Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

Gold Diggers of 1933
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy
Written by Erwin Gelsey, James Seymour et al from a play by Avery Hopwood
1933/US
Warner Bros.
IMDb link
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant

Trixie Lorraine: Isn’t there going to be any comedy in the show?

Barney Hopkins: Oh, plenty! The gay side, the hard-boiled side, the cynical and funny side of the depression! I’ll make ’em laugh at you starving to death, honey. It’ll be the funniest thing you ever did.

This movie captured my heart the first time I heard Ginger Rogers singing “We’re in the Money” in Pig Latin and I’m still loopy for it decades later. Memo to Hollywood: We need some feel-good escapist fare now as much as we did in the Great Depression. Pitch in!

When a Broadway show runs out of cash during the Great Depression, three chorus-girl roommates are left penniless.  Polly Parker (Ruby Keeler) has fallen in love with songwriter Brad Roberts (Dick Powell) who lives across the way.  Their luck turns when producer Barney Hopkins (Ned Sparks) comes to them with a show about the Depression. Unfortunately he does not have the funds to put it on.  But it turns out that Brad is the heir to a fortune and he becomes Barney’s “angel”, songwriter, and eventually leading man.

Brad’s brother J. Lawrence (Warren William) strongly objects to his involvement in show business and tries to prevent Brad’s marriage to Polly.  Friend Fanuel H. Peabody (Guy Kibbee) believes all show girls are parasites and gold diggers.  The other two roommates, Carol King (Joan Blondell) and Trixie Lorraine (Aline MacMahon), set about proving them wrong about Polly and snagging some wealthy men in the process.  Fay Fortune (Ginger Rogers) tries to attract the men as well.  With Billy Barty as a mischievous baby.

You don’t watch these things for the plot but for the extravagant Busby Berkley numbers and the snappy, naughty banter.  I find this movie to be pure pre-Code bliss.  This was my favorite film of 1933 back at the beginning of this blog.

Gold Diggers of 1933 was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound, Recording.