Last modified on Wed 9 Jun 2021 12.17 EDT
The Gold Diggers of 1933
The Gold Diggers of 1933 is a film of quarters, and not just the giant coins that cover the chorus line’s modesty. Four wisecracking kids are dying to make it on Broadway: Joan Blondell is a singer, Ginger Rogers a sex kitten, Ruby Keeler a sweetheart and Aline MacMahon has the jokes. But the shows they hustle into close before they open. As Rogers snarls, it’s “the depression, dearie”. But then Dick Powell changes their luck with catchy tunes and deep pockets. This is a bona fide pre-Code musical, so the talkie scenes burst with prohibition-busting backstage antics and a little Park Avenue farce, but the curtains open wide on four of the most outlandish numbers ever filmed, courtesy the kaleidoscopic visions of Busby Berkeley and what deadpan Ned Sparks calls: “The gay side, the hard-boiled side, the cynical and funny side of the Depression!” Vivacious economic optimism in We’re in the Money and heart