Roxie Hart (1942)

What a waste of my time!!!

Very well executed

A Major Disappointment

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Having seen Roxie on Broadway back in the 70s it took me quite a while before I saw Roxie Hart finally. It was worth the wait as Ginger Rogers gets to display her comedic and dancing talents with a bit of drama thrown in. The dance was not often seen any more since she and Fred Astaire parted cinematic company and she won that Best Actress Oscar for Kitty Foyle.Told in flashback by newspaperman George Montgomery the film harkens back to Prohibition and the lawless town of Chicago in the Roaring Twenties. As a publicity stunt manager Lynne Overman persuades burlesque queen Ginger Rogers to confess to a murder she really didn't commit.With flamboyant Adolphe Menjou defending her and Cook County juries being what they were and some maintain still are he's sure of acquittal. But there are a few unexpected bumps along the way.Besides Rogers, Adolphe Menjou had a real flair for roles like defense attorney Billy Flynn where he could ham it up and it not looking out of place. Spring Byington has a few good scenes are sob sister Chicago columnist, a far cry from her usual motherly or grandmotherly roles.The one I remember best is George Chandler who got a career role for himself as Roxie's nebbish of a husband. He's such a schnook he practically deserves Roxie cheating on him. I think you'll remember him best as well.Roxie Hart in those dark days of the first full year of America in World War II was a real winner for 20th Century Fox and for star Ginger Rogers and the entire cast that supported here in this nostalgia driven film.

'Wild Bill' Wellman's ROXIE HART gets off to a somewhat slow start but soon settles into rollicking hilarity that reaches a peak in its climactic courtroom scenes (hands down the funniest courtroom scenes that I have ever watched, beating out the Three Stooges' 'Disorder in the Court' for the honor). For those who require more than laughter in a comedy, we may note the movie's broad and biting satire against the news media and American legal institutions, but the film seems more a burlesque than a think piece, and that's just fine by me. The actors are uniformly superb, playing to the rafters in just that fashion that makes for wonderful farce. Special kudos should go to George Chandler (Wellman's personal good luck charm) as the wimpy Amos Hart, and Lynne Overman as the underplaying yet unscrupulous reporter who is more responsible than anyone for this whole charade. Phil Silvers, Spring Byington, Sarah Allgood and Nigel Bruce are all perfect in small roles (which likely were originally bigger roles as it seems that quite a few prison scenes wound up on the cutting room floor). Critically, Adolphe Menjou's Billy Flynn, the shyster lawyer to end all shyster lawyers, is a constant riot of what might be called 'innocent' greed and dishonesty, innocent in that he really does not appear to wish harm upon anyone but merely wants to put on a show for the edification of anyone who may be listening. Indeed, the concern he shows for Roxie near the end of her trial is rather touching. Menjou's performance is a classic of comedic acting that deserves comparison with the great turn by John Barrymore in TWENTIETH CENTURY.For Ginger Rogers, her Roxie was something of a return to pre-Astaire days. If 42nd STREET had given her famous Anytime Annie character a good deal more attention than it did, she might have come out very much like Roxie Hart. Ginger had also played in the similarly raucous PROFESSIONAL SWEETHEART, written by Maurine Watkins, the authoress of the original play CHICAGO upon which ROXIE HART is based. Rogers manages a character sassy, likable, greedy, vain, cheerful, naive and streetwise all at the same time. It was a step away from the more reality-based comedies that she'd recently been working on. She was an actress who excelled within many comedic forms.ROXIE HART is not a musical, but it contains two delightful dance numbers and would have had a third (Ginger's Charleston) if it had not been cut. Where would that Charleston have fit in? If it was the original ending of the movie then it would seem to have provided it with pretty much the same conclusion as the filmed musical CHICAGO, one featuring Roxie ironically triumphant. As it stands, we are left with Roxie having gotten the opposite of what she'd wanted, probably a more realistic irony.

Comedy fracas from Maurine Watkins' play "Chicago" (filmed previously in 1927, and remade as a musical in 2002) has gum-snapping, would-be showgirl Roxie Hart, wife to a real schlub in jazz-era Chicago, talked into putting herself at the center of an apartment shooting--because, after all, Chicago courts are sweet on dames. Satire of legal justice (and the theatricality of the law and the press) is pungent and funny without being terribly memorable. Ginger Rogers is very good in the lead, yet winking director William Wellman keeps repeating the same gags over and over; while frantically trying to stay one step ahead of the audience, Wellman tramples all comers--sapping Rogers' good will too soon. A few wonderful stand-outs remain: the jailhouse dance with the reporters, the lively courtroom antics, and the clever final tag. The story is framed in awkward flashback, the sub-plot about moll Two Gun Gertie is introduced and then dropped, and there's a semi-romance that never rises to a boil, but the film still has some big laughs and a lot of energy. **1/2 from ****

ROXIE HART is a fun film. Its tone is correct. The dialogue is sometimes really sharp, even for today. And the cinematography is unusually gorgeous, for a comedy anyway. But the story lacks depth and it never goes beyond the "let's play the jury with Roxie's charms" bit, which became tiring one hour into the film. The film lacked interesting secondary characters which would have added much needed depth and change from the Roxie Hart storyline. In the end, the constant focus on Roxie and her assets and the wacky court case antics reminded me of the long lasting TV show NIGHT COURT. The film, which is 90 minutes long, is at the same level of a standard 30 minute NIGHT COURT episode. Not good.It's a shame really because Ginger actually gives a great comedic performance. I completely forgot she was the same actress that starred in all of those Fred & Ginger flicks. And the cast is pretty good. The whole project just seems underdeveloped. It's just a one note comedy. It's worth watching for Ginger though.