GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 (1933)

Country: U.S.A.

Genre(s): Comedy / Musical

Director: Mervyn LeRoy

Cast: Joan Blondell / Aline MacMahon / Warren William

Plot

Having fallen for a common showgirl, the son of an old money family finances the stage show she’s involved with, only to have his prudish brother threaten to cut him off.  So the chorus girls work together to seduce the brother and his lawyer before it’s too late.

What I Liked

One thing I do admire about these old school musicals are the production values.  The opulent set design and meticulous choreography are testaments to the power of motion pictures as an escapist medium.  In 1933, when the Great Depression was close to its bleakest, I’m sure this kind of escapism was desperately needed.  Although I’m not sure if the opening number, with a scantily clad Ginger Rogers singing “We’re in the Money,” as silly as it is, was all that enjoyable for the impoverished masses.  I suppose it was, since it is clearly the most enduring of the Busby Berkeley productions featured in the movie.

Overall, “Gold Diggers of 1933” is a cheeky portrait of Depression-era style.  The hair styles, costumes, set-designs, screwball comedy, and torch songs are all trademarks of the era.  In the last year that Prohibition was in force, we even get treated to a speakeasy scene where the heroines compete over the affections of their wealthy prey.

Interestingly, while it initially either glosses over or makes fun of the desperation of the times, the film closes with a “wail.”  The closing performance of “Remember My Forgotten Man,” features a hooker singing about the travails of her boyfriend, a veteran of the Great War who has returned a shell of himself only to be abandoned by the country he fought for, lose his job, and become one of the millions of homeless drifters of the era.  Incorporating musical elements of the blues and ripping its subject matter straight from the headlines, the film ends the movie on a somber, thoughtful note that must have felt timely in the 1930's.

What I Didn’t Like

Virtually everything about the characters, their dialogue, and their troubles are stock 1930's showbiz musical: the screwball antics, the catty showgirls, the rough-talking producer, the backstage dramas.  Not that I expected anything different, it’s just that, without the Depression angle provided by “Remember My Forgotten Man,” I doubt this film would have made the 1001 movies list.

Most Memorable Scene

One of the most eye-popping facets of the escapism provided by “Gold Diggers of 1933” is the surprising amount of bare flesh on the screen for a film of its time.  This is the era when the wild exhibitionism of the Roaring Twenties was giving way to a more repressive and conservative mindset.  Yet almost every scene is bedazzled with women in lingerie, garters, or less.  Thus, while “We’re in the Money” is the film’s most enduring musical sequence and “Remember My Forgotten Man” gives the film a whiff of social commentary, the song placed in between them, a racy number entitled “Pettin’ in the Park” is the song most characteristic of the film as a whole.  We’re treated to shot-after-shot of bared legs, women in white dresses getting rained on, and even a long sequence of the entire chorus line undressing behind a screen, their silhouettes enlarged by a back-lit spotlight.  This certainly wasn’t a sing-song musical for the kiddies.

My Rating: 3 out of 5