CATCH A CLASSIC
Special Theme: Busby Berkeley
TCM, Beginning at 5 a.m.
Get ready to tap your toes with another Monday evening of films from legendary musical choreographer/director Busby Berkeley as Turner Classic Movies’ monthlong salute continues with 13 more titles. The morning into the early evening features more 1930s musicals that he worked on in various capacities, beginning with Stars Over Broadway (1935), for which Berkeley
staged and directed the musical numbers; In Caliente (1935, choreographer and director of the numbers); The Singing Marine (1937, choreographer and director of the numbers); and Broadway Serenade (1939, choreographer and director of the finale).
The next three films are ones for which Berkeley received his only Oscar nominations, three consecutive nods for Best Dance Direction during the brief, three-year span when the Academy featured that category: Varsity Show (1937), for which Berkeley was nominated for his direction of the finale; Gold Diggers of 1935 (pictured) (1935), for which Berkeley received a nomination for his direction of the impressively elaborate numbers set to “The Words Are in My Heart” and the Oscar-winning song “Lullaby of Broadway,” one of the choreographer’s most famous stagings; and Gold Diggers of 1937 (1936), for which Berkeley
was nominated for his direction of the “Love and War” number. Following these is the last entry in the Gold Diggers series of films, Gold Diggers in Paris (1938), on which Berkeley served as choreographer and director of the musical numbers. As today’s lineup heads into primetime and later, the focus is on films from the 1940s to which Berkeley notably contributed: 1941’s Girl and Lady Be Good, on which he was director of the musical numbers; 1943’s Girl Crazy (he directed the “I Got Rhythm” finale) and Cabin in the Sky (director of the “Shine” sequence); and Romance on the High Seas (1948), a romantic musical comedy featuring Doris Day in her film debut, and on which Berkeley served as choreographer.