42nd street

There is a serious lack of musical presence on the blog this year and I think that this may be one of two that are actually on the blog! With all the action films flowing around the blog there really is a need for a total change of pace and with the film being a Broadway hit and having made it's way to London for a stunning production on the west end's biggest stage it has earned its place on the blog this year.

The film is black and white but not like the Fred Astaire feel that I was lead to believe. There is a plot to this film which doesn't focus around singing and it goes like this:

A show is being put on called 'Pretty Lady' and it needs 40 dancers so a lot of the usual's turn up to audition and then Peggy Sawyers turns up but she is too late until they realise that they only have 39 girls instead of 40. For financial reasons the lead woman is someone who cannot dance but her name is worth something so seats will sell on her name but it does mean that they have to cut a lot of the dancing out of the show because she can't dance. Unfortunately she is controlled by an older, wealthy man but she is seeing a younger man and once they get to Philadelphia for opening night things become too much, she upsets the older gentlemen and after the opening night she has an accident and her ankle is broken so Peggy ends up taking on the lead role and saving the day.

Having seen this on stage first the film was a little disappointing but only because the stage work is so fantastic and the lack of colours makes it so much harder to appreciate the set design and the amount of work that would have gone into this show. There were also less songs and one of the main lead women in the stage production did not feature in this film but the plot is the same and the main hits are the same with similar choreography. Ruby Keeler had a good voice and was a good dancer. She's no Audrey Hepburn but she is lovely to watch and as previously stated years ago on this blog you just have to sit back and imagine yourself in the period watching this for the first time. It would have been spectacular. Watching this film helps you to appreciate what they had to work with and just how well they managed to cope with a lack of just about anything that we have now.

Watch this film and then go and see it in the west end because both are fantastic but the west end show has more music and brings the magic into colour and then to life with more music.