ROXIE HART

(1942) When publicity-hungry Ginger Rogers gets herself accused of murder, it’s time for Adolphe Menjou’s “mouthpiece” to orchestrate the gam-flashing courtroom shenanigans. Musicalized decades later as Chicago.
1:00, 4:15, 7:30

LADY OF BURLESQUE

(1943) When a fellow artiste is found backstage strangled with — what else? — a G-string, burlesque headliner Barbara Stanwyck becomes a prime suspect, singing, dancing, and sleuthing in this adaptation of a novel by legendary ecdysiast Gypsy Rose Lee. Print courtesy Library of Congress.
2:30, 5:45, 9:00

REVIEWS

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ROXIE HART
“One of the best comedies of the 40's with a zest, crackle and brevity that has quite vanished today.”
– William K. Everson

“As fresh and vital today as it was upon its initial release… In an hysterical courtroom scene that could have easily been the inspiration for the finale of Peter Bogdanovich's What's Up, Doc? (1972), Wellman stages a fast and furious parody that is one of the best screwball comedy sequences ever filmed.”
– John Andrew Gallagher & Frank Thompson

“May be the funniest courtroom buffoonery every filmed… A loving, satiric look at the speakeasies, floozies, and tabloids.”
– Pauline Kael

“The total lunacy culminates in a courtroom melodrama with a difference, where Roxie crosses and uncrosses her legs for the jury's benefit, faints, cries, but always manages a radiant smile for the courtroom photographers, and where justice ultimately depends on the wrinkling of a pert nose. Subversive, outrageous, but always very funny.”
– Time Out (London)

LADY OF BURLESQUE
“Its oddball charm is considerable and Wellman and Stanwyck have great fun playing with the conventions of the backstage murder mystery while teasing the audience with suggestive bump and grind numbers. And when was the last time you saw a movie in which Ms. Stanwyck performed cartwheels, splits and dance numbers in high heels while belting out bawdy songs?”
– Jeff Stafford

“One has to admire the technical skill with which Wellman choreographs the action non-stop all over the theatre, unobtrusively dovetailing it with a number of fascinatingly authentic-looking samples of old-time burlesque shtick.”
– Tom Milne, Time Out (London)