A wild jazz-loving and boozing wife Roxie Hart, kills her boyfriend in cold blood after he leaves her.A wild jazz-loving and boozing wife Roxie Hart, kills her boyfriend in cold blood after he leaves her.A wild jazz-loving and boozing wife Roxie Hart, kills her boyfriend in cold blood after he leaves her.
Emily Barrye
- Woman in Cell Reading Book
- (uncredited)
Sidney Bracey
- Bill Collector
- (uncredited)
Robert Brower
- Juror
- (uncredited)
Sidney D'Albrook
- Photographer
- (uncredited)
Jack Dean
- Assistant Prosecutor
- (uncredited)
Robert Dudley
- Insurance Agent
- (uncredited)
Jim Farley
- Detective
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAlthough Frank Urson is credited as the director, it was widely known (and even publicized) at the time that producer Cecil B. DeMille directed most of the film (including 11 days of re-takes). DeMille took his name off the picture because his Biblical epic, The King of Kings (1927) was also playing in theaters at the time. Reportedly, DeMille's friend, theater owner Sid Grauman, convinced the director that audiences wouldn't want to see an amoral crime drama with an adulterous heroine so soon after seeing DeMille's film about the life of Christ.
- Quotes
William Flynn: Cut the bull! I'm not your husband - I'm your lawyer!
- ConnectionsFeatured in The 79th Annual Academy Awards (2007)
Featured review
Before Bob Fosse, There Was This
I suspect that Mr. Rob Marshall watched this 1927 silent before making his recent screen adaptation of the smash-hit Broadway musical. The non-musical scenes in his version look an awful lot like this exceptional film.
Phyllis Haver provides a marvelously witty and sexy characterization as Roxie Hart, that ultimate gold digger who shoots her lover for jilting her and then becomes a media sensation. Haver puts all sorts of unique touches on the role, and her scenes during the murder trial are small gems of comic acting. The handsome Victor Varconi, looking for all the world like Liam Neeson, has a much larger role as Amos, Roxie's long-suffering husband, than any subsequent version would give that character. He's still a bit of a sap, but he's a much sharper sap than later incarnations would allow. This original version focuses much more on the domestic relationship between these two -- the roles of Billy Flynn and Mama Morton, treated so colorfully in the musical, are much diminished here, and the character of Velma Kelly is absent altogether.
The recent stage revival and movie have blunted the impact of this story's critique on the modern media and the public's responsibility in enabling our media to peddle trash. It's surprising that a film that came out nearly 80 years ago makes the same point just as candidly; one can only imagine how forceful this message must have seemed at the time.
Grade: A
Phyllis Haver provides a marvelously witty and sexy characterization as Roxie Hart, that ultimate gold digger who shoots her lover for jilting her and then becomes a media sensation. Haver puts all sorts of unique touches on the role, and her scenes during the murder trial are small gems of comic acting. The handsome Victor Varconi, looking for all the world like Liam Neeson, has a much larger role as Amos, Roxie's long-suffering husband, than any subsequent version would give that character. He's still a bit of a sap, but he's a much sharper sap than later incarnations would allow. This original version focuses much more on the domestic relationship between these two -- the roles of Billy Flynn and Mama Morton, treated so colorfully in the musical, are much diminished here, and the character of Velma Kelly is absent altogether.
The recent stage revival and movie have blunted the impact of this story's critique on the modern media and the public's responsibility in enabling our media to peddle trash. It's surprising that a film that came out nearly 80 years ago makes the same point just as candidly; one can only imagine how forceful this message must have seemed at the time.
Grade: A
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- evanston_dad
- Oct 20, 2006
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Details
Box office
- Budget
- $264,397 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 45 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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