Gold Diggers of 1. Review, with Joan Blondell, Warren William, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Guy Kibbee, and Aline Mac. Mahon – Pre- Code. Com. Proof That It’s Pre- Code.
One of the musical numbers is called “Pettin’ in the Park.” If you’ve seen it, you’d know it. More on that below.“I look much better in clothes than any of ya. If Barney could see me in clothes? I’ll smoke it too!”Trixie steals Fay’s clothes, giving her a slap on the rear when she tries to resist: Gonna get some weird site visitors for this one. A bootlegger carries around a violin case full of booze.“The kind of man I’ve been looking for– lots of money and no resistance!”Joan Blondell offers tips on how to properly groom (and what to wear for it): Unrelated, but here’s hoping a blu- ray of this film is released soon. It’s all about the Depression, dearie. Gold Diggers of 1.
Osborne has studied rogue waves for 20 years, but physicists have known about them for much longer than that. In 1832 the Scottish engineer John Scott Russell was.
Cheap and Vulgar“Wait a minute! Don’t you hear that wailing, wailing. I was in the process of moving to Denver for a variety of reasons. My friend, Will, already lived there, and gave me and my girlfriend of the time free run of his apartment. After we spent the morning walking around Aurora (yay, Best Buys and strip clubs), we crashed and flipped on the TV.
I’d been a fan of Turner Classic Movies for a while before that, having grown up with the network. And I’d unsuccessfully tried to get the channel in college– it was channel 4. Hunting for treasure. But back to that sunny Denver afternoon. Ben Mankiewicz introduced the movie, and while I can’t remember the words or phrases, it certainly enticed.
Watching Gold Diggers of 1. Me and the girl sat stunned after the feature ended, if a bit shaken. How often on a sunny afternoon are you shaken out of your middle class complacency and thrown full heed into history? Gold Diggers of 1. I argue, the most complete document of the Great Depression and pre- Code Hollywood.
1 Tesla waves More than one hundred years before, Nikola Tesla was discovered and was utilizing new type of electric (so called NonHertzian) waves. Waveriders like you and I share a unique relationship with the ocean. The waves we ride give us much pleasure, but also demand much from us. My Brother Karl Jansky and His Discovery of Radio Waves from Beyond the Earth by C.
While there are other films that more bleak or sexy or funny, Gold Diggers is the perfect blend of all of these elements. Taking the disparate urges of the era, from the poverty and starvation to the liberated sexual attitudes and sophisticated sense of humor, it manages to balance them to great success. The movie is weird at times, as weaving this together isn’t easy, but in its plot and execution, it aims for finding a sense of grace about the times, a mixture between hope and the dogged understanding in just how hopeless the whole morass could be. And gams to spare. Besides just documenting these foibles, their reverberations are built into the film’s structure itself. It floats between fantasy and reality, but never finds a solid line between both– even on stage, the Depression creeps in, while, after a big theatrical success, high society glitz intersects with the real world.
The film’s directors, Mervyn Le. Roy and Busby Berkeley, take measured pains to make this movie about the Depression– both the experience and the psychological effects– but with measured breaks. So by the last frame when you see Blondell’s outstretched hands begging for mercy towards the forgotten men of World War I, you’ve experienced the highs and lows of the world at large. Let’s talk about the plot, since it’ll make more sense from there. But first we have to start with the film’s opening number, one of the most famous musical setpieces in all of cinema history and for good reason.“We’re in the capitalist utopia!”“We’re In The Money”The film starts off with the audience immediately thrown into the gaudy, nutso “We’re in the Money” number. Even the most cursory documentary on Hollywood’s history will feature a moment of this episode’s excess, usually used as an example of the escapism of the Depression Era films’ modus operandi.
Of course, out of context, that throws people off– hell, it threw me off the first time. In context, though, the number itself is devastating. Let’s take a look at a chunk of the lyrics really quick: Ear- way the ani- mae. We’re in the money, we’re in the money. We’ve got a lot of what it takes to get along!
In the lee of giants Flying high on mountain waves. Originally appeared in AOPA Pilot magazine. Tweet Share on Facebook Plus on Google+.
We’re in the money, the skies are sunny. Being able to look your landlord right in the eye isn’t about having the ability to be on the same level as your creditors, but being able to walk and make your way into the world.
This will figure heavily into the first act of the picture. As she emerges from the giant phallic Scrooge Mc. Duck vault in an outfit made from cardboard coins, Linda thought, “Gee, I’ve finally made it!”While these lyrics are being belted out with maximum gusto, a bevy of scantily clad chorus girls (with Ginger Rogers in the lead) model their coin- based attire, including a fashion show that give a libertarian fetishist wank material for a year. The second verse of the song does something interesting in that it switches up the lyrics with a reprise in Pig Latin. Besides the discongruity of hearing Ginger Rogers say what sounds like . The first is to take the lyrics and contort them beyond recognition– taking the ode to capitalist wealth and a yearn for decent dignity through materialist riches and making it into childish gibberish, perhaps acknowledging how little that possibly does matter. At the same time as the Pig Latin verses, we’re treated to an extreme close- up of Rogers’ face, almost rendering it grotesque (I mean, it’s still Ginger Rogers’ face, but still).
It becomes omnipresent, briefly taking the audience into a completely different type of surreality. Raiding the goods. The musical number ends not with a finale, but with a crash as the sheriff department raids the show. That leads to another theme of the movie, that audiences could certainly latch on to at the time: hard work getting deferred right when it seems to be paying off.
The juxtaposition between the chorus girls singing the virtues of financial security as the show is closed by its creditors isn’t lost as we’re quickly introduced to our droll leads– chorus girls Carol (Joan Blondell), Polly (Ruby Keeler) and comic player Trixie (Aline Mac. Mahon). They’re also roommates, and we follow them back to their tenement after a brief insert showing us just how many theaters are are open on Broadway– none. We’re quickly apprised of the personalities. Carol is direct and passionate. Polly is romantic but reserved. And Trixie is that special kind of woman who is wry and devious in a dangerous mix.
They’ve all seen the tops of society, but with no show on and no work, Trixie is stealing milk from the window sill of their neighbors. They don’t even have a full set of clothes to dress up in when it’s rumored that producer Barney (Ned Sparks) will finally get a show off the ground again; they have to steal an outfit from Fay (Rogers) requisitioned from her job at the druggists. The down beat. Carol is sent in the duds to go see if Barney is on the level, and she calls back to the girls. In an interesting reversal, when we cut to her on her end of the phone, she’s choking up. Initially, the audience will leap to thinking that the rumor was just that. But, instead, Carol is literally so excited about the possibility of work, she’s almost in tears. She brings Barney home, where he announces he has the theater set and, with the girls, has the cast, too.
After hearing Polly’s romantic partner, Brad (Dick Powell), playing the piano across the alleyway, Barney has the music, too. Now all he needs is the money. Everyone is instantly defeated, but Brad offers to put up $1. No one understands how a songwriter in the tenements could get the money– Trixie thinks he’s a bank robber on the lam– but he comes through. And the show within the movie kicks off with one of the craziest, sexiest things you may ever catch on the silver screen.“But, gee, what of it? We just love it.”“Pettin’ in the Park”Rainy days are here again! Unlike “We’re in the Money” and later “Remember My Forgotten Man”, there isn’t a lot of depth to “Pettin’ in the Park.” But, good god, that doesn’t subtract from it one bit.
The number begins with Brad and Polly on the stage. As he reads a book called Advice to Those in Love, he learns the best way to relax after work is in the open air under the starry sky. The two tap out their brief seduction, with Powell the over- the- top seducer and Keeler mixing gee- whiz shock with a few sly smiles. They croon with full playful enthusiasm: “Pettin.
Bad girl! First you pet a little,Let up a little, and they you get a little kiss.”Of course, the two hoofing it up on the stage isn’t enough for this or any other Berkeley number, so a random box of Animal Crackers that Polly was carrying transitions to a zoo and a fall scene. We’re taken across dozens of benches with other petting enthusiasts, all varying in not only age, but in race as well (hey, it’s a Warner Brothers picture). Truly, “petting” is for everyone.“GEE, I FEEL SO FUNNY”The number gets pretty silly for a bit, as Polly decides to make a break from Brad (apparently he was getting a bit beyond petting in the back of a taxi) and she decides to take roller skates home. A line of roller skating police officers, taking a break from violently beating up people I’m sure, give a hearty laugh as she leaves before a baby (Billy Barty) shoots a spitball at them. Then it’s time to beat the crap out of a baby. Luckily, the kid ducks and– since this is a comedy– they skate right over him.
We’re taken through the seasons, giving the Berkeley chorus girls a shot in cute winter outfits before we’re taken to spring and the film’s resolution. Things have been reconfigured in this new season to an elaborate deco park. The couples are no longer cute and varied, but a number of identically dressed men in women– the men in dapper suits and straw hats, the women in see- through dresses and straight black stockings. A rain storm breaks out, sending everyone scurrying. The women hide behind a thin sheet and undress, leaving not a whole lot to the imagination– but just enough to count.
The Billy Barty baby emerges again, now the id of the audience. Wiggling his little eyebrows, he pulls up the valance.