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Posted: Fri., Jan. 23, 1998
Busby Berkeley: Going Through the Roof
(Mon. (26), = 8-9 p.m.,=20 Turner Classic Movies) Taped in the U.S. by Alternate Current for Turner = Classic=20 Movies, NHK (Japan), BBC TV (U.K.), Docstar and Turner Entertainment = Co., in=20 association with Thirteen/WNET, NPS TV (Holland) and CBC (Canada). = Executive=20 producers, Margaret Smilow, Carl H. Lindahl, Nobuya Wazaki, Jun = Horikawa, Avril=20 MacRory, Catherine Lamour, Roger Mayer, Jac Venza, Henk van der Meulen, = Adrienne=20 Clarkson; producer, Smilow; co-producer, Shana Swanson; director, David=20 Thompson.
Genius, hard = drinker,=20 workaholic, serial husband and sometime psychiatric patient, Busby = Berkeley was=20 also, as one modern critic notes in this docu, father of "the MTV of the = early=20 '30s." But though director David Thompson has assembled a thorough, = foot-tapping=20 spin through the archives, the man whose name is ensconced in slang = dictionaries=20 as meaning "any elaborate dance number" still remains an enigma by = fadeout, with=20 several questions unanswered.
Largely brought up by his mother, to whom he remained devoted and = through=20 whom he gained an entree to the legit world, Berkeley (1895-1976) = developed a=20 rep on Broadway by the late '20s that led to Eddie Cantor's recommending = him to=20 producer Sam Goldwyn for the musical numbers in the pic version of = "Whoopee!" in=20 1930. But it was Darryl F. Zanuck's hiring him for "42nd Street" at = Warner that=20 launched Berkeley as a stager extraordinaire, despite him knowing = nothing about=20 choreography and having never had a dance lesson in his life. In fact, = his taste=20 for precision routines stemmed more from his brief sojourn in France = during WWI=20 as a soldier who never saw action beyond the drill ground, and the = lushness of=20 his musical numbers was a direct mirror of Florenz Ziegfeld's Broadway = revues.
As film historian Richard Barrios notes, Berkeley unerringly tapped = into what=20 people wanted to dream about during the Depression. Both "42nd Street" = and "Gold=20 Diggers of 1933" consciously played on the national optimism behind = Roosevelt's=20 New Deal (with WB's cross-country publicity train even arriving in = Washington,=20 D.C., on the day of FDR's inauguration). And though the Hays Office put = a crimp=20 in Berkeley's cheeky eroticism at the time of "Dames" (1934), later at = Fox, with=20 Carmen Miranda and "The Gang's All Here" (1943), he "pushed Technicolor = and=20 innuendo just about as far as he could," adds Barrios.
Though the docu's only star witness, Esther Williams, doesn't reveal = much,=20 director Thompson has dug up several showgirls and dancers of the time = who bear=20 witness to Berkeley's fastidiousness and long working hours, which often = stretched through the night. Kenneth Anger remarks how Berkeley = liberated the=20 camera during the early years of sound, and crix J. Hoberman and the = late Tony=20 Thomas point out how his "choreography" was more moving in formation = than dance.
The death of his mother, drinking problems and lingering guilt about = a car=20 crash that resulted in several deaths all took their toll on Berkeley in = the=20 latter stage of his career. His recall to Broadway in the '60s to = restage "No,=20 No, Nanette!" was only a token appointment. As Anger shows, his = gravestone notes=20 only that he was a soldier.
Clips from a dozen or so movies are neatly arranged (with those from=20 "Whoopee!" in two-strip Technicolor), and footage of Berkeley himself = reveals=20 him as a strong-voiced showman with an evident liking for the camera. = Most=20 notable absence from the docu is any examination of how Berkeley planned = and=20 executed his routines and how he worked in tandem with the studios' art=20 departments.
Version that premiered on the U.K.'s BBC in December features actor = Larry=20 Robinson speaking words by Berkeley culled from interviews by Thomas and = Dave=20 Martin. Unfortunately, the version set to air on Turner Classic Movies = Jan. 26=20 will feature the same material rewritten as a less involving commentary = by=20 Barrios, as well as eliminating some brief but rare footage of Ziegfeld = in=20 person.=20
Camera, Kramer Morgenthau; editor, Kate Hirson; sound, Gautam =
Choudhury,=20
Larry Scharf; music, Chris Cunningham. Voice of Busby Berkeley: Larry=20
Robinson.
With: Kenneth Anger, Richard Barrios, Dorothy Coonan =
Wellman,=20
Jerome Delamater, J. Hoberman, Cynthia Lindsay, Tony Thomas, Esther =
Williams,=20
Pat Wing Gill, Toby Wing Merrill.
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