros. efforts of 1933, Footlight Parade stars James Cagney as a Broadway musical comedy producer. As with many films of this type, the story is incidental, though the non-musical scenes benefit from a fine performance from James Cagney as a Broadway producer displaced by the film industry's transition to sound. In the early sound era, Warner Bros. was second only to MGM in opulent production values, and Footlight Parade outshines most films of its type from that era. Joan Blondell and Ruby Keeler are tops among the supporting cast, though there are no weak spots. Director Lloyd Bacon had a reputation for an efficient indifference to stylistic filmmaking. Here he has Berkeley and Cagney to create the style for him. he last half-hour of Footlight Parade is a nonstop display of Busby Berkeley at his most spectacular: the three big production numbers, all written by Harry Warren and Al Dubin, are 'By a Waterfall', 'Honeymoon Hotel', and 'Shanghai Lil', the latter featuring some delicious pre-code scatology, and a tap-dance duet by Cagney and Keeler. The result is what many critics consider one of the best musicals of the 1930s." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/footlight-parade-v18113

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42nd Street 1933 - The quintessential backstage musical

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024034/
IMDB rating: 7,8

Director: Lloyd Bacon
Main Cast: Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels, George Brent, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Una Merkel, Guy Kibbee, Ginger Rogers

"If MGM's 1929 The Broadway Melody invented the musical, Warner Bros.' 42nd Street saved it. The four years between the two movies had seen the genre driven practically into the ground, as the studios, still struggling with synchronized sound and what to do about it, ground out one ill-advised musical after another, few terribly good as music and most even less impressive as movies. It had gotten so bad that by 1932, theater owners were protecting their box office with signs announcing, for any 'suspect' title, 'NOT A MUSICAL!' It was into that environment in 1933 that Warner Bros. released 42nd Street, directed by Lloyd Bacon and choreographed by Busby Berkeley - and it revived and revolutionized the whole musical genre, by taking it to the long-delayed next step. It was during the making of The Broadway Melody that filmmakers discovered that they could separate the shooting of a musical number from the recording of its music. Berkeley and cinematographer Sol Polito took this notion to the next step by removing the camera from the studio floor. Under their direction, shots were done from overhead angles and other locations from which no person could ever actually observe in real life, and the dancers' motions were, in turn, designed to exploit those angles; in effect, they created the true movie musical, as opposed to a musical that happened to be on film. Bacon's direction of the dialogue portions of the story, with both dramatic and comic content, was also very sure, no surprise for a man later responsible for dramas like The Fighting Sullivans and comedies with Red Skelton, which meant that the movie held up even when there was no dancing or singing on the screen; and when there was, the music by Harry Warren and Al Dubin was downright clever; and the acting, though a little broad by modern standards, was of first caliber, also unusual for a musical, ranging from serious dramatic lead Warner Baxter to comic relief from George E. Stone as the mousy, lecherous stage manager and Guy Kibbee's befuddled, lecherous backer, with Bebe Daniels, Ruby Keeler, and Ginger Rogers at their most delectable.
Based on the novel by Bradford Ropes (which was a lot steamier than the movie censors would allow), 42nd Street is highlighted by such grandiose musical setpieces as 'Shuffle Off to Buffalo', 'Young and Healthy', and of course the title song. The audience devoured it, and Warner Bros., Berkeley, and company rose to the occasion of delivering more and better musicals like it for much of the rest of the decade.
Nearly fifty years after its premiere, it was successfully revived as a Broadway musical with Tammy Grimes and Jerry Orbach." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/42nd-street-v258

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