¡Feliz Día de los Veteranos!

In honor of all the people who have served in the American armed forces -- including two of my late uncles -- I hope you all have a pleasant Veteran's Day.

Movie Song of the Week: “Remember My Forgotten Man”

This week I post a new version of an old song that I've posted on this site before. One of these days I'll find a movie tune more appropriate for Memorial Day but in the meantime, it can't be argued that this song is inappropriate. Besides, it's so rare to see choreographer Busby Berkeley putting political commentary into one of his musical numbers that it's kinda awe-inspiring to see how easy he makes such a number seem.

Movie Song of the Week: “Remember My Forgotten Man”

Yes, I've posted this song from Gold Diggers of 1933 before but then again it is Memorial Day. Y yo amo Joan Blondell.

Here's hoping all my readers have had a pleasant Memorial Day weekend.

Movie Song of the Month: “Remember My Forgotten Man”

I didn't mean to post another Busby Berkeley song again so soon but, hey, Memorial Day is coming up quite soon. And this is the most appropriate movie song I can think of. Even though it was originally written about World War I veterans, it still packs a heck of a wallop today.

From the 1933 movie Gold Diggers of 1933:

Movie Song of the Month: “We're in the Money”

I'm probably tempting fate by posting this song so close to April 15, but then again I really, really like this song. It's “We're in the Money” from Gold Diggers of 1933.

If nothing else, it got me to appreciate Ginger Rogers in a way I never did before. Granted, it's a young Ginger Rogers but still...

And, hey, I'd promise you all that I'd post something cheerier.

Things I Loved About Gold Diggers of 1933

1. The “We're in The Money” number.
2. That Möbius strip shot in the “We're in the Money” number in which the camera pans from singer Ginger Rogers to a chorus girl on her right, and then to the chorus girl on her right, and then so on until the camera gets back to Ginger Rogers -- without once going left.
3. The way Ginger maintained her dignity through that “We're in the Money” number despite having to sing one chorus in Pig Latin -- and while wearing apparently nothing below the waist save heels, a body stocking and a giant coin.
4. The pre-Code antics of the “Pettin' in the Park” number.
5. Ned Sparks's big speech about the Depression.
6. Joan Blondell's “Remember My Forgotten Man” number. Very easily the highlight of the movie, and deservingly so.

Escapist Quotes from Gold Diggers of 1933

Because, of course, people of the 1930s knew nothing of real problems:

I was down on Times Square watching those men in the breadline... standing there in the rain, waiting there for coffee and doughnuts. Men out of a job, around the soup kitchen.
--Dick Powell, Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

That's it! That's what this show's about! The Depression, men marching, marching in the rain. Doughnuts and crullers, men marching, marching... jobs, jobs, and in the background, Carol, spirit of the Depression. A blue song. No, not a blue song but a wailing. A wailing. And this gorgeous woman singing this song that'll tear their hearts out. The big parade. The big parade of tears.
--Ned Sparks, Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

I hate starving in bed.
--Ruby Keeler, Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

It isn't smart to make gags when girls are starving.
--Aline MacMahon, Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

If you don't, God knows what will happen to those kids. They'll have to do things I wouldn't want on my conscience and it will be on yours.
--Aline MacMahon, Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

Remember my forgotten man.
You put a rifle in his hand.
You sent him far away.
You shouted, “Hip, hooray!”
But look at him today.
--Joan Blondell, “Remember My Forgotten Man” from Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

Busby Berkeley: Social Realist?

The depression, dearie.
--Ginger Rogers, Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

Whoa! Where did that line come from? I thought good old-fashioned Busby Berkeley musicals were too escapist to mention anything as humdrum as the Great Depression.

And what's up with that “We're in the Money” number that opens Gold Diggers of 1933? Film anthologies cite that song so often as evidence of 1930s Hollywood's obsession with escapism that it is a bit ironic to note that that number ends with the local sheriff's men coming in to confiscate the singers' props and costumes in order to make up for all the producer's unpaid bills. I'm sorry but that does not seem very escapist to me.

You could argue that some of the movie's other numbers (“Pettin' in the Park,” for example) are a bit more escapist, but then you get to the show's big finale, “Remember My Forgotten Man,” in which young Carol King (played by Joan Blondell and not to be confused with the songwriter with a similar name) laments the fate of unemployed WW I veterans while receiving vocal accompaniment by Etta Moten Barnett, and suddenly this whole escapism argument seems at best dubious.

True, one is never likely to confuse any Busby Berkeley movie with the works of John Steinbeck. But they do not seem as disconnected from reality as one would expect.

And I, for one, consider that a good thing.