MUSICALS!: 42nd Street (1933)

Macintosh & Maud Haven't Seen What?!

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CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of sexism, workplace abuse, homophobia, sexual harassment, slut-shaming, misogyny.

We’ve got a new series this week to talk about the spectacle and grandeur of the movie musical! And we’re starting with the movie that saved the entire genre, and one that’s refreshing and surprising. Tied for the oldest film we’ve watched for this series, we braced ourselves for cheesiness, dated references, and problematic subject matter. And yes, this movie has touches of all of those, but it manages to avoid most of the eye-rolling stereotypes we’re used to from a backstage musical. It probably helps that this is, you know, one of the very first times anyone put that story on screen, but it’s not just the novelty that pulls this movie through. The acting is stagey but thoughtful, the directing is really inventive and on point for the story being told, and my goodness, the dancing, there’s just nothing like it. Buckle on your tap shoes and get ready to run the number again as we kick off our movie musical series with 1933’s 42nd Street this week on Macintosh & Maud Haven’t Seen What?!

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Intro and outro music taken from the Second Movement of Ludwig von Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Hong Kong (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 HK) license. To hear the full performance or get more information, visit the song page at the Internet Archive.

Excerpt of "Lullaby of Broadway" dance sequence is taken from the motion picture Gold Diggers of 1935. 1935 © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Excerpt from the motion picture 42nd Street are © 1933 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.