Busby Berkeley

Directing

Busby Berkeley

Born 1895-11-29 · Los Angeles, California, USA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Busby Berkeley (November 29, 1895 – March 14, 1976) was a highly influential Hollywood movie director and musical choreographer. Berkeley was famous for his elaborate musical production numbers that often involved complex geometric patterns. Berkeley's works used large numbers of showgirls and props as fantasy elements in kaleidoscopic on-screen performances. Description above from the Wikipedia article Busby Berkeley, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

Gold Diggers of 1933 poster
7.2

When all Broadway shows are shut down during the Depression, a trio of desperate showgirls scheme to bilk a repugnant high society man of his money to keep their show going.

Gold Diggers of 1933

1933

That's Dancing! poster
6.9

A documentary film about dancing on the screen, from its origins after the invention of the movie camera, over the movie musical from the late 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s, up to the break dance and music videos from the 80s.

That's Dancing!

1985

No artwork available
7.0

A potpourri of features involving Hollywood celebrities. The Columbia University football team, winner of the 1934 Rose Bowl game, visits the Warner Bros. Studios and is greeted by several stars; Margaret Lindsay, Guy Kibbee, and Dick Powell work at a gold mine; Joan Blondell, recovered from a recent illness, thanks her fans; songs from the movie Harold Teen (1934) are performed by the songwriters and the film's stars.

Hollywood Newsreel

1934

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? poster
6.3

Period music, film clips and newsreel footage combined into a visual exploration of the American entertainment industry during the Great Depression.

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

1975

You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story poster
8.5

Jack L. Warner, Harry Warner, Albert Warner and Sam Warner were siblings who were born in Poland and emigrated to Canada near the turn of the century. In 1903, the brothers entered the budding motion picture business. In time, the Warner Brothers moved into film production and would open their own studio in 1923.

You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story

2008

The Phynx poster
3.6

A rock band is invented by the government as a cover to find hostages in a remote castle in Albania held by communist enemies of the USA.

The Phynx

1970

Palmy Days poster
7.3

Musical comedy antics in an art deco bakery (motto: "Glorifying the American Doughnut") where Eddie Cantor, the overworked assistant to a phony psychic, is mistaken for an efficiency expert and placed in charge. Complications ensue when the psychic and his gang attempt to rob the payroll.

Palmy Days

1931

And She Learned About Dames poster
7.0

Students at New York's Rovina Finishing School for Girls send their photographs to the makers of Claybury's Beauty Soap, in the hope of being chosen as "Miss Complexion of 1934." Martha Howson wins the contest, which includes a trip to Hollywood and a tour of the Warner Brothers lot with Lyle Talbot. When she gets to the studio, all she wants to do is meet Dick Powell, star of the new Warner Brothers film Dames (1934).

And She Learned About Dames

1934

Things You Never See on the Screen poster
5.3

Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1935.

Things You Never See on the Screen

1935

42nd Street: From Book to Screen to Stage poster
6.0

Making-of documentary about the 1933 musical, 42nd Street.

42nd Street: From Book to Screen to Stage

2006

We Must Have Music poster
5.4

A short history of movie music is presented, from silent films accompanied by a single piano, to the elaborate song scores for musicals (with scenes from MGM's musicals) and background music for dramas. Conductor/composer

We Must Have Music

1942

A Trip Thru a Hollywood Studio poster
5.9

This short shows the entrances of the various Hollywood studios, then specifically visits Warner Bros. / First National Studios. We start at the casting office, then see Busby Berkeley and choreographer Bobby Connolly working with chorus girls on production numbers. Then come some candid shots of several contract stars. Finally we see comedian Hugh Herbert filming a scene for an upcoming release, then the various behind the scenes steps that transition the raw film in the camera into the finished product.

A Trip Thru a Hollywood Studio

1935

Busby Berkeley: Going Through the Roof poster
10.0

Documentary profile of legendary dance choreographer Busby Berkeley.

Busby Berkeley: Going Through the Roof

2003

Busby Berkeley: A Journey with a Star poster
NR

Profile of famed dance director Busby Berkeley's career, in particular "The Gang's All Here"

Busby Berkeley: A Journey with a Star

2007

Behind the camera

Romance on the High Seas poster
6.7

Georgia Garrett is sent by jealous wife Elvira Kent on an ocean cruise to masquerade as herself while she secretly stays home to catch her husband cheating. Meanwhile equally suspicious husband Michael Kent has sent a private eye on the same cruise to catch his wife cheating. Love and confusion ensues along with plenty of musical numbers.

Romance on the High Seas

1948

Babes on Broadway poster
6.6

Penny Morris and Tommy Williams are both starstruck young teens but nobody seems to give them any chance to perform. Instead, they decide to put up their own show to collect money for a summer camp for the kids.

Babes on Broadway

1941

Babes in Arms poster
6.4

Mickey Moran, son of two vaudeville veterans, decides to put up his own vaudeville show with his girlfriend Patsy Barton. But child actress Rosalie wants to make a comeback and replace Patsy both professionally and as Mickey's girl.

Babes in Arms

1939

Take Me Out to the Ball Game poster
6.7

The Wolves baseball team gets steamed when they find they've been inherited by one K.C. Higgins, a suspected "fathead" who intends to take an active interest in running the team. But K.C. turns outs to be a beautiful woman who really knows her baseball. Second baseman Dennis Ryan promptly falls in love. But his playboy roommate Eddie O'Brien has his own notions about how to treat the new lady owner and some unsavory gamblers have their own ideas about how to handle Eddie.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

1949

The Gang's All Here poster
5.9

A soldier falls for a chorus girl and then experiences trouble when he is posted to the Pacific.

The Gang's All Here

1943

The Go-Getter poster
6.2

A Navy veteran with one leg fights to make himself a success.

The Go-Getter

1937

Blonde Inspiration poster
5.8

A writer of pulp Westerns cranks out more words than his editor and publisher want to pay for.

Blonde Inspiration

1941

They Made Me a Criminal poster
6.3

A boxer flees, believing he has committed a murder while he was drunk.

They Made Me a Criminal

1939

Girl Crazy poster
5.6

Rich kid Danny Churchill has a taste for wine, women and song, but not for higher education. So his father ships him to an all-male college out West where there's not supposed to be a female for miles. But before Danny arrives, he spies a pair of legs extending out from under a stalled roadster. They belong to the Dean's granddaughter, Ginger Gray, who is more interested in keeping the financially strapped college open than falling for Danny's romantic line. At least at first...

Girl Crazy

1943

Hollywood Hotel poster
5.8

After losing a coveted role in an upcoming film to another actress, screen queen Mona Marshall (Lola Lane) protests by refusing to appear at her current movie's premiere. Her agent discovers struggling actress Virginia Stanton (Rosemary Lane) -- an exact match for Mona -- and sends her to the premiere instead, with young musician Ronnie Bowers (Dick Powell). After various mishaps, including a case of mistaken identity, Ronnie and Virginia struggle to find success in Hollywood.

Hollywood Hotel

1938

Gold Diggers in Paris poster
6.8

When the representative of the Paris International Dance Exposition arrives in New York to invite the Academy Ballet of America to compete for monetary prizes, the taxi driver mistakenly brings him to the Club Ballé, a nightclub on the brink of declaring bankruptcy. The owners, Terry Moore and Duke Dennis, jump at the chance to go, despite being aware of the mistake. They hire ballet teacher, Luis Leoni, and his only pupil, Kay Morrow, to join the group, hoping to teach their two dozen show girls ballet en route to Paris by ship. Also going along and rooming with Kay is Mona, Terry's ex-wife, who wants to keep an eye on her alimony checks. Naturally, Kay and Terry fall in love.

Gold Diggers in Paris

1938

She Had to Say Yes poster
5.7

Florence Denny is Tommy Nelson's girlfriend and secretary at a clothing manufacturer during the Great Depression. In order to boost sales they have been using professional female entertainers to keep their clients very happy, but the clients are getting bored of them. Tommy convinces management to replace the professionals with "volunteers" from the pool of stenographers. Inevitably some clients expectations are greater than their "dates", boyfriends become unhappy, and the "voluntary" duty becomes less so over time. At first, Tommy prevents Florence from being a volunteer, but eventually the prospect of a bonus becomes too great and he encourages her to volunteer. Afterwards, Tommy considers Florence a loose woman.

She Had to Say Yes

1933

Bright Lights poster
5.1

Husband-and-wife vaudeville stars separate when success goes to his head.

Bright Lights

1935

Strike Up the Band poster
6.6

Jimmy and Mary get a group of kids together to play in a school orchestra. A huge contest between schools is coming up and they have a hard time raising money to go to Chicago for the contest.

Strike Up the Band

1940

Lady Be Good poster
5.5

Married songwriters almost split up while putting on a big show.

Lady Be Good

1941

Comet Over Broadway poster
5.7

A rising stage star's ambition causes trouble.

Comet Over Broadway

1938

For Me and My Gal poster
6.5

Two vaudeville performers fall in love, but find their relationship tested by the arrival of WWI.

For Me and My Gal

1942

Dames poster
6.5

A reformer's daughter wins the lead role in a scandalous Broadway show.

Dames

1934

I Live for Love poster
5.7

A failed actor finds success as a radio singer.

I Live for Love

1935

Fast and Furious poster
5.2

Joel & Garda Sloan, a husband and wife detective team, who also sell rare books in New York, take a vacation to Seaside City. At Seaside, Joel's pal, Mike Stevens is managing and preparing for their beauty pageant. Joel is made one of the judges plus he has invested $5,000 in it, to Garda's dismay. Eric Bartell, promoter, arrives to dupe Stevens. When Ed Connors, New York racketeer arrives, Bartell is mysteriously murdered. Joel and Garda set out to investigate the murder.

Fast and Furious

1939

Gold Diggers of 1935 poster
6.5

Romance strikes when a vacationing millionairess and her daughter and son spend their vacation at a posh New England resort.

Gold Diggers of 1935

1935

Forty Little Mothers poster
6.5

An out-of-work professor gets a break from an old college buddy to teach at an exclusive girl's school. But events conspire against him: he finds an abandoned child which he takes under his wing, despite the school's rules against teachers having a family; and the girls in the school resent his replacing a handsome and popular teacher, and do everything in their power to get him fired.

Forty Little Mothers

1940

We Must Have Music poster
5.4

A short history of movie music is presented, from silent films accompanied by a single piano, to the elaborate song scores for musicals (with scenes from MGM's musicals) and background music for dramas. Conductor/composer

We Must Have Music

1942

Stage Struck poster
5.3

A Broadway show is forced to bow to the whims of a talentless, whacky, but rich, Broadway actress with a contract.

Stage Struck

1936