Gold Diggers of 1933, July 31

Busby Berkeley was a dance designer, turning people into visual elements and the camera into an omniscient eye reveling in angles impossible for the mere mortal to obtain. Despite his rather benign reputation as an entertainer, Berkeley's imagination was truly bizarre, even a tad sinister; provocative in a mischievous way if you were paying attention, and there's no reason to think people in 1933 were not. Ginger Rogers sings "We're In the Money" in pig Latin, backed by chorines wearing coins over their private parts; in "Pettin in the Park," Berkeley cuts to such strange details as a caged chimpanzee on a cookie box, a voyeuristic midget, and women's metallic bathing suits which men must pry open with can openers. Well, it's the Depression, dearie, and it's a jungle out there, as the working-girls plot of Gold Diggers of 1933 cynically demonstrates. The haunting "Forgotten Man" number is at once a non sequitur and perfectly apt.

—Judy Bloch

• Written by Erwin Gelsey, James Seymour, based on the play by Avery Hopwood. Photographed by Sol Polito. Musical numbers staged by Busby Berkeley. Music, Lyrics by Harry Warren, Al Dubin. With Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Aline MacMahon. (96 mins, B&W, 35mm, From Warner Bros.)