Gold Diggers Of 1933

[Rick C]

I'm pretty sure this will get zero or virtually zero replies but . . . . since management is pleading for us to put up some good movies we've seen recently I'll offer up "Gold Diggers of 1933" which can be seen very occasionally on Turner Classic channel.

The movie was made in the middle of the Great Depression but also, interestingly, just before morality codes began to stifle creativity and themes coming out of Hollywood.

It's signature piece comes near the end with the haunting "Remember My Forgotten Man" sung by Joan Blondell. It is basically a lament for all of the men who had fought in World War I, only to be abandoned in the Great Depression when American unemployment was at 25%. One of the original protest songs perhaps.

Without morality codes, there are some pretty racy themes going on between the ladies and guys in the movie, probably emblematic of the period, just out of the Roaring Twenties. In that theme, it might resemble some movies of today.

And, of course, it's a microcosm of fashions, street scenes, lingo . . . . all things from the Great Depression.

The show does close on a noticeably strange note with the very powerful protest number regarding the depression called "Forgotten Man" masterfully delivered by bombshell, Joan Blondell. A truly original and memorable musical.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024069/

The You Tube clip of the 7:30 long "Remember My Forgotten Man" with Blondell and Etta Moten

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jIofWwupLA

Rick C
www.goldentales.ca