Say what you want about Hef--- to his credit, he's been a huge supporter of motion picture history and has financed several excellent documentaries. This one is takes a warts and all look at Busby Berkeley (1895-1976), acknowledging his genius and his decline (mother fixation, alcoholism, the 3 vehicular homicide trails) in honest doses. During his tenure at Warner's, Berkeley managed to resurrect the Hollywood musical, considered box office poison from 1930 until the astonishing double whammy of 1933's 42nd Street (released in March) Footlight Parade (October) and embarrass most other studios' choreography (Paramount's 1934 Murder at the Vanities would've benefited tremendously from his input). Crippling flaws aside, Berkeley was the best at his craft. It's also notable that he was perfectly capable of excelling as a "straight" director: his last film at Warner's was an excellent John Garfield entry, They Made Me a Criminal (1939), while most of his most fondly remembered earlier films had journeyman contract directors helming the overall pictures. It wasn't until Gold Diggers of 1935 that he gained sole directorial credit, which unfortunately would end in his embarrassed involvement in 1949's Annie Get Your Gun. His career would essentially be over by 1953. A big plus is that director/writer David Thomson managed to located 82- year old Berkeley favorite Toby Wing (1915-2001) and her 81-year old sister Pat and obtained interviews with them both (sadly, both have since died). This is a definite "10" for anyone who loves movie history. This is a hard-to-find title (I had to buy a VHS on eBay) since PBS has never obtained release rights. I believe this has been shown on TCM. Catch it if you can!
3 Reviews
Busby Berkeley and his surreal collectivist eye
AlsExGal17 August 2013
This one hour biodocumetary on the life and career of choreographer Busby Berkeley is very interesting. It talks some about his personal life, but it doesn't turn into a tabloid piece. Instead it just focuses on the major points - that Berkeley never danced or took a dance lesson himself, that he drank heavily, got most of his inspiration while in the bathtub, that he married six times, only the last marriage being a happy one, and of course there is a small part about the infamous second degree murder trial in the 30's stemming from a drunk driving accident. He was tried three times before acquitted. Yet in the midst of all of this disorganized turmoil that was his personal life, Berkeley produced kaleidoscopic numbers with military and mathematical precision.
There are some great clips of Berkeley's numbers starting with his work in "Whoopee" where Sam Goldwyn, the epitome of the independent mogul, took a chance on Berkeley and a color musical at a time - 1930 - when musicals were falling out of favor, and came up with a hit followed by several more also starring Eddie Cantor. So Daryl F. Zanuck really wasn't taking much of a chance when he took then proved entity Berkeley to Warner Brothers to stage and create numbers for 42nd Street, followed by several other brash precode musicals there. The production code really put a crimp in Berkeley's style, and Warner Brothers soon lost interest in musicals, so Berkeley moved on to MGM where he was the director as well as choreographer. He had big budgets at MGM, and he had some success with musicals starring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney and later Esther Williams, but ultimately his creative heyday was the 1930's.
If you want to see just how much cinematic choreography owes to Berkeley, try watching any of the precode musicals from the Dawn of Sound era - 1929- 1932. Almost any dance number involves chorines just walking around, swaying to the beat, almost appearing like they are looking for something to do. Busby got them all moving and moving in an interesting and coordinated way.
Highly recommended for anyone interested in Hollywood musicals, from the 1930's through the 1950's.
There are some great clips of Berkeley's numbers starting with his work in "Whoopee" where Sam Goldwyn, the epitome of the independent mogul, took a chance on Berkeley and a color musical at a time - 1930 - when musicals were falling out of favor, and came up with a hit followed by several more also starring Eddie Cantor. So Daryl F. Zanuck really wasn't taking much of a chance when he took then proved entity Berkeley to Warner Brothers to stage and create numbers for 42nd Street, followed by several other brash precode musicals there. The production code really put a crimp in Berkeley's style, and Warner Brothers soon lost interest in musicals, so Berkeley moved on to MGM where he was the director as well as choreographer. He had big budgets at MGM, and he had some success with musicals starring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney and later Esther Williams, but ultimately his creative heyday was the 1930's.
If you want to see just how much cinematic choreography owes to Berkeley, try watching any of the precode musicals from the Dawn of Sound era - 1929- 1932. Almost any dance number involves chorines just walking around, swaying to the beat, almost appearing like they are looking for something to do. Busby got them all moving and moving in an interesting and coordinated way.
Highly recommended for anyone interested in Hollywood musicals, from the 1930's through the 1950's.
A documentary detailing the life of one of the wildest and interesting dance choreographer and director of the 20th century.
spaccygirl9 March 2001
Busby Berkeley is a fabulous choreographer and director. This documentary has some of the most wild dance and musical scenes, including some that are very rare and hard to find. If you are interested in finding out more about the man behind his work, I strongly recommend this documentary to you because I truly enjoyed it!
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