Greatest Film Scenes
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Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

 



Written by Tim Dirks

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Movie Title/Year and Scene Descriptions
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Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

In this opulent, fabulous musical from director Mervyn LeRoy with large-scale Busby Berkeley production numbers at the height of his creative genius in the early 30s - this was the second Warner Bros. backstage musical of 1933:

  • in the opening number, the sight of chorine Fay Fortune (Ginger Rogers) wearing a skimpy, glittering coin-covered costume and singing in pig-Latin (just undecipherable nonsense syllables set to the music that was a fad at the time) with other coin-covered chorines dancing to "We're In the Money" with massive money-related sets and over-sized coins
"We're in the Money"
  • the exquisitely-choreographed, elaborate "Shadow Waltz" production number in which neon-lighted dancers created elaborate, glow-in-the-dark geometric shapes -- highlighted by a gigantic white violin formed by the dancers in an overhead shot, complete with a strumming bow and violins illuminated by neon tubing
"Shadow Waltz"
  • also the naughty pre-Code "Petting in the Park" number featuring straw-hatted men romancing chorines on a lawn - with the camera leering at their crossed legs and petticoats, followed by a drenching rainstorm forcing the chorines to provocatively strip in silhouette behind a transparent screen as a lascivious, leering young boy (midget Billy Barty) pulled up the screen
  • the most-remembered, show-stopping finale number, introducing streetwalking prostitute Carol King (Joan Blondell) under a street lampost, saluting the unemployed, poverty-stricken war veterans suffering from the Depression who demanded to be paid a $1,000 bonus promised in 1925, with other affected tenement housewives in the sobering song "Remember My Forgotten Man" - concluding with silhouettes of marching soldiers (on a half-wheel)


"Petting in the Park"



"Remember My Forgotten Man"

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