X
- 1933
- Passed
- Warner Bros.
- 1 h 44 m
- 1933
- Passed
- Warner Bros.
- 1 h 44 m
Summary Chester Kent struggles against time, romance, and a rival's spy to produce spectacular live "prologues" for movie houses.
Directed By: Lloyd Bacon
Written By: Manuel Seff, James Seymour, Robert Lord, Peter Milne
- 1933
- Passed
- Warner Bros.
- 1 h 44 m
- 1933
- Passed
- Warner Bros.
- 1 h 44 m
Footlight Parade
80
User Score
Available after 4 ratings
tbd
Where to Watch
Summary Chester Kent struggles against time, romance, and a rival's spy to produce spectacular live "prologues" for movie houses.
Directed By: Lloyd Bacon
Written By: Manuel Seff, James Seymour, Robert Lord, Peter Milne
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 8 Critic Reviews
80
75% Positive
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
25% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 8 Critic Reviews
80
75% Positive
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
25% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Cagney, the film's best asset, is irrepressible. [07 May 2006, p.34]
Busby Berkeley's finest hour comes in this flabbergasting Warners musical, with James Cagney as a Berkeley-like choreographer who directs, for a string of Broadway theaters, a series of "preview" dance numbers that blow your socks off.
A great supporting cast and Bacon's well-judged direction help make Footlight Parade one of the greatest of the Berkeley extravaganzas.
It has some silly, yet irresistibly wonderful examples of Busby Berkeley's pinwheel choreography.
By far the best part of the film is its first hour, fast, furious and funny as Cagney sets out to convince his nervous backers that his idea for live prologues to accompany talkies can be made to work.
Footlight Parade is not as good as 42nd Street and Gold Diggers but the three socko numbers here eclipse some of the preceding Busby Berkeley staging for spectacle.
It is not until Footlight Parade has been struggling through its plot for more than an hour that the fragments of song, costumed nymphs and technical virtuosity are finally integrated in a complete performance.
User Reviews
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Awards
National Film Preservation Board, USA
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination