2 reviews
Sales Rank: 33341

Format: Colour, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 74
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6

MPN: D2221362D
UPC: 024543113621
EAN: 0024543113621
ASIN: B0001FR54S

Theatrical Release Date: 1942
Release Date: April 20, 2004
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW items direct from the USA. Please allow 8 to 12 business days for delivery. Customs charges apply.

Similar Items:

»	Midnight [1939] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
»	Stage Door [1937] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
»	Hellzapoppin' [1942]
»	Roberta [1935] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
»	The Glass Key [1942]

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars

Uproarious and wonderful cynicism June 18, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

"Not Guilty Verdict in Trial of Blond Who Shot Friend Six Times Accidentally!"
"He Refused to Take Me to See Victor Mature Claims Woman on Trial for Life!"
"No Recollection of Picking Up Axe, Jilted Girl Testifies!"
"Crowd Cheers as Jury Clears Red-Head of Driving Car Over Electric Refrigerator Salesman!"

Roxie Hart, one of the funniest and most cynical Hollywood comedies, starts out with these newspaper headlines, and it just gets better. It's 1927 and Roxie (Ginger Rogers) may or may not have shot her lecherous agent. Her dim, loving husband at first agrees to take the fall. Then he finds out about some hanky-panky, so Roxie is arrested and sent to the Cook County jail. She quickly realizes a great lawyer like Billy Flynn (Adolphe Menjou) can put on such a show that she'll get off and the publicity will finally bring that big break in show biz she's always dreamed of. Sound familiar? This is what the stage and film version, both named Chicago, were based on. Surprisingly, they followed the story line almost exactly.

And what a story it is. The movie takes ambition, greed, the media, the public, lawyers and the justice system and then squeezes every jaundiced laugh out of each one. "Laugh and the world laughs with you," says Flynn, "weep and they'll think you're a chump."

Ginger Rogers does a great job as the dumb but crafty, gum-chewing Roxie. She's "the prettiest woman ever tried for murder in Cook County," says Homer Howard (George Montgomery), a young reporter who falls for her. Roxie always has an eye out for the main chance, and if she were any smarter she'd be hard to like. Rogers even gets a chance to dance a couple of times, once a wonderful and surreal strut to The Black Bottom when she's in jail during a press interview. Suddenly, all the reporters, including Mary Sunshine, join in.

The real star, for me, is Adolph Menjou. He plays Flynn with just enough ham to be funny and just enough honesty to be uproarious. When some vital testimony is thrown out as hearsay, Flynn turns to Roxie and whispers, "You see in New York or Los Angeles or some other sissy town, that'd be the end of it. Nothing but law. But in Chicago the law doesn't count. It's justice we're after. What'ya say, kid?" And he puts her on the stand for a cross examination that would even have the talking heads on Fox and MSNBC singing his and Roxie's praises. I seldom laugh out loud during movies, but Menjou's florid, manipulative cynicism had me wiping my eyes.

Since this is a comedy, Roxie gets off, partly through the judicious exposure of her gams to the all-male jury. And because Roxie's story is told in flashback by Homer in 1942 while he's waiting in a bar during a rainstorm, there's a nice twist at the end.

There are no extras to speak of. The black and white DVD transfer looks great.

5 out of 5 stars

Ginger's gorgeous Mae West parody May 7, 2004
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

Fans of the recent 'Chicago' will recognize the story about Roxie, the 1920's starlet tried for a murder and exploiting the media exposition to get a break in showbiz, defended by the cynical lawyer Billy Flynn who couldn't care less if she is innocent or guilty.

William Wellman's wonderful 1942 picture is every bit as satiric and even more hardboiled than the musical. You will be constantly entertained by the wealth of wicked ideas in the script and no less by Wellman's masterful execution which coyly flirts (very, very tongue in cheek!) with the black and white style of the contemporary noir film and is willing to see its themes through, even ad absurdum (the divine 'Black Bottom' dance scene in the prison!).

Ginger Rogers was obviously giving a Mae West parody as Roxie Hart, a performance which is always out there and a sheer delight, chewing her gum, winking her eyes, showing off her legs to the jury, seducing men under her breath as a matter of course. Rogers is great!

So is the film. And the print itself deserves a viewing.

All products purchased from this website are dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.