Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

Mervyn LeRoy brilliantly directs the sparkling comedy that cements Busby Berkeley’s classic dance spectacles, in what is probably the best of the Silver Age musicals. Ironically, the film opens with Ginger Rodgers rehearsing We’re in the Money as irate creditors storm the theater and rip the oversize coins from her body. “It’s the Depression, Dearie”, she sneers.

But in a reversal of fortune the plucky gold diggers are back in another show, fronted by squeaky-clean kids William Powell and Ruby Keeler both reluctant stars (ie: not gold diggers). Turns out Powell is secretly from a wealthy Bostonian family who threatens to cut off his fortunes if he marries Keeler. Enter two stuffshirts to bring Powell to his senses, and when they mistake roommate Joan Blondell for Keeler, the real gold diggers get their chance for revenge against the upper class.

It’s all very pre-code, and while the plot (masterminded by the hilarious Aline MacMahon as fellow roommate Trixie) threatens to dip into unseemly territory, Berkeley’s numbers dive into the bawdy deep end. Impish runt Billy Barty dressed up in baby costumes instigates all sorts of provocative situations in Petting in the Park. Couples play in an escallating tease show until climaxing with the women wearing full-metal chastity armor. Barty hands frustrated Powell a can opener!

Berkeley’s Shadow Waltz makes Hollywood history with identical platinum wigged women swaying with neon-lit violins, a visual show-stopper that has never been topped– even by Berkely himself.

The closing number is the haunting My Forgotten Man shared by Joan Blondell and uncredited Black vocalist Etta Moten, who plead for the men who fought in WWI and now humbled by breadlines and poverty.