Of course, early Warner Brothers wasn’t all gritty depression gangster dramas like the movie I featured in the post below this one, “The Public Enemy.” They also made actually rather gritty depression early musicals that featured the work of ingenious lunatic choreographer and sometime director Busby Berkeley. And sometimes, Berkeley could get downright weird — usually in a good way.
Check out “Sitting on a Backyard Fence” from “Footlight Parade.” Cagney was actually a great song and dance man as well as being an A-1 leading man, but neither he nor costars Joan Blondell or Dick Powell are in this number which, as you’ll see, maybe be just as well for their dignity. It’s definitely different.
Insert Andrew Lloyd Weber joke here.
