Apropos of our previous posts this week featuring James Cagney and his singular style of hoofing, here’s the audacious and highly entertaining ‘Shanghai Lil’ number from ‘Footlight Parade’ (1933). As with yesterday’s clip featuring Bob Hope and Cagney dancing on a table, once again Cagney dances…on a table! (This time with someone who is most decidedly not Bob Hope). The number was designed and staged by Busby Berkeley though the ‘book’ scenes of the movie were directed by Lloyd Bacon.

‘Footlight Parade’ was photographed at the Warner Bros. studio between June and September 1933. It premiered on Saturday, September 30, 1933 (the 243rd day on the Gregorian calendar) with a general release on Saturday, October 21 of that year (the 294th day on the Gregorian calendar). The film is about as pre-code (or pehaps you could say as anti-production code) as any movie of its time and its humor is sometimes quite risqué, with multiple references to prostitution and suggestions of profanity largely unseen again in studio films until the 1960s  For example, Dick Powell’s character is being “kept” by Mrs. Gould until he falls in love with another girl. Joan Blondell’s character of Nan Prescott is the center of several lines and moments. She introduces her roommate, Vivian Rich, as “Miss Bi… Rich”; and later, when Vivian tries to take advantage of an intoxicated Chester, Nan kicks her out of their apartment, claiming Vivian will have a job ‘as long as there are sidewalks’. In the Shanghai Lil number, it is clear that Lil and all the other girls are prostitutes working the waterfront bars along with scenes of an opium den.^[A character played by Hugh Herbert acts as the censor for Kent’s productions, constantly telling Kent certain parts of his production numbers have to be changed. His character is portrayed as buffoonish and comical, saying disagreeable lines to Kent such as “You must put brassiere on those dolls…” (referring to actual toy dolls) “…uh uh, you know Connecticut.” More dancing Cagney to follow..