Footlight Parade
Warner Bros. | Release Date: October 21, 1933 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
80
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 8 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
50
The New York TimesStaff (Not Credited)
It is not until Footlight Parade has been struggling through its plot for more than an hour that the fragments of song, costumed nymphs and technical virtuosity are finally integrated in a complete performance. Read full review
70
Time OutStaff (Not Credited)
By far the best part of the film is its first hour, fast, furious and funny as Cagney sets out to convince his nervous backers that his idea for live prologues to accompany talkies can be made to work. Read full review
100
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
A great supporting cast and Bacon's well-judged direction help make Footlight Parade one of the greatest of the Berkeley extravaganzas. Read full review
60
VarietyStaff (Not Credited)
Footlight Parade is not as good as 42nd Street and Gold Diggers but the three socko numbers here eclipse some of the preceding Busby Berkeley staging for spectacle. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderDon Druker
One of the best of the Warner Brothers showbiz musicals (1933), with James Cagney turning in a dynamite performance as an enterprising producer, and Busby Berkeley contributing some of his most engaging and bizarre production numbers. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Busby Berkeley's finest hour comes in this flabbergasting Warners musical, with James Cagney as a Berkeley-like choreographer who directs, for a string of Broadway theaters, a series of "preview" dance numbers that blow your socks off. Read full review
70
The New YorkerPauline Kael
It has some silly, yet irresistibly wonderful examples of Busby Berkeley's pinwheel choreography.
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Cagney, the film's best asset, is irrepressible. [07 May 2006, p.34]
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