Better Late Then Never

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

A joyous satire on political and judicial corruption, lovingly directed by "Wild Bill" Wellman from producer Nunnally Johnson's incisively re-worked, cleverly adapted script. The original 1927 play is not so much a comedy as an exaggerated melodrama. Johnson has added all the laughs and most of the satire. Wellman whips it along at a cracking pace. Despite the film's comparatively short running time, it's loaded to the limit with foolery and fun and such wonderfully inventive touches as the riddle of gun-fire over the montage of newspaper headlines; Menjou dis-arranging his hair before addressing the jury; the judge never missing a jump to have his photograph in the papers; Menjou spoiling for a fake fight, urgently asiding to the attendant, "Come on, Jake!"; Chandler rehearsing his lines and gestures - and that's naming but a paltry few of the highlights which are capped by the whole jail breaking into the "Black Bottom".It's often said that comedy was not Wellman's forte. What nonsense! Wellman is a superb farceur, whipping the plot and dialogue along frenziedly, getting terrifically off-beat performances from players normally stiff or stolid or nauseatingly sweet, tearing mileage from Ihnen's crowded sets and Shamroy's appealingly sharp camerawork. The dazzling choreography is the snappiest work Hermes Pan has ever done.All in all, Roxie Hart is one of the forties' fastest comedies. I'd rate it even funnier than His Girl Friday, which shares the same wide-open Chicago setting.

Wow this was one funny lady of her day. Can you imagine transforming yourself from a dancer into a physical comedienne? She did it and did it well.Basically what we get is a murder committed by Roxie's husband out of jealousy but a ruthless promoter tells her if she confesses to it she can't possibly go to jail or get convicted cause she's a woman and she's in Chicago and no woman ever gets convicted in Chicago. Plus, it'll help her dancing career.From here on it's just fun hi-jinx and a really spiffy dance number in the jail with the whole cast getting involved.Your gonna get some quick wit, a cool dance number and Ginger Rogers. That's enough for me...should be enough for you.

The corn is definitely more than green in this uninspired farce which is broadly played by every member of the cast except GEORGE MONTGOMERY.Based on the same story that CHICAGO was based on, ROXIE HART has GINGER ROGERS, chewing gum and batting her eyes while on the witness stand when she gets caught up in a murder trial in rowdy '20s Chicago. Rogers is too cute for words, emerging as a caricature throughout.Hers is not the only overly flamboyant performance. ADOLPHE MENJOU is a bit over-the-top as her lawyer, but GEORGE MONTGOMERY gives one of his most natural, effortless performances as the man who narrates the story and takes part in the screenplay.Someone else has cited him as "that guy George Montgomery that I never heard of" and says he's the reason the film fails to succeed. Not true. Actually, it's the Ginger Rogers role of a tootsie type of hoofer who prevents the film from becoming the comedy it aspires to be. That plus heavy-handed direction from William Wellman, a man usually associated with heroic male action films and not comedy or satire.Definitely belongs among those films from Rogers that failed to reach their potential--chiefly because of a misguided performance on her part. This came shortly after her Oscar-winning role as KITTY FOYLE, so it's an example of how she vacillated between good and bad roles during this phase of her screen career. She seems to be enjoying herself enormously as the center of attention, but it's all to no avail.As for GEORGE MONTGOMERY, he was far from being a sub-standard leading man as the other commentator suggested. His star was on the rise in the early '40s and he was also well-known as the husband of the legendary singing star and TV personality, DINAH SHORE.

Other reviewers have noted it too -- this film is a major disappointment, especially if you are a Ginger Rogers fan. Which I am. But that's not to say I don't recognize that not every film she made was a gem. Indeed, she made her share of turkeys. This is not quite a turkey but it comes close. The problem is the studio. 20th Century Fox did not have the flair for comedy MGM, Columbia, or Ginger's old haunt RKO, where she made all her wonderful films with Astaire. First off, Ginger is a little too old for the part. She was 31 or 32, had gained some weight since the Astaire years, and was in her brunette/black hair period -- which was far from attractive. The use of gauze over the camera lens is evident in all her closeups, because she just was no longer the radiant young thing she was in her 1930s films. Ginger could do screwball comedy, and in The Major and the Minor, directed by Billy Wilder -- who knew how to do a comedy -- she shines. Here, she and all the comedic talents in the cast, are wasted by (1)a lackluster script and (2)heavy-handed direction by a man who did better with drama than comedy. One comes to Roxie Hart expecting a lot, but it just isn't there, and the whole show is dragged down by George Montgomery's non-acting. The character actors try to save the film -- William Frawley and Phil Silvers were outstanding in other films and on TV. But here their efforts fall flat. I have read that Barbara Stanwyck was the first choice for Roxie but I doubt if she could have saved it. And the constraints of 1942 censorship rendered the whole story of "Chicago" so antiseptic it is a wonder it has any following at all. Finally, it is rumored this version is not the original 1942 release -- which reportedly featured much saucier dancing. Having said all that, I would still prefer to watch this over the obnoxious and somewhat repugnant film "Chicago" recently released on an unsuspecting public.