Banter, Characters, and Story in Golddiggers

Gold Diggers of 1933 was a pretty interesting movie to see. I'm not a fan of musicals really (though I do like a few choice ones), but I really enjoyed some aspects of the film. For one the banter between the characters was great. the opening scene in the apartment following the first musical scene reminded me a lot of the Three Stooges for some reason, maybe due to the off handed jokes and the banter between the characters. Some of the characters however seemed to have some questionable thinking near the end, especially with all the heel turns made by Peabody and Lawrence. They go from hating them one day to falling in love with them. It just seemed a little weird, even for a comedy musical. Even with these complaints the movie was enjoyable and had a few pretty decent jokes in it as well.

Ganster films - then and now

I'm going to come out and say it. I really like gangster flicks. I've always loved the whole law and lawlessness of them and how the bad guy can end up being a hero in comparison to what are supposed to be the good guys. That said, seeing the older gangster movies from a time period of mob warfare and rum running I noticed the relationship movies had with gangsters.

Back then movies had the code which held that most actions a criminal makes on film shouldn't be shown, that they should be an unsympathetic character that ends up show casing the evils of crime and how the police (or good) will always win. But you never get the sense of the police's involvement in these criminal acts. The Prohibition era saw police corruption on wide scales and some criminals were subjects of admiration (or at least urban legend and story). The movies at the time seemed to ignore these facts in hopes of removing possible influences for crime.

By comparison today we have movies and entertainment that show criminals in lighter, more sympathetic tones, sometimes making them out to be better than the police. Gangster movies of the last few decades show the criminals as heroes (or anti heroes by action) and some movies spur on hero worship of criminal characters (Scarface for an easy reference). You also have the police, who are protrayed as pure good in older films, who are shown at times to be corrupt or evildoers themselves (Training Day, Street Kings, American Gangster). In real life however criminals are more vilified than ever. It is interesting to see how the relationship with the portrayal of crime compared to real life has shifted in film.