MOVIE · 1933

Footlight Parade

ComedyMusicalRomance104 min

As talking pictures upend the theater business, a fast-talking producer scrambles to save himself by inventing “prologues,” live musical numbers staged before movie screenings. He has to write, cast, rehearse, and sell a constant stream of new acts while rivals steal ideas, investors panic, and exhaustion turns every deadline into a crisis. Backstage, romance and jealousy tangle with the work, especially as his sharp secretary becomes essential to keeping the whole operation from collapsing. James Cagney drives the rush at the center of it, and the story keeps building toward the elaborate stage spectacles that Busby Berkeley turns into a dizzying final showcase.