Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

The Most Unexpected Musical - Wow!!
I'd heard about Busby Berkeley musicals for years but first saw one (42nd Street) two years ago. Then, last year, I saw The Gold Diggers of 1933 and enjoyed it even more until the end - then I was absolutely blown away by it.

The movie opens with Ginger Rogers and a host of chorus girls rehearsing for a grand Broadway opening and singing "We're In the Money" while dressed in skimpy coin costumes. Before the number ends, the Sheriff shows up to close the show and take away all the assets (even parts of the costumes) because of creditors. (No irony here, right?)

The rest of the plot plays out delightfully and is described by others on this page, but what nothing in the movie prepared me for was the Forgotten Man number at the end of the show.

Joan Blondell is the lead singer. The song lyrics state the situation of the forgotten man - you put a rifle in his hand and sent him to a foreign land. You shouted hip hooray, but where is he today?

While singing continues, men march off to World War I (on stage), one line going off to cheers, another coming back wounded. Then the men are out of uniform and in bread lines, despair and desperation on their faces.

This is the most unusual musical number I've ever seen in a musical and when the curtain closes on it, the movie ends. Nothing takes you back to the earlier romantic comedy (which was resolved happily just before the number started). So the final impression is of the Forgotten Man, who once fought for his country & is now out of a job and on a breadline & truly forgotten. No hope is offered at the end of the number - in contrast to the bright "We're In the Money" opening of the movie.

So, despite the bright comedy in the rest of the movie, the ending reminds the audience of the reality outside the theater in that Depression year.

The finale really still packs an emotional wallop.

Fabulously entertaining! Funny and moving.
If you need proof that Busby Berkley was a genius, you have only to watch the production numbers of Gold Diggers of 1933. If you are looking for lavish, how about seventy-four dancers in gowns playing violins? The songs and dances are classic, the costumes are amazing, and it goes way beyond light entertainment.

Remember My Forgotten Man was a heartbreaking reminder of America's treatment of returning veterans, begging for food and sleeping on sidewalks.

This was Busbey Berkley's second film for Warner Brothers, following 42nd Street, and it is a DVD that belongs in your collection if you enjoy classic American films.

A Timeless Classic!!
This period piece movie is not only an entertainment classic, it is also a wonderful educational tool. On the entertainment front, who can resist the lighthearted music and the almost adolescent romantic formulas played out in the movie? Who can resist Ginger Rogers singing in pig-Latin? Who can resist the pathos of "Remember My Forgotten Man"?

On the educational front I have to say this is a winner. I taught American History for 37 years to almost 2 generations of high school seniors. The Great Depression was simply a sterile concept to them until they saw the movie. As said earlier, this is an historic period piece, and permits the viewer not only to get a genuine sense of the styles, speech patterns, pop culture, and values of the time, it also gives a profound view of the burdens and destitution of the Great Depression. I was able to elicit hours of genuine educational discussion and valuse clarification from showing and then discussing this movie with my students. They had a new and sober respect for the trauma caused by the Great Depression. Of course, this was also a wonderful segue and introduction to the New Deal and the administration of FDR.

This is story telling,perhaps not at its best, but most assuredly at its most entertaining and useful.