Wonder Bar (1934)

Meine Damen und Herren- Mes dames et Messieurs- Ladies and Gentlemen….
He whips her with a whip! He whips her, he whips her, he whips her…
But she loves it!

Wonder Bar is a decadent nightclub somewhere in Paris hosted by Al Wonder a provocateur with biting wit and a stealthy influence over the wealthy and influential patrons who enter his club. Wonder’s lurid exhibitions of impossibly glamorous sado-masochistic performances seduce the curious customers where they become prey to beautiful gold diggers and continental gigolos. All the while the band plays sophisticated foxtrots and waltzes that veer into the psychedelic and surreal thanks to choreographer Busby Berekeley.

After a brief prologue that introduces some of the characters’ back stories, the film unfolds in a single night: a complex la ronde of inter-relationships and overlapping motives. Crooning bandleader Dick Powell pines for the exquisite Dolores del Rio. She loves badboy Ricardo Cortez her dancing partner, but he is ready to cash in on his affair with the wife of an important politician and disappear forever.

Unfortunately the wife has come to retrieve her love token, a diamond bracelet which Cortez is desperately trying to exchange for cash. Her husband reported it stolen and has involved detectives who are putting the heat on Cortez. Fearing his past will be exposed he must get away tonight but Del Rio refuses to let him go. Their relationship climaxes on stage as Cortez whips the face of del Rio, determined to make her despise him!

Meanwhile, Jolson realizes a scandal is imminent and the politician could close Wonder Bar in revenge. He begins to quietly manipulate the situation, paying off the troublesome Cortez and steering the lovesick del Rio to himself. But things go too far. Among the liaisons and affairs there is a murder, a suicide. Love is gained and lost. A crime is covered up and the guilty go free. It’s just another night at Wonder Bar….

“Don’t Say Goodnight”

But don’t worry about the plot. This love n-gon is barely sketched in before being steamrolled by the platinum-wigged Berkeley girls in a dizzying infinity mirror waltz “Don’t Say Goodnight”. Rows of identical chorines chime in with a verse and we have entered Berkeley time-space. They reveal a regiment of phallic columns which might be giant candle tapers dripping with dark wax at the tip. The columns gently glide away revealing more chorines in transparent white skirts. They wave their arms and meander through the columns, which again glide away to reveal men in white tuxedos and black masks.
…more about Wonder Bar

Xanadu (1980)

Although it’s often compared with Down to Earth, the 1947 musical about a meddling muse starring Rita Hayworth, Xanadu exists firmly in it’s own girly space-time continuum. An era of blousy peasant skirts slit to the waist, rollerskates, leg warmers, and hair ribbons. It marks the death of New York disco, the end of Studio 54 decadence, and harkens the dawn of Southern California, neon clothes, and workout tapes.

Xanadu is as wholesome as breakfast cereal, and had the marketing campaign to match! MCA Records president Bob Singer boasted that by the time Xanadu came out, everyone in America would have heard the name six to eight times. It featured the corn-pop goodness of Olivia Newton-John — a triple threat who could act dance and sing — sprinkled with the high-fructose soundtrack by Electric Light Orchestra. The film was studded with references to art and literature (the title is lifted from the opium-hazed poetry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge), revived the three-part harmony of the Andrews Sisters, paid homage to golden age musicals by Comden and Green, and almost saved a streamline art deco landmark, the Pan Pacific Auditorium. After the success of Saturday Night Fever and Grease, Hollywood musicals seemed to be on the verge of a new platinum age. Gene Kelly was called out of retirement to bless the adventure. It couldn’t fail.
…more about Xanadu

Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)

What is a post-musical? I’ve been trying to define this to my husband ever since we saw Chicago on Broadway. His teenage daughter and I loved it, he hated it — all for the same reasons. It’s heartless, the heroes are unlikable, their predicaments amoral, and like the real world of theater the backstabbing and scamming take backseat only to money and fame. And at it’s heart the musical numbers lead you through dark corners of the soul.

Gold Diggers of 1935 is post. Set in a wealthy resort hotel, the mood is set immediately as employees are told they will not be paid, but receive only tips. Every bellhop and waiter, desk clerk and maid is expected to fleece their clientele. Little surprise that nice-guy Dick Powell dumps his sweetheart for $500. No hard feelings as his fiancee also moves on to greener pastures — green as in money, to marry a wealthy playboy known for big payoffs to his ex-wives. Another woman, hired as a personal secretary plays her boss for a fool and blackmails him with a fake love letter. Meanwhile, a theater director embezzles from his sponsors and his set designer.

Topping it off is Busby Berkeley’s epic movie-within-a-movie. Lullaby of Broadway features a woman who is literally danced to death by rows tapping marching sieg heil-ing hoofers in a dizzying nightclub of art deco stairs and platforms.

I only had a few hours in Miami Beach, and my deco safari was cut short by rain and cold weather. Still got a chance to snap a few photos.

Rounded corners, box windows, and repeating horizontal ledges create the distinctive art deco shapes. Surface treatments include mythological, geometric, and floral reliefs. Bilateral symmetry is the norm, but there are a few exceptions.

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

A bumpkin farmgirl becomes a national hero when she accidently murders two ruthless dictators, and exposes a corrupt and powerless central government. Basically, it’s the template for US foreign policy in the 20th century. Forget critical analysis, forget Citizen Kane, forget high art cinema. The Wizard of Oz is the best known of THE three films that define American culture. Wizard (along with It Happened One Night and The Ten Commandments) is etched into our psyche from annual television showings that become family events. Oz shaped our childhoods and changed our speech. There’s not a single person who can’t reference “…And your little dog too!” We know every lyric, we’ve all admired SOME piece of Oz memorabelia, and in our dark moments we’ve delighted in schadenfreude to rumors of letcherous circus midgets and poisonous lead make-up — and of course a talented child star who became a pill-popping icon…. Every paradise has snakes, that’s only added to the legend, but do you REALLY know what this beloved musical is about?
…more about Wizard of Oz