classicsoncall At the beginning of the movie there's a theater marquee from Hollywood Pictures that announces 'Silent Pictures are Finished'. With that concept being dealt with in real time, Warner Brothers casts it's rising star Jimmy Cagney as a go-getter, a producer of stage shows who has to quickly readjust to the new reality of moving pictures in order to make a buck. He decides on creating 'prologues', live musical numbers to complement what theater fans are about to see on the big screen.The set up for the large scale Busby Berkely production numbers takes up the first half of the story, as Cagney's character Chester Kent labors to come up with original ideas only to have them stolen and used by the competition. Pulling out all the stops for a major investor, Kent ushers his troupers from theater to theater to present his latest ideas before his rival has a chance to learn about them. The trio of Berkeley numbers are truly extravaganzas, with a lavish flair that would be hard to emulate even today. Presumably each production is meant to outdo the one before, so I probably go against consensus here by choosing the Waterfall sequence as my favorite, the middle prologue of the three. Cagney himself gets to hoof it in the third number, Shanghai Lil, with Ruby Keeler as an Oriental geisha. The production has an interesting international flavor with characters representing various ethnicities, something you probably wouldn't expect three decades prior to the Civil Rights era.Cagney film fans will enjoy his team up once again with Warner contract players Joan Blondell and Frank McHugh. Blondell was married to cinematographer George Barnes when the picture was being made; two years later she would divorce him and marry the picture's other headliner, Dick Powell. This was my first look at Ruby Keeler, and I can't say I was all that impressed with her performance. Nor Powell's for that matter, even though the movie-going public fell in love with them in Berkeley's first musical for Warner's, "42nd Street", soon followed by "Gold Diggers of 1933". I haven't seen those yet, so I don't want to be too critical here.Contrary to what one might think, Cagney himself preferred his musical films to the gangster flicks that captured the imagination of his many fans. For a long time, "Footlight Parade" was his favorite, although by the time author Doug Warren interviewed him for the biography "Cagney" published in 1983, he was quoted as saying "It was a dog". I'd say he was being a little hard on himself.

Jimmy L. This is a pre-Code Warner Bros. Busby Berkeley musical starring...James Cagney!Cagney develops live musical prologues to be shown on stage at movie houses before the start of a film. (If you've seen the "Let's Go To The Movies" number in ANNIE you get the idea.) It's one catastrophe after another as Cagney tries to keep things running smoothly while staying a step ahead of the competition.Joan Blondell is great as Cagney's secretary, who loves him more than he realizes. The solid cast also includes Busby Berkeley regulars Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler as a young new tenor and a secretary-turned- leading lady, respectively, with Frank McHugh as the perpetually worried dance instructor and Hugh Herbert as the morality adviser/censor. Lloyd Bacon directs the showbiz tale, with spectacular choreography by the inimitable Busby Berkeley.I've seen this film's contemporaries (42ND STREET and GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933) and usually feel lukewarm toward these early musicals, but I found myself surprisingly receptive to FOOTLIGHT PARADE. I really liked Blondell's performance, with the romantic tension and snappy wit, and I could tolerate Keeler in her role. McHugh adds whiny comic relief and the script has some racy pre-Code touches. The film also benefits from James Cagney's screen presence. Cagney, best known for his gangster roles, demonstrates some dance steps in this rare musical appearance.Berkeley choreographs a handful of routines (including an awkward cat- themed number), but saves the three biggest for the very end: "Honeymoon Hotel", "By A Waterfall", and "Shanghai Lil". As was often the case, the dance numbers are meant to be staged within the context of the story (a show within a show) and as was always the case, Berkeley choreographs cinematically, using camera movements, insert shots, and cuts that make no sense within the reality of the story. But his routines are meant for the moviegoers and they are awe-inspiring.The water nymph routine will blow you away. I've seen my fair share of Busby Berkeley numbers, but the water nymph sequence may be his masterpiece. Did Berkeley invent synchronized swimming? I don't know, but he might as well have. There are unbelievable kaleidoscopic overhead shots as well as underwater choreography. I can't figure out how they did the shot of the swimmers in concentric rings, spinning in different directions, since the swimmers seemed to be lying still in the water. (Movie magic?) The more complex overhead shots are some of the most impressive visuals I've ever seen in a musical."Honeymoon Hotel" is a racy little number about couples spending their first night together in a hotel. Men in pajamas, women in negligees, bedrooms. There's a peculiar "child" that runs around causing mischief, but the scene has a neat larger-than-life dollhouse shot and a creative bit of stop-motion animation. "Shanghai Lil" follows a sailor through a crowded saloon in search of an elusive woman. There's a brawl, there are marching soldiers in formation, there's Ruby Keeler dolled up like a Chinese call girl, and there's Jimmy Cagney dancing and singing.With a great cast and impressive dances, this is an enjoyable ride. Maybe the best of the early WB musicals.

froberts73 Dick Powell switched from musicals to drama; Jimmy Cagney wanted to go the other way around. They co-star in the best musical yet, "Footlight Parade."Let's get away from the brilliant observation that the stage would have to cover three blocks to put on the Busby Berkeley extravaganzas.He is at his best, and that is saying something, in this movie made when I was 5-years-old. Talk about spectacular. Check the three outstanding numbers at film's end. Esther Williams water to-dos may have the advantage of Technicolor, but, fun as they are, they couldn't hold a candle, not even a small one, to the watery choreography in what seems like a rather small swimming pool. Then, you have the red-white-blue spectacle, and the other number featuring Powell and ultra-cute Ruby Keeler, the absolutely great "Shanghai Lil" piece, and one more brilliant number. They climax the film, coming one after another.In-between there is the requisite backstage stuff, enhanced in this case by the best character actors of the era, and Joan Blondell in her first wisecracking role.Busby Berkeley puts his best foot forward - well, legs - in this absolutely, still to this day unbelievable - musical, typical of the Warner Brothers products of this day, all of them 100% percent entertaining. It's 200% in the case of "Footlight Parade."Like the other reviewers I read, I unequivocally recommend this movie. Still, in 2011, it is unequaled. By the way, the accompanying features are great - shows unto themselves.My knees are hurting. I've bent them begging one and all to see "Footlight Serendade" at least five times -- for starters.

MartinHafer This is a truly dopey movie--and you probably will be surprised just how over-the-top it is, but it's all so amazingly garish and silly, you just have to see it! From 1929 (with "Broadway Melody") through the early-mid 1930s, Hollywood made a huge number of absolutely amazing musicals--ones that were so big and crazily choreographed that they defy description. While in all these cases, they were supposed to be stage productions being put on for an audience, there is no way this could have been the case--particularly because many of the on-stage antics could never have been seen by the audiences sitting many rows away. "Footlight Parade" is probably the most ridiculous example of this, as underwater stunts and antics taking place BEHIND portions of the set are what the movie audience sees--and a live audience would have not a prayer of seeing! You truly have to suspend disbelief with this and the many crazy stunts involving huge fountains, diving scantily-clad ladies, sets which make Broadway's "Phantom" set look petite and simple and the most bizarre choreography is the norm!!! As far as the film goes, it's not all music, though the entire final portion of the film (almost half an hour) is. The story, for what it is, is very simple and consists of Jimmy Cagney trying to have a successful career as a producer of short musical numbers which preceded movies in theaters. But, a rival is somehow stealing all his ideas and he has to figure out how to stop them. All the while, it's 100% obvious to everyone but Cagney that his stalwart assistant (Joan Blondell) is infatuated with him.Along for the rider are Dick Powell with his VERY high but high quality singing voice and Ruby Keeler--who could dance. As for her singing and Cagney's it was, to put it bluntly, pretty bad. It isn't that they sang horrible like Alfalfa, but they simply sounded like an average person off the street and no better. But the star of this isn't the dancing or music, but Busby Berkeley. While I did not adore the final musical extravaganza, it was simply amazing--and it's probably the best thing he ever did. While not as insane as the choreography from "Flying Down to Rio" (with dancers on the wings of planes in mid-air!!), it was much more complex than the routines done in similar films like "42nd Street" or any of the Broadway Melody movies. Amazing...simply amazing...and silly.