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Example Indentation: \"Subtropes should not be listed in sub-bullets beneath their parent tropes... If more applicable subtropes apply, listing the parent trope is not recommended.\"
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* AddedAlliterativeAppeal:
** AlliterativeName: Matron Mama Morton, the supervisor of Murderess Row.
** AlliterativeFamily: Velma and her sister Veronica]] that she killed.
** AlliterativeName: Matron Mama Morton, the supervisor of Murderess Row.
** AlliterativeFamily: Velma and her sister Veronica]] that she killed.
to:
* AddedAlliterativeAppeal:
**AlliterativeName: Matron Mama Morton, the supervisor of Murderess Row.
** * AlliterativeFamily: Velma and her sister Veronica]] Veronica that she killed.
**
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* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: [[AlliterativeName Matron Mama Morton]], the supervisor of Murderess Row. [[AlliterativeFamily Velma and her sister Veronica]] that she killed.
to:
* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: [[AlliterativeName AddedAlliterativeAppeal:
** AlliterativeName: Matron MamaMorton]], Morton, the supervisor of Murderess Row. [[AlliterativeFamily Row.
** AlliterativeFamily: Velma and her sister Veronica]] that she killed.
** AlliterativeName: Matron Mama
** AlliterativeFamily: Velma and her sister Veronica]] that she killed.
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* CoordinatedClothes: At the end, Velma and Roxie perform their singing and dancing routine in matching outfits. They start in a long white robes with fur and then strip it, each wearing a silver sexy dress. They have various props like hats or sticks shaped like guns. Their hair styles contrast wonderfully - both have a bob, but Velma has black and straight hair while Roxie's hair is curly and blond. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx6Rgn1ioAk&list=PL5CBDA5850C7098C0 See the video at youtube]].
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* TwentiesBobHaircut: It's the Roaring Twenties after all. A lot of women sport this hair style, most prominently Velma and Roxie.
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Roxie has been played by actresses of all sorts of hair colors. Heck, the (still-running) Broadway revival originally had Anne Menkin, a blonde, in the part.
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* AdaptationDyeJob: Roxie was a redhead in the stage version.
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--> '''Mary Sunshine''': How're feeling?
--> '''Billy (voicing the Dummy!Roxie):''' Very frightened.
--> '''Billy (voicing the Dummy!Roxie):''' Very frightened.
to:
--> '''Mary Sunshine''': How're you feeling?
--> '''Billy (voicing the Dummy!Roxie):''' Veryfrightened.frightened!
--> '''Billy (voicing the Dummy!Roxie):''' Very
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* BrutalHonesty: The reason why Billy forbids Roxie to talk to the reporters.
--> '''Roxie:''' I bet you all wanna know why I shot the bastard.
** And later during the song "We both reached for the gun":
--> '''Mary Sunshine''': How're feeling?
--> '''Billy (voicing the Dummy!Roxie):''' Very frightened.
--> '''Mary Sunshine''': Are you sorry?
--> '''Roxie (herself):''' [[WomanScorned Are you kidding?!]]
--> '''Roxie:''' I bet you all wanna know why I shot the bastard.
** And later during the song "We both reached for the gun":
--> '''Mary Sunshine''': How're feeling?
--> '''Billy (voicing the Dummy!Roxie):''' Very frightened.
--> '''Mary Sunshine''': Are you sorry?
--> '''Roxie (herself):''' [[WomanScorned Are you kidding?!]]
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** Mama Morton's dress during "When You're Good To Mama" shows off her ''ample'' cleavage, and the whole song is an extended burlesque number.
to:
** Mama Morton's dress during "When You're Good To Mama" shows off her ''ample'' cleavage, and the whole song is an extended burlesque number.number (so ample, in fact, that rumor has it Queen Latifah almost fell down the stairs because she couldn't see her own feet over her cleavage.)
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Language Barrier added.
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* LanguageBarrier: Katalin Halinski doesn't speak English, and it has tragic consequences. She's unable to testify about her husband's murder, is accused of it, found guilty and executed, even though she's innocent.
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* BettyAndVeronica: Roxie and Velma for Flynn's Archie.
to:
* BettyAndVeronica: This could pretty much describe the relationship between Roxie and Velma for towards Flynn's Archie.
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* BettyAndVeronica: Roxie and Velma for Flynn's Archie.
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* CainAndAbel: Velma kills her sister, because she founds her in bed with her husband.
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* DiegeticMusic: one of the film's big innovations is that while every number is sung to an audience, none of them are sung to ''the'' audience: singers are either in a ShowWithinAShow, or the song is taking place as an ImagineSpot inside Roxie's head, making her the Surrogate Audience. ''Every'' number is diegetic music. By extension, this allows ''Chicago'' to have a FourthWall and adds to the credibility of the presentation.
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zero context examples and questionable examples for this trope are being purged. Please remember a Big Beautiful Woman a female character who is fat and portrayed as attractive. Examples must make both of those things clear.
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* BigBeautifulWoman: Matron Mama Morton, as played by Music/QueenLatifah.
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* {{Stripperiffic}}: The outfits the ladies wear in "Cell Block Tango" (with the exception of Hunyak's, which is a demure ballerina's getup). Flynn gets it, too - one of his numbers is a striptease.
** No love for Mama Morton? Her dress during "When You're Good To Mama" shows off her ''ample'' cleavage, and the whole song is an extended burlesque number.
** No love for Mama Morton? Her dress during "When You're Good To Mama" shows off her ''ample'' cleavage, and the whole song is an extended burlesque number.
to:
* {{Stripperiffic}}: {{Stripperiffic}}:
** The outfits the ladies wear in "Cell Block Tango" (with the exception of Hunyak's, which is a demure ballerina'sgetup). getup).
** Flynn gets it, too - one of his numbers is a striptease.
**No love for Mama Morton? Her Morton's dress during "When You're Good To Mama" shows off her ''ample'' cleavage, and the whole song is an extended burlesque number.
** The outfits the ladies wear in "Cell Block Tango" (with the exception of Hunyak's, which is a demure ballerina's
** Flynn gets it, too - one of his numbers is a striptease.
**
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** No love for Mama Morton? Her dress during "When You're Good To Mama" shows off her ''ample'' cleavage, and the whole song is an extended burlesque number.
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completely missing the point about misogyny
Deleted line(s) 46 (click to see context) :
* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: "Cell Block Tango". Could you imagine an upbeat musical number like that being PlayedForLaughs if it was about a bunch of ''male'' inmates describing how they killed their wives and girlfriends?
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None
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-->"And now, presenting Katalin Helinski with the famous ''Hungarian Rope Trick!''"
to:
-->"And now, presenting Katalin Helinski with the famous ''Hungarian Rope Trick!''"Disappearing Act!''"
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None
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** Velma Kelly sings a song about how she cannot do her double-act alone - while doing both her and her sister's part.
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already on the Trivia page, where it belongs
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** Creator/LucyLiu as an heiress who shoots her philandering husband. At one point this part was to be [[WhatCouldHaveBeen played by Britney Spears]].
to:
** Creator/LucyLiu as an heiress who shoots her philandering husband. At one point this part was to be [[WhatCouldHaveBeen played by Britney Spears]].
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The trope wasn\'t showing up at all. This is the only way to get it visible.
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* IAmSong:
to:
* IAmSong:[[IAmSong "I Am" Song]]:
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** LucyLiu as an heiress who shoots her philandering husband. At one point this part was to be [[WhatCouldHaveBeen played by Britney Spears]].
to:
** LucyLiu Creator/LucyLiu as an heiress who shoots her philandering husband. At one point this part was to be [[WhatCouldHaveBeen played by Britney Spears]].
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----
to:
----
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* DyeingForYourArt: An interesting example. Catherine Zeta Jones decided to cut her hair short for the role, even though the script didn't call for it, because she was afraid that her ordinarily long hair might obscure her face during the dancing scenes, making the audience think that she had a double doing her dancing for her. With the bob haircut that she wears in the movie, there's no doubt that it's really her.
to:
* DyeingForYourArt: An interesting example. Even though the script didn't call for it, Catherine Zeta Jones decided to cut her hair short for the role, even though the script didn't call for it, role because she was afraid that her ordinarily long hair might obscure her face during the dancing scenes, making the audience think that she had a double doing her dancing for her. With the bob haircut that she wears in the movie, there's no doubt that it's really her.
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* DyeingForYourArt: An interesting example. Catherine Zeta Jones decided to cut her hair short for the role, even though the script didn't call for it, because she was afraid that her ordinarily long hair might obscure her face during the dancing scenes, making the audience think that she had a double doing her dancing for her. With the bob haircut that she wears in the movie, there's no doubt that it's really her.
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* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: "Cell Block Tango". Could you imagine an upbeat musical number like that being PlayedForLaughs if it was about a bunch of ''male'' inmates describing how they killed their wives and girlfriends?
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** Though they're quickly pushed out of the news by another similar crime, and driven into poverty while Roxy can only fantasize about the two of them teaming up to be a success.
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* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: [[AlliterativeName Matron Mama Morton]], the supervisor of Murderess Row. [[AlliterativeFamily Velma and her sister Veronica]] that she killed.
* AllTakeAndNoGive: Amos and Roxie's marriage, with Amos as the Giver and Roxie as the Taker.
* AllTakeAndNoGive: Amos and Roxie's marriage, with Amos as the Giver and Roxie as the Taker.
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* {{Irony}}: The only prisoner on Murderess Row to be executed throughout the course of the film is the only one who is ''innocent'' of the homicide she's alleged to have committed.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Roxie, Roxie, '''Roxie'''. Velma, too, to a less obtrusive extent.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Roxie, Roxie, '''Roxie'''. Velma, too, to a less obtrusive extent.
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* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: Played with. Roxie pretends to be pregnant to gain the press and jury's sympathy. Her husband Amos is excited until it turns out that he couldn't possibly be the father of the child and gets very upset about Roxie being pregnant with another man's baby. It's Roxie's disclosure to him that she was never pregnant that prompts him to divorce her.
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* PoliticallyIncorrectHero[=/=][[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Villain]] [[VillainProtagonist Protagonist]]: Roxie calls Billy Flynn a mick[[hottip:*:A derogatory term for a person of Irish descent, birth, or nationality]] when things aren't going her way in court. It could be that this is meant to further establish Roxie as a bad, bad person in the audience's eyes, but it's not like anything much is ever made of it.
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* YourCheatingHeart: Roxie's murder victim was the man with whom she was cheating on her husband. Also the grounds for Velma, Annie, and Mona's homicides.
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* XanatosGambit: [[spoiler:Billy Flynn gives Roxie's diary to Velma Kelly, his other client, to give to the DA in exchange for having the charges against her dropped. He's modified the diary to include legal terms so that he can insinuate that the prosecutor wrote the whole thing. With one planted diary he gets one client acquitted and the other released on a plea bargain.]]
to:
* XanatosGambit: [[spoiler:Billy Flynn gives Roxie's diary to Velma Kelly, his other client, to give to the DA in exchange for having the charges against her dropped. He's modified the diary to include legal terms so that he can insinuate that the prosecutor wrote the whole thing. With one planted diary he gets one client acquitted and and, if nothing else, the other released on a plea bargain.]]
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* AmbiguouslyGay: WordOfGod is that Mama Morton is "kind of dykish" and there's a memorable scene where she calls Roxy "a pretty one" and strokes her hair.
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Not really. A Lipstick Lesbian is supposed to be, basically the hollywood stereotype sexy woman, only into girls. Queen Latifa doesn\'t fit that type.
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* LipstickLesbian: Mama Morton, given how she calls Roxy "a pretty one" while stroking her face, and WordOfGod pretty much confirms it.
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* LipstickLesbian: Mama Morton, given how she calls Roxy "a pretty one" while stroking her face, and WordOfGod pretty much confirms it.
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from Main.Chicago
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[[quoteright:200:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chicago_poster.jpg]]
''Chicago'', based on [[Theatre/{{Chicago}} a musical]] originally choreographed and directed by the legendary BobFosse in 1975, is the story of Roxie Hart, a wannabe cabaret star in 1920s Chicago. She sleeps around unknown to her husband, Amos, but has a falling-out with one of her lovers, shoots him and is arrested for murder. In prison, she develops a rivalry with the star Velma Kelly, who killed her own husband and sister.
Roxie, through bribing the prison warden, Mama Morton, gets the best lawyer in town, Billy Flynn. Billy is a smooth-talking trickster who has never lost a case. As tensions mount and the media make Roxie a star, fame begins to get to Roxie's head. But the press will love her even more if she is found guilty...
A biting satire of celebrity trials, the press and show business in general, ''Chicago'' was released in 2002 and won that year's Best Picture Oscar.
----
!!This film contains examples of:
* AdaptationDyeJob: Roxie was a redhead in the stage version.
* AmoralAttorney: Billy Flynn, who manages to acquit two murderers that we know of and likely dozens that we don't.
* AssholeVictim: Invoked; in "The Cell Block Tango" the first proper lyric is "He had it comin'!" although at least some of them are extreme cases of DisproportionateRetribution.
* AttentionWhore: Roxie
-->'''Roxie:''' And the audience loves me. And I love them for loving me and they love me for loving them. And we love each other. 'Cause none of us got enough ''love'' in our childhoods...
* TheBadGuyWins: Billy Flynn gets both Roxie and Velma acquitted in the end.
* BerserkButton: Apparent in "The Cell Block Tango," especially with the woman who shot her husband for popping gum too loudly.
* BigBeautifulWoman: Matron Mama Morton, as played by Music/QueenLatifah.
* BilingualBonus: The Hungarian is left untranslated. For those wondering, her monologue translates to, "What am I doing here? They say my famous lover held down my husband and I chopped his head off. But it's not true. I am innocent. I don't know why Uncle Sam says I did it. I tried to explain at the police station but they didn't understand."
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Mary Sunshine has hints of being this -- she passes herself off as naive and optimistic, but she has a very shrewd expression a lot of the time, and, with the rest of the media, ditches Roxie when a hotter story comes along.
* BlackComedy: Throughout.
-->"And now, presenting Katalin Helinski with the famous ''Hungarian Rope Trick!''"
* BlackVikings: Music/QueenLatifah as Mama Morton. In 1920s America, there's no way that an African-American (no matter how smart and capable) would be allowed to hold a position of authority over white people (no matter how dim-witted and degenerate).
* BlasphemousBoast: Billy Flynn has a nice one to Amos.
-->'''Billy Flynn:''' I don't like to blow my own horn; but, believe me, if Jesus Christ had lived in Chicago today and he had five thousand dollars and [[BiggerThanJesus he'd come to me]] things would have turned out differently.
* BlatantLies: Most of Billy Flynn's role.
* {{Bowdlerise}}: The soundtrack cover had the above picture... with the handguns digitally removed.
* ButtMonkey: Poor Amos... he even has a song, "Mr. Cellophane", about it.
* TheCameo:
** LucyLiu as an heiress who shoots her philandering husband. At one point this part was to be [[WhatCouldHaveBeen played by Britney Spears]].
** Taye Diggs as the man who announces the songs in Roxie's heads.
** Dominic West as Fred Casely, the victim.
** Chita Rivera, the original Velma, gets a line in the movie.
* CastingCouch: Roxie is implied to have been sleeping with Fred Casely because he was lying about having connections in the show biz and finding her an act.
* ChewbaccaDefense: "Razzle Dazzle" is this trope in song form.
* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: All of the guilty inmates in "The Cell Block Tango" are shown dancing under blood-red lights and brandishing cloth of the same color. The lone innocent inmate instead has a striking motif of white.
* ComedicSociopathy: The play's humor.
* CourtroomAntic: Basically all of Billy Flynn's role. Lampshaded '''hard''' with "Razzle Dazzle".
* CrapsackWorld
* DeathByWomanScorned: A recurring theme in "The Cell Block Tango" -- Velma killed her husband and his lover (her own sister), Annie poisoned her boyfriend after finding out he was already married to six other women, and Mona killed her boyfriend after finding out he had three other girlfriends and a boyfriend.
* DisproportionateRetribution: "So I fired two warning shots...into his head." For popping bubblegum.
* DownerEnding: No-one in the audience gets what they want. Anyone supporting Roxie or Velma will be disappointed that they stay small-time. Anyone wanting them sent down, will be sad they got off. Amos is still left with nothing, and the only person who was innocent is the one who dies. The two most unsympathetic characters, Mama and Billy, get away scot free. Billy Flynn's double-dealing destroys the career of the only non-corrupt ADA in the city.
* DreamSequence: Almost every song scene is actually Roxie's imagination. The difference between her daydreams and the reality are underlined a number of times.
* DrippingDisturbance: A dripping tap is one of the noises Roxie hears as she tries to get to sleep on her first night in prison. It turns into part of the rhythmic accompaniment to "The Cell Block Tango".
* EveryoneLovesBlondes: Roxie seems to get this treatment, especially after Billy uses it to improve her chances of getting acquitted.
* EvilVersusEvil: The rivalry between Roxie and Velma.
* {{Fanservice}}: Loads of it.
* GirlsBehindBars
* GuiltByAssociationGag: The one innocent person in "The Cell Block Tango" is the one who gets killed. It's implied that the only reason she got blamed/killed in the first place is because no one understands her Hungarian, and it's said that she's the first woman in the area to get executed at all.
* HumblePie: Roxie is acquitted, but literally moments later, a new heinous crime is committed and all the reporters rush out of the courtroom, leaving her all alone and without the fame and adoration she had been seeking.
* IAmSong:
** "When You're Good To Mama" for Mama.
** "All I Care About Is Love" for Billy.
** "Mr. Cellophane" for Amos.
* ImplausibleDeniability:
** Two of the murderesses in "The Cell Block Tango" deny things this way:
--->"And then he ran into my knife! He ran into my knife ten times!"
--->"I was in such a state of shock, I completely blacked out. I can't remember a thing. It wasn't until later, that I was washing the blood off my hands, that I even knew they were dead."
** The denial is made by a cheating boyfriend while he's still in bed with two other women: "Who you gonna believe, your own eyes or me?"
* {{Jerkass}}: Nearly ''everybody'', but the most prominent examples are unusual in that they're the ones you'd expect to be sympathetic: the murder victim, the detective who arrests Roxie, and the uncorrupt assistant D.A. The victim is a married man with kids in a relationship with a married woman, stringing her along by pretending to have connections, and then abruptly dumps her when he's bored of her. The detective refers to Amos as "Goofy" while he's present, acts rudely to everyone, and flouts the fact that Roxie will be hanged. The assistant D.A. seems to push the death penalty for ''everyone'', gets the innocent Hunyak hanged, and drops all charges on Velma Kelly, murderer of two, in exchange for testimony against Roxie Hart, murderer of one.
* KarmaHoudini: Velma, Roxie, and Billy Flynn. Meanwhile, inverted in that Hunyak gets punished, and [[TheWoobie Amos]] gets dumped and gets nothing.
* LackOfEmpathy: "So if there's something that upsets you, makes you unhappy in anyway...don't shut your fatass mouth off to me, because I don't give a shit. NOW MOVE IT OUT!"
* LovableRogue: Roxie's a lying, scheming, glory-seeking, JerkAss murderess but still manages to be endearing at several points. Ditto for Velma and Billy.
* MadnessMantra: Pop, six, squish, uh-uh, Cicero, Lipschitz...
* TheMakeover: From dowdy housewife to "sweetest little jazz killer in town".
* MaleGaze: Used intentionally in "All I Care About Is Love": Billy Flynn is singing about how all he cares about is love, and wants a girl with long hair and big eyes who needs him, while the camera is full of gyrating besequined butts.
* NeverTrustATrailer:
** Most of the TV promos for the movie made Roxie look like a more sympathetic character whose actions really ''were'' in self defence.
** In the trailer, Velma tells Roxie "keep your paws off of my lawyer," when in fact the real line in the film is "keep your paws off my underwear."
* PetTheDog: Mama seems genuinely upset at the Hunyak's execution, and both she and Billy take the time to attend [[spoiler:Velma and Roxie's show]].
* PrettyInMink: This was the jazz age, so furs were bound to turn up.
* RefugeInAudacity: "[[VillainSong Razzle Dazzle]]" is practically a hymn to getting away with murder through liberal use of outrageous stunts.
* SittingSexyOnAPiano: Roxie plays this for all it's worth in "Funny Honey".
* SmokingGun: Roxie's diary. [[spoiler:Subverted; the diary was modified by Billy Flynn and then anonymously sent to the DA in order to make it seem that he had fabricated evidence.]]
* {{Stripperiffic}}: The outfits the ladies wear in "Cell Block Tango" (with the exception of Hunyak's, which is a demure ballerina's getup). Flynn gets it, too - one of his numbers is a striptease.
* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Hunyak, the only woman in "The Cell Block Tango" who ''did not'' commit the murder she was accused of, is the only person we see found guilty and executed.
* {{Trickster}}: Roxie and Billy Flynn.
* UglyGuyHotWife: Amos and Roxie. And he knows it too.
* TheVamp: Most of the female characters.
* VictoriasSecretCompartment: Mama tucks some bribe money into her cleavage during her number.
* VideoCredits
* VillainProtagonist: The main character is well-known to the audience to be guilty of murder and is generally a poor example of a human being.
* VillainSong: Roxie expresses her worldview and motivations in "My Own Best Friend" and "Roxie"; Billy expresses his in "Razzle Dazzle" and (with such blatant dishonesty that it wraps around to honesty again) "All I Care About is Love".
* XanatosGambit: [[spoiler:Billy Flynn gives Roxie's diary to Velma Kelly, his other client, to give to the DA in exchange for having the charges against her dropped. He's modified the diary to include legal terms so that he can insinuate that the prosecutor wrote the whole thing. With one planted diary he gets one client acquitted and the other released on a plea bargain.]]
* YouWouldMakeAGreatModel: A BlackAndGreyMorality variant. The main character is sleeping with a man mainly because she thinks he's a producer who can help her career. [[spoiler:He's not.]]
----
''Chicago'', based on [[Theatre/{{Chicago}} a musical]] originally choreographed and directed by the legendary BobFosse in 1975, is the story of Roxie Hart, a wannabe cabaret star in 1920s Chicago. She sleeps around unknown to her husband, Amos, but has a falling-out with one of her lovers, shoots him and is arrested for murder. In prison, she develops a rivalry with the star Velma Kelly, who killed her own husband and sister.
Roxie, through bribing the prison warden, Mama Morton, gets the best lawyer in town, Billy Flynn. Billy is a smooth-talking trickster who has never lost a case. As tensions mount and the media make Roxie a star, fame begins to get to Roxie's head. But the press will love her even more if she is found guilty...
A biting satire of celebrity trials, the press and show business in general, ''Chicago'' was released in 2002 and won that year's Best Picture Oscar.
----
!!This film contains examples of:
* AdaptationDyeJob: Roxie was a redhead in the stage version.
* AmoralAttorney: Billy Flynn, who manages to acquit two murderers that we know of and likely dozens that we don't.
* AssholeVictim: Invoked; in "The Cell Block Tango" the first proper lyric is "He had it comin'!" although at least some of them are extreme cases of DisproportionateRetribution.
* AttentionWhore: Roxie
-->'''Roxie:''' And the audience loves me. And I love them for loving me and they love me for loving them. And we love each other. 'Cause none of us got enough ''love'' in our childhoods...
* TheBadGuyWins: Billy Flynn gets both Roxie and Velma acquitted in the end.
* BerserkButton: Apparent in "The Cell Block Tango," especially with the woman who shot her husband for popping gum too loudly.
* BigBeautifulWoman: Matron Mama Morton, as played by Music/QueenLatifah.
* BilingualBonus: The Hungarian is left untranslated. For those wondering, her monologue translates to, "What am I doing here? They say my famous lover held down my husband and I chopped his head off. But it's not true. I am innocent. I don't know why Uncle Sam says I did it. I tried to explain at the police station but they didn't understand."
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Mary Sunshine has hints of being this -- she passes herself off as naive and optimistic, but she has a very shrewd expression a lot of the time, and, with the rest of the media, ditches Roxie when a hotter story comes along.
* BlackComedy: Throughout.
-->"And now, presenting Katalin Helinski with the famous ''Hungarian Rope Trick!''"
* BlackVikings: Music/QueenLatifah as Mama Morton. In 1920s America, there's no way that an African-American (no matter how smart and capable) would be allowed to hold a position of authority over white people (no matter how dim-witted and degenerate).
* BlasphemousBoast: Billy Flynn has a nice one to Amos.
-->'''Billy Flynn:''' I don't like to blow my own horn; but, believe me, if Jesus Christ had lived in Chicago today and he had five thousand dollars and [[BiggerThanJesus he'd come to me]] things would have turned out differently.
* BlatantLies: Most of Billy Flynn's role.
* {{Bowdlerise}}: The soundtrack cover had the above picture... with the handguns digitally removed.
* ButtMonkey: Poor Amos... he even has a song, "Mr. Cellophane", about it.
* TheCameo:
** LucyLiu as an heiress who shoots her philandering husband. At one point this part was to be [[WhatCouldHaveBeen played by Britney Spears]].
** Taye Diggs as the man who announces the songs in Roxie's heads.
** Dominic West as Fred Casely, the victim.
** Chita Rivera, the original Velma, gets a line in the movie.
* CastingCouch: Roxie is implied to have been sleeping with Fred Casely because he was lying about having connections in the show biz and finding her an act.
* ChewbaccaDefense: "Razzle Dazzle" is this trope in song form.
* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: All of the guilty inmates in "The Cell Block Tango" are shown dancing under blood-red lights and brandishing cloth of the same color. The lone innocent inmate instead has a striking motif of white.
* ComedicSociopathy: The play's humor.
* CourtroomAntic: Basically all of Billy Flynn's role. Lampshaded '''hard''' with "Razzle Dazzle".
* CrapsackWorld
* DeathByWomanScorned: A recurring theme in "The Cell Block Tango" -- Velma killed her husband and his lover (her own sister), Annie poisoned her boyfriend after finding out he was already married to six other women, and Mona killed her boyfriend after finding out he had three other girlfriends and a boyfriend.
* DisproportionateRetribution: "So I fired two warning shots...into his head." For popping bubblegum.
* DownerEnding: No-one in the audience gets what they want. Anyone supporting Roxie or Velma will be disappointed that they stay small-time. Anyone wanting them sent down, will be sad they got off. Amos is still left with nothing, and the only person who was innocent is the one who dies. The two most unsympathetic characters, Mama and Billy, get away scot free. Billy Flynn's double-dealing destroys the career of the only non-corrupt ADA in the city.
* DreamSequence: Almost every song scene is actually Roxie's imagination. The difference between her daydreams and the reality are underlined a number of times.
* DrippingDisturbance: A dripping tap is one of the noises Roxie hears as she tries to get to sleep on her first night in prison. It turns into part of the rhythmic accompaniment to "The Cell Block Tango".
* EveryoneLovesBlondes: Roxie seems to get this treatment, especially after Billy uses it to improve her chances of getting acquitted.
* EvilVersusEvil: The rivalry between Roxie and Velma.
* {{Fanservice}}: Loads of it.
* GirlsBehindBars
* GuiltByAssociationGag: The one innocent person in "The Cell Block Tango" is the one who gets killed. It's implied that the only reason she got blamed/killed in the first place is because no one understands her Hungarian, and it's said that she's the first woman in the area to get executed at all.
* HumblePie: Roxie is acquitted, but literally moments later, a new heinous crime is committed and all the reporters rush out of the courtroom, leaving her all alone and without the fame and adoration she had been seeking.
* IAmSong:
** "When You're Good To Mama" for Mama.
** "All I Care About Is Love" for Billy.
** "Mr. Cellophane" for Amos.
* ImplausibleDeniability:
** Two of the murderesses in "The Cell Block Tango" deny things this way:
--->"And then he ran into my knife! He ran into my knife ten times!"
--->"I was in such a state of shock, I completely blacked out. I can't remember a thing. It wasn't until later, that I was washing the blood off my hands, that I even knew they were dead."
** The denial is made by a cheating boyfriend while he's still in bed with two other women: "Who you gonna believe, your own eyes or me?"
* {{Jerkass}}: Nearly ''everybody'', but the most prominent examples are unusual in that they're the ones you'd expect to be sympathetic: the murder victim, the detective who arrests Roxie, and the uncorrupt assistant D.A. The victim is a married man with kids in a relationship with a married woman, stringing her along by pretending to have connections, and then abruptly dumps her when he's bored of her. The detective refers to Amos as "Goofy" while he's present, acts rudely to everyone, and flouts the fact that Roxie will be hanged. The assistant D.A. seems to push the death penalty for ''everyone'', gets the innocent Hunyak hanged, and drops all charges on Velma Kelly, murderer of two, in exchange for testimony against Roxie Hart, murderer of one.
* KarmaHoudini: Velma, Roxie, and Billy Flynn. Meanwhile, inverted in that Hunyak gets punished, and [[TheWoobie Amos]] gets dumped and gets nothing.
* LackOfEmpathy: "So if there's something that upsets you, makes you unhappy in anyway...don't shut your fatass mouth off to me, because I don't give a shit. NOW MOVE IT OUT!"
* LovableRogue: Roxie's a lying, scheming, glory-seeking, JerkAss murderess but still manages to be endearing at several points. Ditto for Velma and Billy.
* MadnessMantra: Pop, six, squish, uh-uh, Cicero, Lipschitz...
* TheMakeover: From dowdy housewife to "sweetest little jazz killer in town".
* MaleGaze: Used intentionally in "All I Care About Is Love": Billy Flynn is singing about how all he cares about is love, and wants a girl with long hair and big eyes who needs him, while the camera is full of gyrating besequined butts.
* NeverTrustATrailer:
** Most of the TV promos for the movie made Roxie look like a more sympathetic character whose actions really ''were'' in self defence.
** In the trailer, Velma tells Roxie "keep your paws off of my lawyer," when in fact the real line in the film is "keep your paws off my underwear."
* PetTheDog: Mama seems genuinely upset at the Hunyak's execution, and both she and Billy take the time to attend [[spoiler:Velma and Roxie's show]].
* PrettyInMink: This was the jazz age, so furs were bound to turn up.
* RefugeInAudacity: "[[VillainSong Razzle Dazzle]]" is practically a hymn to getting away with murder through liberal use of outrageous stunts.
* SittingSexyOnAPiano: Roxie plays this for all it's worth in "Funny Honey".
* SmokingGun: Roxie's diary. [[spoiler:Subverted; the diary was modified by Billy Flynn and then anonymously sent to the DA in order to make it seem that he had fabricated evidence.]]
* {{Stripperiffic}}: The outfits the ladies wear in "Cell Block Tango" (with the exception of Hunyak's, which is a demure ballerina's getup). Flynn gets it, too - one of his numbers is a striptease.
* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Hunyak, the only woman in "The Cell Block Tango" who ''did not'' commit the murder she was accused of, is the only person we see found guilty and executed.
* {{Trickster}}: Roxie and Billy Flynn.
* UglyGuyHotWife: Amos and Roxie. And he knows it too.
* TheVamp: Most of the female characters.
* VictoriasSecretCompartment: Mama tucks some bribe money into her cleavage during her number.
* VideoCredits
* VillainProtagonist: The main character is well-known to the audience to be guilty of murder and is generally a poor example of a human being.
* VillainSong: Roxie expresses her worldview and motivations in "My Own Best Friend" and "Roxie"; Billy expresses his in "Razzle Dazzle" and (with such blatant dishonesty that it wraps around to honesty again) "All I Care About is Love".
* XanatosGambit: [[spoiler:Billy Flynn gives Roxie's diary to Velma Kelly, his other client, to give to the DA in exchange for having the charges against her dropped. He's modified the diary to include legal terms so that he can insinuate that the prosecutor wrote the whole thing. With one planted diary he gets one client acquitted and the other released on a plea bargain.]]
* YouWouldMakeAGreatModel: A BlackAndGreyMorality variant. The main character is sleeping with a man mainly because she thinks he's a producer who can help her career. [[spoiler:He's not.]]
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