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The Busby Berkeley Disc

(LaserDisc Review)
The disc is a three-sided, three-hour collection of the greatest Busby Berkeley routines created during his stay at Warner Bros. from 1933 to 1937, and is a surprisingly coherent piece of entertainment. Because virtually all of the songs on the disc were written by Harry Warren and Al Dubin, the numbers are very cohesive--not only chord progressions, but also rhymes and phrases are repeated with slight variations and advancements throughout the show. Berkeley also strove repeatedly to top himself, so that his stagings on the somewhat chronologically organized disc become more sophisticated as it advances--you can see him return to a previously explored idea with a bigger budget and a smoother, more confident execution. Equally fascinating are the endless close-ups of otherwise anonymous chorus girls, encouraging the viewer to ponder, if only momentarily, what sort of life each one ended up having.

Without the personalities of the characters at the forefront of the viewer's mind, the numbers are approached from a different perspective. Even if a fan is fanatical enough to have collected Gold Diggers of 1935, for example, The Busby Berkeley Disc is still a must, for it removes that film's musical numbers from their dramatic context and makes them part of the anthology's climax instead. Ultimately, however, it is Berkeley's unstoppable vision, assuaged by the music, which makes the disc so entertaining. The disc is both a sampler and a celebration, and will appeal to anyone who loves the articulation of imagination on film. There are twenty-two numbers, including the major sequences from 42nd Street, Gold Diggers of 1933, Footlight Parade, and Dames, along with a pair of excerpts from Gold Diggers of 1935 and Wonder Bar (part of The Al Jolson Collection ) and single excerpts from Fashions of 1934 , In Caliente , and Gold Diggers of 1937 . Every number is a legitimate highlight, but a consensus probably would identify the innovative "42nd Street" number, the campy "By a Waterfall," the blasphemous "Goin' to Heaven on a Mule," and the cumulative "Lullaby of Broadway" as the pinnacles of the pinnacles. The picture and monaural sound quality is manageable throughout the disc, though there seem to be more weak moments than exceptional ones in the transfers. The audio track on the clips from Footlight Parade is unusually scratchy and the contrasts are so out of balance on the "Goin' to Heaven on a Mule" number that facial details, such as they are, blend into the backgrounds.

alandau wrote:May I disagree with Gary Tooze.

davidhare wrote:I hope they eventually release Wonder Bar - it's the first non "backstage" plot driven Berkeley, and as a verge of code pic it includes the scene with Jolson cackling "boys will be boys - whoopee!" as two fey looking guys in tuxedos go off and dance together.

davidhare wrote:I hope they eventually release Wonder Bar - it's the first non "backstage" plot driven Berkeley