Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), 42nd Street (1933), Stormy Weather (1943), Chicago (2002), My Little Chickadee (1940), The Big Broadcast (1932), The Big Store (1941), Sally of the Sawdust (1925) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Vaudeville movies.
Storyline: Chorus girls Polly, Carol and Trixie are ecstatic when they learn that Broadway producer Barney Hopkins is putting on a new show. He promises all of the girls parts in the new show and even hires their neighbor Brad Roberts, an unknown composer, to write some of the music. There's only one problem: he doesn't have the money to bankroll it all. That problem is solved when Brad turns out to be quite rich but he insists that he not perform. When opening night comes, the juvenile lead can't go on forcing Brad to take the stage. He's recognized of course and his upper crust family wants him to quit. When he refuses, they tell him to end his relationship with Polly or face having his income cut off. When Brad's snobbish brother Lawrence mistakes Carol for Polly, the girls decide to have a bit of fun and teach him a lesson.—garykmcd
Plot Keywords: musical, comedy, drama, romance, show business, dance, song and dance ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Renowned Broadway producer/director Julian Marsh is hired to put together a new musical revue. It's being financed by Abner Dillon to provide a starring vehicle for his girlfriend, songstress Dorothy Brock. Marsh, who is quite ill, is a difficult task master working long hours and continually pushing the cast to do better. When Brock breaks her ankle one of the chorus girls, Peggy Sawyer, gets her big chance to be the star. She also finds romance along the way.—garykmcd
Plot Keywords: musical, dance, broadway, show business, director, ensemble cast, theater ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Dancing great Bill 'Williamson' sees his face on the cover of Theatre World magazine and reminisces: just back from World War I, he meets lovely singer Selina Rogers at a soldiers' ball and promises to come back to her when he "gets to be somebody." Years go by, and Bill and Selina's rising careers intersect only briefly, since Selina is unwilling to "settle down." Will she ever change her mind? Concludes with a big all-star show hosted by Cab Calloway.—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
Plot Keywords: musical, dance, show business, jazz, 1940s, classic hollywood, cabaret ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Murderesses Velma Kelly (a chanteuse and tease who killed her husband and sister after finding them in bed together) and Roxie Hart (who killed her boyfriend when she discovered he wasn't going to make her a star) find themselves on death row together and fight for the fame that will keep them from the gallows in 1920s Chicago.
Plot Keywords: musical, crime, drama, comedy, jazz, murder, prison ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Rightly suspected of illicit relations with the Masked Bandit, Flower Belle Lee is run out of Little Bend. On the train she meets con man Cuthbert J. Twillie and pretends to marry him for "respectability." Arrived in Greasewood City with his unkissed bride, Twillie is named sheriff by town boss Jeff Badger...with an ulterior motive. Meanwhile, both stars inimitably display their specialties, as Twillie tends bar and plays cards, and Flower Belle tames the town's rowdy schoolboys...—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
Plot Keywords: comedy, western, romance, 1940s, classic film, satire, gold rush ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A radio-singer, Bing Hornsby, is none-too-concerned about his job, and an affair with Mona leads to his dismissal. When it appears Hornsby is getting and paying a lot of attention to his fiancée, Anita Rogers, station manager Leslie McWhinney buys the station, gives Hornsby his job back, and goes on a honeymoon with Anita.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: musical, comedy, romance, pre-code hollywood, ensemble cast, 1930s, black-and-white ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The Phelps Department Store is about to be sold by its new part owner, Tommy Rogers with the permission of Martha Phelps, the dowager co-owner. The current manager doesn't want this as the irregularities in the books will show up. When an attempt is made on Tommy's life, Martha enlists the worst private eye in the world to protect him, Wolf J. Flywheel.—John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net>
Plot Keywords: comedy, musical, musical film, classic, 1940s, slapstick, humor ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Judge Foster throws his daughter out because she married a circus man. She leaves her baby girl with Prof. McGargle before she dies. Years later Sally is a dancer with whom Peyton, a son of Judge Foster's friend, falls in love. When Sally is arrested McGargle proves her real parentage.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>
Plot Keywords: silent film, comedy, drama, circus, 1920s, black and white, american film ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Steve Raleigh wants to produce a show on Broadway. He finds a backer, Herman Whipple and a leading lady, Sally Lee, however his wife Caroline Whipple forces Steve to use a known star, not a newcomer. Sally purchases a horse she used to train when her parents had a farm before the depression and with two ex-vaudevillians, Sonny Ledford and Peter Trott she trains it to win a race, providing the money Steve needs for his show.—Stephan Eichenberg <eichenbe@fak-cbg.tu-muenchen.de>
Plot Keywords: musical, drama, romance, comedy, dance, song and dance, backstage ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Tina works as a barmaid at the Red Mill Tavern and is at the mercy of volatile and bad tempered owner, Willem. Dennis is a visitor to the area and Tina soon falls in love with him. Dennis doesn't share her feeling and leaves only to return later on. He becomes interested in Gretchen, the Burgomaster's daughter. However, Gretchen, about to enter into an arranged marriage with the Governor, is in love with Captain Jacop Van Goop. Tina and Gretchen enter into an elaborate masquerade in order to be with the men they each love.—jodlyn
Plot Keywords: silent film, comedy, romance, musical, historical, drama, adventure ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Sue Graham is a small town girl who wants to be a motion picture star. She wins a contract when a picture of a very pretty girl is sent to a studio instead of her picture. When she arrives in Hollywood, the mistake is discovered and she starts working in the props department of the studio instead. Her parents then come out to California and invest some money with a very shifty individual.—Charles K. Ammons <ckammons@mci2000.com>
Plot Keywords: silent film, comedy, 1920s, hollywood, black and white, short film, slapstick ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Released during the sixties wave for nostalgia, this film celebrates the antics of the seven greatest silent film comedians.
Plot Keywords: comedy, documentary, classic, humor, nostalgia, slapstick, short film ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: San Francisco's Barbary Coast is the hub of light and gaiety for a bustling young metropolis, while at Sharkey's Colosseum , Trudy Evans (Alice Faye), Johnnie Cornell (John Payne), Dan Daley (Jack Oakie) and Beulah (June Havoc) offer divertissement. Trying out a new number the group pulls the paying customers away from the bar, and they are promptly fired. True-blue Trudy begs Dan and Beulah to stick with Johnnie who is full of ideas, some of which, later cause Trudy much distress. When fast-talking Sam Weaver (Laird Cregar) happens upon Johnnie with another tale of a sure bonanza gold strike. Johnnie grubstakes him to the group's last $10. Coming upon an anti-drinking missionary group, Johnnie makes them a proposition which will benefit them all. He stages a series of street carnivals in front of the saloons which attracts the crowds, especially when Beulah performs cooch-dance, to the ruination of the juke-and-gin mills. Each proprietor offers $500, if Johnnie will keep away from their bars, but to Sharkey (Ward Bond) the price is $1000. With the money from his high-handed extortion Johnnie opens The Grizzly Bear and it becomes an overnight sensation with Trudy as the star of an elaborately-mounted show which even brings in the carriage trade from Nob Hill, including the haughty Bernice Crodt (Lynn Bari) and her pre-entourage days entourage. Johnnie is fascinated by her poise and social position. The Grizzly prospers and Johnnie soon opens three more saloons which makes him an early-day impresario , and Trudy the Toast of the Coast. Beulah is rather toasty herself. Ned (John Archer), a Trudy admirer, brings Cochran (Aubrey Mather), an English theatrical producer, slumming in the colonies, to see the show and offers a starring role in his next London production. Deeply in love with Johnnie, Trudy refuses, but cad Johnnie, eager for society prestige abruptly marries femme-fatale Bernice so he can climb up Nob Hill. Broken-hearted Trudy sails for England where as the star of "The Girl from Piccadilly" she is the darling of the London theatre crowds. Johnnie and Bernice go on a European honeymoon, during which time he sees Trudy's show. That's is Johnnie last highlight for a while. Back in gay old Frisco, Johnnie's fortunes decline rapidly when he becomes a sponsor of Grand Opera, long a pet project for money-drain Bernice. One by one he closes Barbary Coast saloons including the Grizzly Bear. Dan and Beulah go back to Sharkeys and Johnnie is a barker for a cooch-show on the carnival midway. Trudy returns and is distressed more than somewhat to find the familiar night spots shuttered and silent and Bernice had given Johnnie his walking papers when he ran out of money. So True-Blue Trudy quietly finances Sam, who in turn convinces Johnnie that he has at last struck a gold bonanza. With "his share" of the old grubstake Johnnie reopens the Grizzly but refuses to hire Trudy for his show since he now has a large case of remorse. Will they get together again?—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: musical, romance, comedy, classic, 1940s, show business, san francisco ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Music-hall star Madeleine Marlowe leaves London engaged to the Duke of Trippingham only to find back home that Police Gazette hack Samuel A. McGee has exposed her as former burlesque queen Rosie O'Grady. To get her own back she announces that Sam is in fact her real suitor. He in turn has a song about Rosie published and something of an Irish brawl develops via his paper and her stage show.—Jeremy Perkins {J-26}
Plot Keywords: musical, romance, comedy, 1940s, show business, dance, journalist ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A musical comedy about a Brooklyn boy (Eddie Cantor) who inherits a fortune from his archaeologist father, but has to go to Egypt to claim it.—Alessandro Martini <alemartini@geocities.com>
Plot Keywords: musical, comedy, 1930s, black-and-white, inheritance, song and dance, slapstick ...
Movie Details Click Here !