Gold Diggers of Broadway

I have heard portions of the Vitaphone soundtrack in the past and recently seen the extant film clips featuring Nick Lucas singing "Tip toe through the tulips" and the Finale. Whilst these musical numbers are not like the grand designs as later seen in Busby Berkeley cinematic choreographed numbers they are still spectacular and more like one would see on a real stage. The action is fast and breezy. The costumes and sets look gorgeous. Warners did a great job despite the limitations of early colour and sound movies.

The finale is a reprise of most of the featured songs that were in the film. The colours though muted still look fantastic and there is tremendous energy and life in the dancers. Nancy Welford blew me away with her charm when singing the "Song of the Gold Diggers" in the Finale. I never appreciated "Tip toe through the tulips" until I saw this original version. Keep humming it all the time now. Does anyone know who the lovely lady is that Nick Lucas is serenading? I think it could be Lilyan Tashman who passed way several years after making this film.

Given the success of the stage remake of 42nd Street, it would not be a bad idea if this film was also revived into a stage show. All the ingredients for success are there. The mystique of a lost treasure, a snappy story with a suite of fantastic musical numbers and easily adaptable for the stage. The dialogue and songs still exist on Vitaphone disks and we have a feel of what the film looked like from the clips. It would be a fantastic visual experience to see it in similar two strip Technicolor hues as in the film. All pastels, pinks, greens, turquoise, browns, sepia, reds, oranges and gold. Would make a surreal visual experience.