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 Ginger Rogers is an "ambitious 1920s showgirl who confesses to a murder just
for the publicity" in a film that they quote the Hollywood Reporter as saying
is "[u]proarious fun." They let on that this is based on the the Broadway play Chicago and that the film has an "outstanding supporting cast". They say that
this film is chock full of "clever sight gags" and that the movie "gave Ginger
Rogers the broadest comedic role she had ever played". 1942, 75 minutes, VHS
In Roxie Hart, Ginger Rogers plays an aspiring show girl whose husband kills a man and she
decides to take credit for it in order to boost her career in showbiz. If any
of this seems vaguely familiar, it's not because someone like Anna Nicole Smith
tried this for publicity (though I'm not so sure the kids of her dead
billionaire husband wouldn't think otherwise), it's because this story is also
the basis for the musical Chicago which first appeared on Broadway in 1975 and is going to be released as a
feature film on Christmas 2002. Roxie Hart is actually the second movie
version of this story and the story itself is based on an actual murder case
that
went down in Chicago in 1924. Unlike in Roxie Hart though, the showgirl in
that case really did in the victim. I searched high and low for details on
this case, because I was sure that it was probably more interesting than the
sanitized Ginger Rogers version (and by searching high and low, I mean I put
the words "roxie hart" into google and glanced at the first twenty results or
so), but the only thing I was able to determine from my search is that there is
an actress who goes by the name of Roxie Hart. If that name seems a bit, well,
unusual for a serious actress, then you may also find the two of her pictures
that the Internet Movie Database lists as her credits to also be somewhat
beyond mainstream cinema. I am of course referring to Titanic Toys and The Adventures Of Studman 3. Unfortunately, my video store didn't have either one of those in the
clearance classics section, so we are stuck with Ginger Rogers gum-chomping her
way through this one as the opportunistic dancer, whose signature move is a
billy goat
headbutt to a person's stomach. I wonder if the real chick that wasted the guy
back in 1924 used this maneuver in her own life or whether it was just part of
the gimmick dreamed up for Ginger. Now I can't say that I've always been
the biggest fan of Ginger Rogers and some people think I unfairly malign her
because I was permanently traumatized by the worst movie of the forties, Once Upon A Honeymoon (quick refresher: screwball comedy in concentration camp with Cary Grant),
but she is very good in this film and I'm not just saying that because she
spends most of her murder trial crossing and uncrossing her legs for the
jurors - that is, when she's not hiking up her skirt for them.  As most stories involving women named Roxie do, this one begins in a bar where
a seasoned reporter starts to tell the tale of the greatest story of them all,
back in the "bad old days" of Coolidge, Capone, the Teapot Dome, and a bunch of
other things you slept through in history class. Roxie Hart was a wannabe show
girl whose husband shot and killed a talent scout that was in their apartment
making a pass at Roxie. At first, her husband (Amos Hart) confesses to
everything and assumes that he's going to get off easy because he was only
shooting an intruder. Along with the cops, the press is there and one of the
reporters happens to spot Roxie climbing into the bedroom via the fire escape.
Amos had hidden her on the roof and told the cops that she was gone somewhere
when this all went down. The reporter, knowing that an attractive woman would
make for some attractive headlines, attempts to keep her from escaping and they
end up in a brawl that is highlighted by Roxie's patented head-butt to the
stomach move. Eventually the reporter subdues her and locks her in a closet.
Around this time, the talent scout's partner arrives and he and the reporter
start chatting in the bedroom and that's when Roxie busts her way out of the
closet (the talent scout recognizes her just from her leg). The reporter and
the talent scout know what type of town Chicago is - the kind of town where
violent chippies like Roxie never swing for killing a man. In fact, they not
only beat the rap, but they also become celebrities. The reporter realizes
that with her looks, this could be the biggest story he's ever covered and the
talent scout suddenly realizes that she might have enough talent to be a star.
They just need her to admit that she's the one that killed the guy. Roxie,
recognizing a sweet deal when she hears it, eventually agrees to have the murder
beef pinned on her in hopes that it will launch her career. The talent scout
produces a piece of paper and tells her to sign it, so that she'll be under
contract. She looks at it, discovers that it's completely blank and says that
there's "not even any fine print" on it. The talent scout tells her that he'll
fill that in later. This set up should tell you right away that you're going
to be dealing with a farce of epic proportions and that hilarity will be the
order of the day. The question then becomes one in which you hope that the
film maintains its bitterly funny commentary on the press, the legal system,
and the ego of people who seek fame. Even though the film is only seventy-five
minutes, they manage to pack more laugh-out moments, smirk-inducing lines, and
eye-rolling satire than most films thirty minutes longer.  Once Roxie owns up to the crime she didn't commit, she is taken to the county
jail and becomes the celebrity she and her advisers (the reporter and the
talent scout) had hoped for. There's another scene when she pulls out her
head-butting gimmick in a fight with another female inmate. Whoa! Two women
cons battling it out in the county jail? I know that most of you have these
visions of a couple of busty blondes tearing each other's prison denims off to
reveal lacey lingerie or that somehow this fight takes place because someone
used someone else's soap in the shower without permission and thus must be
punished severely for that infraction, but this is a classy comedy with real
stars like Ginger Rogers playing a character named Roxie Hart and not with
performers whose actual name (well I'm sure that's not strictly true in this
case) is Roxie Hart. All you women in prison aficionados can go back to
watching your Reform School Girls and Bad Girls Dormitory flicks, because Roxie Hart is a movie for sophisticated tastes. I'm sure that
explains why they dubbed in the sounds of cats fighting while Roxie and her
opponent were rolling around in jail and why it all ended with the woman guard
slamming both of their heads together. That, my friend is wit of the
first order! To get an idea of how truly demented this movie is, you need only
know that the reason they were fighting in the first place was because the
other inmate didn't like Roxie taking all her press and considered Roxie's
crime to be less newsworthy because it didn't involve high society or
something. By the way, it should come as no surprise that along with
fame-seeking chicks, nosy reporters, and dirtbag husbands, this movie takes
most of its potshots at lawyers. For reasons, I've never quite understood,
lawyers have always been easy targets for films like this. The lawyer is
usually portrayed as a mercenary creep who is just in it for the money and is
willing to lie, cheat, steal, and hump (that's how I do it at least) his or her
way to the resolution desired. Now, I don't want to give away too much of the
MonsterHunter's secret identity here, but let's just say I'm very familiar with
lawyers and lawyering and I can say unequivocally that not every single lawyer
is like that, just all the ones I've ever encountered. Really
though, I just think that all these slugs who are jealous of our,
Rolex-wearing, limousine-riding, Learjet-flying, custom made from head to toe
lifestyle should remember that, the next time they go and
get drunk and get themselves crossways with the Man. Try representing
yourself, moron and see where that gets you! Can I get an "amen" from the
attorneys in the crowd?  Once Roxie lawyers up, we meet Billy Flynn (Adelph Menjou) who will be her
defense attorney (once her husband can scrape together $5000). Now, even
though you have to despise Adelph on a personal level, because he was one of
those goons that ratted out his commie friends in the 1950s (a real American
doesn't know any commies at all), he along with Rogers pretty much carries this
picture on his back the rest of the way. He's a complete operator and you just
know that some of the stuff he engages in with his client, is exactly the sort
of thing that a lot these lawyers do with their high-profile celebrity
customers. He
tells her what their defense will be before even knowing the facts (it's self
defense, we'll figure out why later) and instructs her on how she should act
around the press. Roxie is only too happy to oblige and this is how you get
scenes with her describing that when she fired the gun everything went purple
(huh?). Predictably, one of the reporters asks what shade of purple - lavender
or violet?
Roxie wants to be a star even though she is in lockdown and in another funny
scene she allows herself to be talked into demonstrating some dance she's well
known for (I think it was called the "black bottom" or something) and the next
thing you know, she and all the reporters with her at the jail, break out into a
big dance number. Everything is going swell for Roxie (except for that nagging
little
thing called a "pending murder trial") until Two Gun Gertie is captured.
She's a rough and tumble blonde that is all attitude and Roxie is quickly
relegated to yesterday's news. No one wants to talk to her anymore and she's
quite upset about that. Roxie is determined to be the biggest name in the biz
though, so she comes up with a plan. Guess who suddenly announces that she is
preggers? This immediately brings the press back to her side and whips everyone
into a frenzy of pro-motherhood sentiment. Flynn wonders how the state can
charge one person with a crime, but try both Roxie and her unborn child for it
(that's
the kind of legal mind I want on my side!). The reporters even decide that
the trial should begin on Mother's Day to maximize the publicity. Meanwhile,
Flynn gets Roxie's husband to divorce her in an effort to further portray Roxie
as a hapless and helpless victim of a cruel and unfeeling male-dominated world.
As funny as the first part of the movie was, the last part is what really
brings everything home. This is where Roxie goes on trial for murder and it is
probably one of the funniest trials you'll ever see (well, outside of that
James Trafficant one). No one involved is spared satirical dissection and this
is another one of these ancient movies that still works, because they were on
the money with so much of their material. The trial is being covered by a
radio guy doing the play by play and a crime reporter providing color
commentary and it's all brought to us by some quack doctor selling some kind of
home
remedy! Can you say Court TV? The filmmakers manage to engineer
a constant barrage of biting humor throughout the trial, with Roxie flirting
with the jury, the reporters stopping the action at dramatic moments so they
can photograph Roxie who is posing on the witness stand, right down to the
publicity-hound judge that always rushes from his chair to pose majestically in
the back of the photos with Roxie. The reporter who is giving the color
commentary probably has the best line in the movie when Roxie testifies that
she tried some liquor and that it must have been whiskey because it tasted so
yucky. "It's loose talk like that that gives whiskey a bad name," he
intones to his listeners earnestly. The trial continues until finally Billy
gives his closing argument and eventually has to tell Roxie to shut up, because
her fake crying has gotten so loud that nobody could hear his impassioned plea
for
mercy. By the time he turns to the judge, holding the by-now passed out Roxie
in his arms, and tells the Court that the defense rests, you're worn out by all
the hi-jinks. There is a rather half-hearted attempt at a love story and the
very end of the movie that takes place years later back at the bar doesn't
really work, but that's the only quibble with this picture and I
only note it, because they could have just ended it all with the verdict. That
unnecessary padding notwithstanding, this movie is one of the funniest
parodies of our legal system I've ever seen
and as Homer Simpson might say, "it's funny because it's true!" Everyone that
gets skewered in this film is deserving of it and we see the same stuff
happening today: a press ravenous for the next big story and willing to do
anything to manufacture it (Shark attacks? Catholic priests? The Atkins
Diet?); a legal system that isn't committing to finding truth, but to making
egomaniacs' careers; and an imbecilic public that eagerly eats up whatever crap
the press and lawyers shovel at them. It's all laid out bare in this movie and
the material is expertly handled by Rogers and Menjou. An underrated screwball
classic that will leaving you shaking your head in laughter as well as
disbelief at
how little has changed in this country in the last sixty years. [Since this review was first posted, many of you have written in with the
details on the real case. One of those letters is posted below.] Ron Frieze
April 25, 2003 Hi I read your review on Roxie Hart (it was excellant) If you want the full
details of the original trial, which sparked the show, go to http://www.newsaic.com/mlchicago.html#beulahandbelva. It even has photo's of the original Roxie (Beulah Annan "Prettiest" woman on
Murderess Row DN-0076798, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago
Historical Society ) and Velma (Belva Gaertner "Most stylish" woman on
Murderess Row DN-0076751, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago
Historical Society
Extracts from that site
"Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly, the stars of Chicago's Murderess Row, were based
on Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner, two real-life women who faced trial in 1924
for killing their respective lovers. Maurine Watkins, who wrote the play which
was the basis for the musical and movie versions of Chicago, wrote about
Gaertner and Annan for the Chicago Tribune and then used their stories as the
basis for her playwriting. According to Watkins' articles, Annan was the "prettiest" woman on Chicago's
Murderess Row, while Gaertner was the "most stylish." Both, of course, were
found not guilty" "A cabaret singer already twice-divorced, Belva Gaertner was arrested in March
1924 after her lover, married auto-salesman Walter Law, was found shot dead in
her car early in the morning near her home. Police reportedly had seen a woman
enter the car and then heard three shots; they returned to the car and found
Law's body, an automatic pistol from which three shots had been fired, and a
bottle of gin. Found at her apartment, with blood-covered clothes on the floor,
Gaertner said she had been driving with Law and admitted the gun was hers, but
claimed no memory of what had actually happened." "Just weeks later, Beulah Annan was arrested for killing her own lover, Harry
Kalstedt, a co-worker at a laundry. Annan, who was in her early 20s and already
on her second marriage to an unsuspecting garage mechanic 10 years older, first
told police that Kolstedt had broken into her home and had "tried to make me
love him." She then admitted hours later that she had been "fooling around"
with him for two months and that she had shot him after he had said he was
"through" with her. " Best Regards Ron Frieze
Queensland, Australia
Reviews © 2004
MonsterHunter
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