It is so ironic that this film has both Texas Guinan and Blossom Seeley in it, both ladies whom decades later firecracker Betty Hutton would play on screen in "Incendiary Blonde" (1945) and "Somebody Loves Me" (1952). The late era of prohibition is documented here at Guinan's club (although her character has a last name), giving the famed "Hello, Suckers!" greeter to say lines like "If you see something on somebody else's table that you want, just reach and try to grab it." She's spiky and tough and fun, and was only on screen a few times, so this is truly at least a historical document for that.
The dramatic storyline focuses on a rising young female star (Constance Cummings) torn between a gangster (Paul Kelly) and a band leader (Ross Columbo). They were said to be parallels to the romance of young Ruby Keeler and superstar Al Jolson with this story, released just as she was gaining her footing over at Warner Brothers as the dancer who went out on stage as a youngster but came back a star. Deliciously pre-code, this is one of those fun, campy musicals which includes such production numbers as "Doin' the Uptown Lowdown" and "When You Were a Girl on a Scooter and I the Boy on the Bike". Every element of this makes you think you've gone back in time when you actually could see a truck filled with live chickens going down 42nd Street.
Gregory Ratoff plays the imperious choreographer, parodying Busby Berkeley's obviously rumored militaristic perfectionism. Constance Cummings and Ross Columbo play the variation of Keeler and Jolson, but is Guinan who you will remember with every quip of hers a gem. Kelly is multi dimensional as the gangster who pays for Cummings' rise to fame in more ways than one. With several future famous faces in the chorus, this is more deserving of being a classic.
The dramatic storyline focuses on a rising young female star (Constance Cummings) torn between a gangster (Paul Kelly) and a band leader (Ross Columbo). They were said to be parallels to the romance of young Ruby Keeler and superstar Al Jolson with this story, released just as she was gaining her footing over at Warner Brothers as the dancer who went out on stage as a youngster but came back a star. Deliciously pre-code, this is one of those fun, campy musicals which includes such production numbers as "Doin' the Uptown Lowdown" and "When You Were a Girl on a Scooter and I the Boy on the Bike". Every element of this makes you think you've gone back in time when you actually could see a truck filled with live chickens going down 42nd Street.
Gregory Ratoff plays the imperious choreographer, parodying Busby Berkeley's obviously rumored militaristic perfectionism. Constance Cummings and Ross Columbo play the variation of Keeler and Jolson, but is Guinan who you will remember with every quip of hers a gem. Kelly is multi dimensional as the gangster who pays for Cummings' rise to fame in more ways than one. With several future famous faces in the chorus, this is more deserving of being a classic.