Gold Diggers of 1933
(Mervyn LeRoy/Busby Berkeley, 1933, 97 min)

Sat Apr 29, 4:30pm
Tue May 2, 4:30pm

“The Great Depression musical, produced by Warner Brothers as a follow-up to Forty-Second Street. If Forty-Second Street was an agreeable sketch, this one is the Sistine Chapel, an insanely overproduced extravaganza that gave Busby Berkeley his first chance to really cut loose. A zillion chorus girls playing electric violins decorate ‘The Shadow Waltz’; ‘Pettin’ in the Park’ is an unbridled voyeuristic fantasy that rivals Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom in perversity. Ginger Rogers sings ‘We’re in the Money’ in pig latin, and—to give the enterprise a noble touch—the plight of the unemployed veteran is explored in ‘Remember the Forgotten Man.’ With Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon, and more.” – Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

“CLASSIC, SURREALISTIC MUSICAL NUMBERS. All the Berkeley sequences demonstrate this unique auteur’s astonishing powers to transform straightforward performative set-ups into abstract micro-worlds of consistently evolving experimental art, shooting and virtually editing in one camera with almost Hitchcockian foresight and precision.” – Peter H. Kemp, Senses of Cinema

“… in musicals like the Gold Diggers series, the gold diggers usually came in twos and threes, were played by smart, snappy actresses like Joan Blondell… and Aline MacMahon, [and] set out to make their way in a man’s world but on their own terms… This is one of the few genres and occasions where there’s a real feeling of solidarity among women.” (Molly Haskell)

Tickets available online at thechelseatheater.org or at the Chelsea Theater box office.

Chelsea x ADF Dance Film Series is made possible by a grant from the Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation.