Roxie Hart (1942)

Directed by

William A. Wellman

Genre

comedy film, musical film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 15m

Rated

NR

Rating

7.0 of 10 from 27 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A Chicago showgirl confesses to a murder she did not commit to get attention and revive her fading stage career. Her lawyer turns the trial into a media circus. The film is a comedy about fame and the justice system.

livelycynicalfast-pacedscrewballsatiricalplayfulwittylight-hearted

What happens

Roxie Hart (also known as Chicago or Chicago Gal) is a 1942 American comedy film directed by William A. Wellman, and starring Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou and George Montgomery. This film adapts the 1926 play Chicago by Maurine Dallas Watkins, a journalist who found inspiration in two real-life Chicago trials (Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner) she had covered for the press. The play had been adapted once prior, in a 1927 silent film, and was adapted again in 1975 as a hit stage musical, which itself was adapted as the Oscar-winning 2002 musical film. The screenplay by Nunnally Johnson focuses on a Chicago showgirl who confesses to a murder in hopes the publicity will help her faltering show business career. In the original play and its other adaptations, Roxie is guilty but is acquitted. However, in order to conform to the Motion Picture Production Code, which regulated moral guidelines for Hollywood films at the time, the 1946 adaptation portrays Roxie as innocent but misguided in her attempt to achieve fame. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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