I watched Gold Diggers of 1935 and 1937. Of these 1933>1935>>1937. 1935 has the amazing production number of "Lullaby of Broadway," and "The Words are in My Heart," which is that supposedly has 56 white grand pianos, but I think I counted 64. Maybe eight of them were props. It also has Gloria Stuart when she was an ingenue. 1937 has only one big production number, "All Is Fair in Love and War," which is also a great song, and had Dick Powell and Joan Blondell playing lovers, which was probably easy since they'd just gotten married or were about to.

1935 has a good cast that includes Adolphe Menjou, Alice Brady, Hugh Herbert and Glenda Farrell, and has a lot of fun with people caging money out of tightwad dowager Brady, who's the widow of the Flypaper King. 1937 also had Farrell (she's terrific) and a hypochondriac Broadway producer Victor Moore, whose crooked partners have squandered his money in the stock market and now suggest (at Farrell's suggestion) that they take out a $1 million insurance policy and wait for Moore to die. They hire Dick Powell, playing about the most incompetent life insurance agent imaginable, and they have pretty much to lead Moore and Powell by the nose, to both's bewilderment. Moore and Powell, and later Moore and Farrell play off each other pretty well. There's a very nice scene toward the end between Moore and Farrell where they show how good they could be. Blondell's good as usual, and Powell's in fine voice.

There was also a 1929 one called "Gold Diggers of Broadway", which is now mostly lost, but is notable as the musical that gave us "Tiptoe Through the Tulips," and is a remake of a silent film which in turn was based on a play. One of the surviving reels contains the "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" production number and is on the disc of "Gold Diggers of 1937." There's also a 1938 one, "Gold Diggers in Paris."

"Lullaby of Broadway"

Lili. Finally got to see this and it's wonderful with the best performance I've ever seen by Leslie Caron. There's lots of things going on here both light and dark, with the troubled and bitter puppeteer being both, and the naive Lili leaving childhood and discovering the existence of cruelty. ("She is realizing that there is cruelty in the world, and she is learning to protect herself from it.")

As you may or may not remember, this is one of my all-time favorite films, on my top 20 of all time--or top ten depending on the day you ask. Also that Leslie Caron's performance is one of my top three female performances of all time. It's up there with the greatest ever. The movie is a miracle; but how did you manage to see it? The DVD is available but the movie is never shown anywhere.

I recorded it off TCM.

"Revenge of the Electric Car" (2011) - superb documentary. Profiles e-car mavens like Elon Musk (the Tesla) and Bob Lutz (the GM veep who 180'd on the worth of e cars), and the head of Nissan who got behind the Leaf (which might be my next car). Lots of interesting sidebars - a mechanic who converts old sportscars to electric and his various ordeals - Danny DeVito on his sadness when GM took back their EV-1 and then rebound when Chevy came out with the Volt - how Tesla nearly went belly-up and then was saved - and much more. The film is by Chris Payne, same guy who made "Who Killed the Electric Car?" This one has more emphasis on the people - fascinating.