Movie Song of the Week: “Shanghai Lil”
Yes, I know. This tune from 1933's Footlight Parade is not the most politically correct song ever written, but it's still a lot better than much of what passes for music today. Like most Busby Berkeley tunes, the song is so over-the-top that I can't help but love it -- though I could have done without the Pidgin English and the yellowface acting. It's from one of the few movies outside of a certain Oscar-winning musical to showcase Jimmy Cagney's dancing ability -- and quite frankly, he isn't half bad. Plus you get close-order drills, a flip-movie, and a patriotic number that almost comes off as a parody of patriotic numbers.
Add to that the fact that this song includes a routine which could be seen as a salute to interracial relationships and excludes the black stereotypes that would become all so common in movies of the 1930s and I can forgive this song a lot. Yes, it's basically a Sino-American version of Madame Butterfly with a happy ending, but, hey, happy endings aren't a bad thing in this big parade of tears.
Yes, I know. This tune from 1933's Footlight Parade is not the most politically correct song ever written, but it's still a lot better than much of what passes for music today. Like most Busby Berkeley tunes, the song is so over-the-top that I can't help but love it -- though I could have done without the Pidgin English and the yellowface acting. It's from one of the few movies outside of a certain Oscar-winning musical to showcase Jimmy Cagney's dancing ability -- and quite frankly, he isn't half bad. Plus you get close-order drills, a flip-movie, and a patriotic number that almost comes off as a parody of patriotic numbers.
Add to that the fact that this song includes a routine which could be seen as a salute to interracial relationships and excludes the black stereotypes that would become all so common in movies of the 1930s and I can forgive this song a lot. Yes, it's basically a Sino-American version of Madame Butterfly with a happy ending, but, hey, happy endings aren't a bad thing in this big parade of tears.
Labels: Amor Interracial, Busby Berkeley, Canciones de Cine de la Semana, Canciones de Cine de los Años 1930, China, Desfile de Candilejas, Estereotipos, James Cagney, Olé Decadencia I
posted by Tonio Kruger at 11:27 AM
2 Comments:
I am delighted to hear you like this number too. Yes, it is all you say and worse ("says she won't be mine/for all of Palestine, oy") but it's irresistible all the same. This is probably my favorite Warner musical of the period.
Well, I'm glad to hear that you like this number as well, Campaspe.
"Footlight Parade" is one of my three favorite movie musicals of the period, along with "42nd Street" and "Gold Diggers of 1933." I'm still discovering old movies so that might change, but I doubt it.
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