Line #66 Film/FortySecondStreet


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4	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_forty_second_street_xlg.png]]
5
6	->''"Sawyer, you're going out a youngster, but you've got to come back a star!"''
7
8	A 1933 Warner Bros. musical with songs by Harry Warren and Al Dubin. It stars Creator/DickPowell as Billy Lawlor, and Ruby Keeler as Peggy Sawyer, a young actress struggling to make it big on Broadway. Also features Creator/WarnerBaxter as Julian Marsh, the show's stressed-out director. Creator/GingerRogers appears in her StarMakingRole as Annie, one of the chorus girls.
9
10	One of the earlier [[TheMusicalMusical "show-within-a-show" movie musicals]], it still holds up very well by today's standards.
11
12	Features tons of bizarre Creator/BusbyBerkeley choreography, as well as a number of numbers that would literally be impossible to stage on... well, an actual stage. This set the precedent for ''Film/GoldDiggersOf1933'', ''Film/FootlightParade'', and the other Warner musicals that immediately followed, made even more obvious by the fact that they all contained many of the same actors reprising similar roles.
13
14	Was [[ScreenToStageAdaptation adapted into a successful Broadway musical]] in 1980, with a revival in 2001.
15
16	----
17	!!Come and meet... Those dancing tropes:
18
19	* AdaptationDistillation: The book was full of extraneous characters and tons of subplots (many of a controversial nature), most of which were either changed or cut entirely from the movie. The film was in all likelihood improved by the streamlining of the story, but one can't help but wonder what would have happened had the film been made in a more permissive era. (True, there was no [[{{Bowdlerize}} Hays Code]] yet, but there was no way [[HoYay Julian and Billy being a couple]] was going to make it to the silver screen in the early 1930s.)
20	* BadBadActing: Keeler as Peggy when Marsh is rehearsing her for the lead part.
21	* BusbyBerkeleyNumber: "Young and Healthy" is the most elaborate number in the film, really showing off Berkeley's style.
22	* CreatorCameo: Songwriters Warren and Dubin show up in a scene being criticized by Julian Marsh after a particularly ([[StylisticSuck intentionally]]) awful musical number.
23	* DivorceInReno: Alluded to in these lines from the song "Shuffle Off to Buffalo":
24	-->''Matrimony is baloney,\
25	She'll be wanting alimony in a year or so;\
26	Still they go and shuffle, shuffle off to Buffalo.\
27	When she knows as much as we know\
28	She'll be on her way to Reno while he still has dough\
29	She'll give him the shuffle, when they're back from Buffalo.''
30	* {{Fanservice}}: Lots and lots of focus on scantily-clad chorus girls.
31	* FunnyBackgroundEvent: Peggy lets Patrick Denning stay in her room after Denning gets beat up by a couple of {{Mooks}}. The prudish landlady notices and demands that Denning leave immediately, saying, "After running a rooming house for 19 years, there's nothing I don't know." As those words are escaping her lips, a man is visible sneaking out of another girl's room.
32	* HaveAGayOldTime:
33	** One of the lines in "You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me" is "I just wanted someone to be gay with."
34	** If the lyrics to "Shuffle off to Buffalo" are any indication, "panties" used to be something that men wore.
35	* HighClassGlass: A fairly rare female example. Ann wears a glass and affects a ridiculous accent in an effort to appear fancy.
36	* TheIngenue: Peggy is one, of the particularly dewy-eyed and naive variety.
37	* LargeHam: Warner Baxter, who plays Julian Marsh, gnaws on scenery from beginning to end.
38	* LoveIsADrug: "You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me"
39	* MaleGaze: Abner the producer and his flunkies ogle the girls that Marsh is auditioning for the chorus. Lampshaded later in the film, when Abner and the flunkies are at another rehearsal, and he says that after three weeks of watching he doesn't care anymore. Like the song "Dames" says:
40	-->''What do you go for\
41	To see a show for?\
42	Tell the truth, you go to see those beautiful dames.''
43	* TheMusicalMusical: One of the Trope Makers.
44	* PimpedOutDress: The lady sung to in "Young and Healthy" is wearing a dress trimmed with fur.
45	* ReallyGetsAround: "Anytime Annie." She becomes Abner the producer's new lady friend after his former lady friend leaves to marry her old lover.
46	-->'''Chorus Girl:''' She only said no once, and then she didn't hear the question.
47	* PrettyInMink:
48	** The "Young and Healthy" number has the ladies dressed in various outfits trimmed with white fox fur.
49	** Averted in some stage productions, since this song takes place ''right'' after the opening number, thus making quick changes almost nigh-impossible unless you've got mad skills in changing in and out of your costumes.
50	* ScreenToStageAdaptation: Received the Broadway treatment in 1980 and proceeded to become a Tony-award-winning smash hit. Also fleshed out more of the plot by adding an antagonist named Dorothy Brock and a few other characters.
51	* SensationalStaircaseSequence: Part of the title song involves a giant staircase with lots of dancers performing on it.
52	* SignatureLine: "You're going out a youngster, but you've ''got'' to come back a star!"
53	* ShowWithinAShow: "Pretty Lady" the stage show.
54	* TitleDrop: Besides all the street signs, it's the title of the last musical number.
55	* UnbuiltTrope: Julian Marsh is the ur-SecretlyDying show director who stays with the job even though it is killing him. Except that the producers know about it, but go on with the show because they need him, at least one major reason he's doing the show is he needs the money and he doesn't die at the end, though it's hard not to get the feeling that there's a part of him that wishes he did.
56	* VideoCredits: At the beginning.
57	* {{Workaholic}}: Julian Marsh doesn't appear to have anything else in his life other than the theater.
58	!! Tropes for the Broadway Play Involve
59	* TheAce: Peggy has enough pure, raw talent to instantly pick up whatever dance moves she sees. After Dorothy gets injured, the other members of the ensemble [[ExploitedTrope exploit]] this to convince Julian to use her as the replacement, saying that she has what it takes.
60	* AintTooProudToBeg: The ''entire show cast'' comes to the train station to beg Peggy to return to the show. It's only when they all serenade her that she gives in.
61	* AdaptationalVillainy: In the original film, Dorothy Brock is a neutral supporting character, and her injury is a total accident. The musical makes her into a more antagonistic force and EvilDiva who only cares about herself; as such, her injury is caused by Peggy (albeit still by accident), leading Dorothy to furiously demand she be fired.
62	* AllPartOfTheShow: A thief comes on during the performance, dancing with everyone, and steals their jewelry. He then gets shot, much to Peggy's upset, but the show isn't interrupted.
63	* AmbiguousEnding: Peggy becomes a star, but it's unclear if she and Julian will end up together. They have obvious chemistry, and like each other, but Julian seems unsure if he's overstepping his bounds as a director and authority figure. The play implies that if Julian goes to the kids' cast party, then he'll have chosen Peggy but ends before he can make the decision.
64	* DoubleEntendre: Any number from the chorus girls during the opening audition, mostly taken from the film. ("I've been abroad." "You're telling me!") And a doozy in the final scene, from ''Peggy.'' She's just ended the show within a show by performing a very sexually suggestive dance to the title song, which is itself a reference to what was at the time the red light district of New York. When Julian congratulates her afterward, she replies ''"you were inside me, pulling the strings. So I congratulate you."'' Julian's somewhat rambling response suggests that he understands exactly what she has just said, but is trying desperately to ignore it.
65	* FriendlyEnemy: By the end of the show, Peggy and Dorothy have formed this dynamic--Dorothy openly admits that she's envious of Peggy, but the two are able to mutually respect each other, with the older woman coaching Peggy on the show's big romance number. The two turn the song into a duet, and they part as frenemies.
66	* HeroicBSOD: Peggy after she gets fired from the show prepares to head back to Allentown. When Julian comes to apologize, Peggy is convinced that he's come to berate her more and won't listen at first.
67	* KissDiss: In the final scene Julian tells Peggy she has "a very loving heart. And I would never want to see it broken." They lean toward each other as if to kiss, but he pushes her away at the last moment. Depending on staging and interpretation, this either cements Julian's reputation as a ManipulativeBastard or is his moment of realizing that IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy.
68	* KnowNothingKnowItAll: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] with Dorothy Brock. She's a genuinely talented actress and singer, but she can't dance at all. The problem is that keeps insisting that she can. The best the creative team can do is give her extremely simple routines and have more talented dancers perform around her to distract the crowd.
69	* MaybeEverAfter: The AmbiguousEnding shows Peggy going to the kids' cast party, but inviting Julian. They've also kissed a few times, during rehearsal and in her dressing room. Julian takes out her scarf, sings the last lines, and strokes it.
70	* MethodActing: An In-Universe example. When Peggy acts stiffly during rehearsal, Julian kisses her to show her what it's like to be in the arms of someone you love. After that, she nails the part. Much later, he gives her a kiss in the dressing room to reveal it was NotAnAct.
71	* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Dorothy uses this trope to get her way throughout the production process--since her "sugar daddy" Abner is putting up the cash for the show, she flaunts Julian's rules and makes it clear that if she's unhappy, she'll pull his funding.
72	* SecurityBlanket: Peggy's lucky scarf. She wears it to every rehearsal and performance. Julian takes it away before she goes up onstage for real.
73	* SeductionLyric: When Peggy turns down Billy's initial request for a date, he serenades her with the song "Young and Healthy":
74	-->''I'm young and healthy,\
75	and you've got charms;\
76	it would really be a sin\
77	not to have you in\
78	my arms.\
79	I'm young and healthy,\
80	and so are you\
81	when the moon is in the sky\
82	tell me what am I to do?''
83	** "Young and Healthy" also serves as something of an IAmSong for Billy, subtly setting him up in contrast to Julian, who is neither.
84	* TechnicianVersusPerformer: Dorothy Brock is the Technician, who has more Broadway training and experience. Peggy is the Performer, whose passion for dance shows in everything she does. In an interesting take, Peggy is ''also'' the more skilled dancer of the two, but her characterization is more aligned with the Performer trope.
85	* TenMinuteRetirement: After getting fired, Peggy sadly prepares to return to Allentown and give up her dreams of being a dancer. Julian and the ensemble convince her to return, with Julian apologizing for blaming her.
86	* WhiteDwarfStarlet: Dorothy Brock is beginning to show her age, and everyone on the creative team knows it--and also knows enough to not mention it at all. It doesn't help that Dorothy, while a talented singer, can't dance to save her life, although she insists she can.
87	* WhyCantIHateYou: Dorothy Brock admits this at the end to Peggy. She says she can't hate someone who is as talented as Peggy is and gives her heart to the show. It does help that Dorothy realizes that Pat really loves her and they just got married.

Context Film / FortySecondStreet