Busby Berkeley was doing sexy work in the early Thirties. Maybe the finest example of his lurid choreography comes from the “By a Waterfall” sequence in 1933’s Footlight Parade. Berkeley sent 100 chorus girls in skin-tight swimsuits splashing into a crystal pool for the three-minute number, strangely suggesting a journey into the female reproductive system, through the cervix, into the womb, ending with the impregnation of a kaleidoscopic ovum – or have I lost my mind? The rest of Footlight Parade is rather carnal too, with several humorous references to prostitution. – Brant Bingamon
Jan. 21 & 25
