(Review originally written at 15 January 2008)
I have seen quite some musical movies in my life but this just wasn't among the best or most intriguing ones to me. Not that it's bad but after hearing so many positive things about this movie it's still disappointing.
The movie has an annoying and typical fast going musical story, that features all of the stereotypes and very few surprises on its own. To me the story was just a big pile of gibberish about the making of a musical production with a whole bunch of characters you just feel you never get to know. Some of the characters are amusing and so is the dialog but the script feels just too forced and stagy and therefor also the humorous aspects of the movie. It was still entertaining all to watch but not just as overall enjoyable and cheerful non-stop entertainment such as many other musical movies.
For its time the movie and its approach is pretty original within its genre and therefore "42nd Street" is still an important movie made. It therefore also deserves respect and recognition. It's for some part genre redefining and a taste of future musical movies. A genre that mostly flourished in the the late '30's and '40's.
Definitely a good movie but just not the classic everyone claims it is.
7/10
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