Some people talk about the big 3; "42nd st ", "Footlight parade ", and "Gold diggers 33", which I agree are great. But why are they leaving out "Dames" which has Ruby Keeler's very best number "I only have eyes for you"? I also love "Gold diggers 35" with the very nice Gloria Stewart. "The great 5" is what I call these films, not "the great 3".
Busby did release a few more after that which weren't quite as good as the great 5, "Gold diggers 37", "Gold diggers Paris", "Varsity show", and "Hollywood hotel ". Those films came out between 1936 and 1939 which it seems was a slump in his career. Then between 1939 and 1943, he shined again with the wonderful Judy Garland backyard musicals. At least until 1943 during the filming of "Girl crazy" when he was pulled off the set for being abusive to Judy while filming the song "I got rhythm" (half that info I got from 2002's docufilm "Judy Garland, me and my shadows", and half I got from reading real life stories and articles on Busby). But "Girl crazy" was still a great film.
"Dames" starts with Guy Kibby visiting an extremely wealthy relative (who has more security guards and security doors than any I've ever seen ) Huge Hubert tells Guy that he may be inheriting a fortune depending on whether he keeps his morals or else he'll "cut him off like a ripe banana". He points to picture of Dick Powell (James"bad fruit"Higgins) as an example of someone from the family tree who he's already cut off because he went into show business. I'm not sure how show business really makes someone immoral, but I know some people had a tighter system back then of what was or wasn't moral. Dick is romantically involved with the beautiful Ruby Keeler, who he believes is Dick's 13th cousin. Zazu Pitts is Huge's wife who I remember from "Meet the baron ". Zazu was good with her slightly surprised yet quiet "oh my" style of talk (sort of Olive Ole like) more so in "Meet the baron " than here, she only says "oh my" once here. I like Joan Blondell here too, first in the comical scene where she shows up in Guy's bed on the train knowing it's Guy's and throwing a little blackmail at him. It then leads to a "that sound is the water in the pipes" scene while Blondell is hiding in Hugh's house in Guy's bedroom threatening to scream if Guy won't go along with her. Ahh, more sweet blackmail. More great scenes in this film during rehearsals and numerous other great moments. Also very funny when Hugh couldn't get rid of his hiccups and got everyone all frantic trying to find him the very hard to get Golden Elexor (53% alcohol). When they finally get some to him, he drinks some, looks all happy and relieved saying "ahhh, that's the stuff", then hiccups again. Hilarious. The whole family searches everywhere making a lot of phone calls to find that bottle of Elexor (53% alcohol), but later on during their attendance at the show, they've managed to maintain numerous Elexor bottles for each of them, including a bottle of ultra strength Elexor (73% alcohol).
Musicals in the second half of the 20th century usually didn't have the same touch anymore, not including the 1950s and 1960s that still had some great ones such as "Sound of music". One example of more recent ones not quite being the same anymore was "Evita" in the 90s. It was singing that whole film with no talking parts and I didn't care for that quite too much. Musicals in the 1930s through 1960s usually had a good story with a number of scenes with no music and pure dialogue, then they'd wow us with the wonderful musical scenes in the last third, or last quarter. "Dames" and all of Busby's films had that pattern too. During the musical section of "Dames", one of the four songs didn't have the same magic and intriguing elaborateness that made it look like it wasn't possible to shoot it on a stage, and very clearly showed it as a stage number. That was "Try to see it my way". It was still good though. I loved Blondell in "Girl with an ironing board", and the dancing and singing clothes on the lines. That whole number had such an old fashioned innocent sweetness. And I also liked the moment when Blondell does a Mae West "come up and see me sometime", then the swan pattern the girls made by the clothes line, then the birds chirping and the harp playing, etc. The third song was great too showing all the girls getting ready while singing ; getting out of bed, in the tubs (that's right, girls in bathtubs with water, soap and bubbles on the stage ), and powdering their noses. And then the fabulous Busby kaleidoscope patterns which were some of his most amazing ever. I can hardly imagine how much rehearsing and skills it must've taken to get those particular movements and patterns so well on the mark like that. Then the very best of all was wonderful Ruby Keeler and Powell in "Only got eyes for you ". Throughout this number Ruby was most amazing and beautiful here; her sweet voice and smile walking with Powell, the sweet way she closed her eyes still smiling while putting her head on Powell's shoulders on the subway while he dreamed of about 15- 20 pictures of Ruby's face dancing around in black background, then the wonderful part with 15- 20 Ruby Keelers in very nice white dresses all dancing around so beautifully with the beautiful singing at that point in the song and then after that some more neat kaleidoscope work by Busby. Ruby Keeler was so wonderful throughout that number. I love her. This film's fantastic.
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