Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.5

42nd Street Blu-ray Movie Review

Come and Meet Those Dancing Feet

Reviewed by Michael Reuben April 20, 2015

The 1933 classic 42nd Street isn't the first movie musical, but it contains the seeds of so many to follow that it feels like it should be. When you consider how many musicals, especially on film, have been built around the backstage drama of putting on a show, from Kiss Me Kate to The Bandwagon to All That Jazz, it's evident that the model built by director Lloyd Bacon, choreographer Busby Berkeley and writers Rian James and James Seymour provided a sturdy foundation. In a taut 89 minutes, 42nd Street juggles numerous characters, tells multiple stories and dazzles the eye without ever feeling stage-bound. At the same time, the film gives viewers the illusion of being let in on a secret world behind the curtains where magic is created out of lust, doubt and neurosis. Nothing is more certain to titillate an audience than unmasking glamorous entertainers as neurotics, harpies and the basest of scum.

Warner Bros. released 42nd Street at a time when the movie musical had been pronounced dead, but reports of its death were grossly exaggerated. The film was a surprise hit and was credited with saving the studio from financial disaster. In an unusually long case of delay, no one tried to adapt it for a live Broadway version until 1980, when the show won the Tony Award for Best Musical. A subsequent 2001 production won the award for Best Revival.

In the depths of the Depression, famed Broadway director Julian Marsh (Warner Baxter) needs a hit to recover the fortune he lost in the 1929 stock market crash. According to his doctor, the high-pressure environment puts his life at risk, but Marsh ignores the advice. He takes on a show called Pretty Lady starring the famous Dorothy Brock (Bebe Daniels). The financial backing comes from a "kiddie car" manufacturer named Abner Dillon (Guy Kibbee), a dirty old man with an unbridled desire to ogle women's legs during auditions and an indecent crush on the show's star. (The early dialogue between Dillon and Dorothy about quid pro quo is remarkably frank; the film was made just before the industry began strict enforcement of the Hays Code.)

Dorothy manages to keep Dillon at arm's length while stealing off for clandestine meetings with her true love and former vaudeville partner, Pat Denning (George Brent). Her career has soared, while his has stalled, and Pat gallantly stands aside to let Dorothy have the spotlight. But both parties are frustrated, and eventually Pat leaves to take a minor acting job in Philadelphia while Dorothy rehearses Pretty Lady.

Anyone who can figure out the plot of Pretty Lady from the snippets shown in the film deserves a medal, but Julian Marsh bullies and browbeats his cast and crew through five weeks of rehearsals, determined to create a smash. Among the hapless chorus girls is Peggy Sawyer (Ruby Keeler), an ingenue fresh from Allentown, whose casting was something of an accident, but who has been taken under the wings of experienced chorus girls Lorraine (Una Merkel) and "Anytime Annie" (Ginger Rogers). Peggy has also caught the eye of the young male lead, Billy Lawler (Dick Powell). By a quirk of fate, Peggy has also been befriended by Pat Denning, the leading lady's secret lover, who finds Peggy a pleasant diversion while he's cooling his heels waiting (and waiting and waiting) for Dorothy to give him a few minutes.

These and other relationship intrigues are locked in the pressure cooker of non-stop rehearsals, as the company drills endlessly and the outside world ceases to exist. Then comes the inevitable moment when the show's star becomes incapacitated through an improbable mishap, and Peggy is suggested as a replacement. The desperate director will try anything at this point and works the abruptly promoted understudy without mercy: "I'll either have a live leading lady or a dead chorus girl!" One hour before the show's out-of-town premiere, an exhausted Peggy is ready, and Marsh utters the immortal line: "Sawyer, you're going out a youngster but you've got to come back a star!"

The final section of 42nd Street consists of three back-to-back production numbers choreographed by Busby Berkeley in the inimitable style that turned dancing into a cinematic art form. The songs are all supposed to be part of Pretty Lady, but as the camera pans across singers and dancers on a lengthy moving train set for "Shuffle Off to Buffalo", or rises above concentric circles of dancers, then descends to pass between their legs for "I'm Young and Happy", or swoops in and out of a seemingly infinite street scene for the title song, "42nd Street", it quickly becomes evident that this musical is no longer limited by the physical dimensions of the theatrical stage. Julian Marsh's last hurrah and Peggy Sawyer's star debut have morphed into a dreamworld where space operates according to a different logic—Berkeley's logic. By the time the curtain falls to applause in the audience and relief among the cast and crew, the rapid resolution of romantic tribulations hardly matters. 42nd Street may have started as a backstage musical, but it ends as pure cinema.

42nd Street Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

42nd Street was shot by Sol Polito (Sergeant York), one of Warner's go-to cinematographers during the studio's classic years. The film has been impressively restored under the auspices of the Warner Archive Collection ("WAC") for this 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray presentation. The Blu-ray image is sharp and detailed, with a fine and natural grain pattern and just a light degree of flickering to betray the age of the elements, which are otherwise in fine condition. The deep blacks, excellent contrast and well-delineated shades of gray provide a sense of depth and dimensionality that is essential for the film's many scenes involving large crowds, whether it's the mass audition (a clear inspiration for All That Jazz) or the elaborately choreographed numbers from the show-within-a-show.

Consistent with their usual practice, WAC has mastered 42nd Street with an average bitrate of 35.00. The generous bandwidth ensures that none of the precious detail in the inventive set design or the ornate costumes is lost, blurred or distorted, and that no artifacts interfere with anyone's viewing enjoyment.

42nd Street Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The film's original mono track has been encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0, with identical left and right channels. It sounds very good for a track of this vintage, with no interference or distortion. Only the compressed dynamic range betrays the age of the recording. The dialogue is clear, and the musical accompaniment has the nostalgic tonal quality of old phonograph records. The songs are by Al Dubin and Harry Warren, who would later win an Oscar for "Lullaby of Broadway" in the Busby Berkeley-directed Gold Diggers of 1935 .

42nd Street Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Warner released 42nd Street on DVD in March 2006 both separately and in a box set with four films choreographed or directed by Berkeley in The Busby Berkeley Collection. The Blu-ray extras have been assembled from the various discs in that collection.

• From Book to Screen to Stage (480i; 1.33:1; 18:02): A collection of writers and film historians describe the origin and creation of 42nd Street, beginning with the novel by Bradford Ropes. Following an assessment of Busby Berkeley's contribution to the film, the group discusses the subsequent Broadway adaptation.



• Hollywood Newsreel (480i; 1.33:1; 8:55): In this 1934 clip, the Columbia football team visits the Warner backlot after a victory at the Rose Bowl, where they are welcomed by Busby Berkeley and a group of his dancers; actors visit a working gold mine for research; an actor bonds with a sheep co-star; a star poses for publicity stills; and songwriters ply their trade.



• A Trip Thru a Hollywood Studio (480i; 1.33:1; 10:06): This tongue-in-cheek studio tour bears little resemblance to today's motion picture industry.



• Harry Warren: America's Favorite Composer (480i; 1.33:1; 9:08): The setup for this short is a party at which Warren is playing the piano for a group of friends.



• The 42nd Street Special (1080p; 1.33:1; 5:45): The "Special" was a train that Warner commissioned to travel across the country promoting the film. It arrived in Washington in time for Franklin D. Roosevelt's inauguration.



• Young and Healthy (480i; 1.33:1; 7:27): A "Merrie Melody" about a rotund king who's a kid at heart.



• Shuffle Off to Buffalo (1080p; 1.33:1; 6:51): A "Merrie Melody" about a Santa-like operation that prepares babies prior to their delivery by storks. A disclaimer about ethnic stereotyping has been placed at the beginning, and viewers may reasonably wonder why certain other studios that own potentially controversial animations can't adopt the same approach.



• Trailer (480i; 1.33:1; 2:20).

42nd Street Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Even though Busby Berkeley's dance numbers occupy a relatively small portion of the film's running time, they so dominate 42nd Street that many viewers mistakenly believe Berkeley directed the entire production. But there's a lot more to the film, including the rapid-fire exchange of snappy insults among the chorus members, Dick Powell's gentle underplaying as the shy Billy Lawler and the wistful dialogue between Bebe Daniels and George Brent as former partners who can't figure out how to reconcile their careers with true love. That kind of densely layered plotting and concise exposition requires a firm directorial hand, which is why Lloyd Bacon deserves at least as much credit as Berkeley for the film's enduring charm. WAC has done their usual fine work on the Blu-ray. Highly recommended.