Best Music Movies of 1933

A producer puts on what may be his last Broadway show, and at the last moment a chorus girl has to replace the star.

Things get tough for Carol and her showgirl pals, Trixie and Polly, when the Great Depression kicks in and all the Broadway shows close down. Wealthy songwriter Brad saves the day by funding a new Depression-themed musical for the girls to star in, but when his stuffy high-society brother finds out and threatens to disown Brad, Carol and her gold-digging friends scheme to keep the show going, hooking a couple of millionaires along the way.

The two pigs building houses of hay and sticks scoff at their brother, building the brick house. But when the wolf comes around and blows their houses down (after trickery like dressing as a foundling sheep fails), they run to their brother's house. And throughout, they sing the classic song, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?".

A fledgling producer finds himself at odds with his workers, financiers and his greedy ex-wife when he tries to produce live musicals for movie-going audiences.

Janie lives to dance and will dance anywhere, even stripping in a burlesque house. Tod Newton, the rich playboy, discovers her there and helps her get a job in a real Broadway musical being directed by Patch. Tod thinks he can get what he wants from Janie, Patch thinks Janie is using her charms rather than talent to get to the top, and Janie thinks Patch is the greatest. Steve, the stage manager, has the Three Stooges helping him manage all the show girls. Fred Astaire and Nelson Eddy make appearances as famous Broadway personalities.

Trouble starts when the queen's magic mirror says Betty Boop is fairest.

Two wannabe bandits join the service of a dashing nobleman, who secretly masquerades as Fra Diavolo, a notorious outlaw.

A carnival girl pretends to be Swedish in order to win a movie role.

A dance band leader finds love and success in Brazil.

Jack Oakie and Jack Haley are songwriters are enroute from New York to Hollywood to make their fame and fortune; Ginger Rogers, a lunchwagon proprieter, joins them.

A stage director is trying to put on a musical/comedy revue, but has to contend with temperamental musicians, an inept stage crew and his three idiot sons.

Unscrupulously ambitious, Brutus Jones escapes from jail after killing a guard and, through bluff and bravado, finds himself the emperor of a Caribbean island.

In this comedy, two rival reporters vie for the scoop on the whereabouts of a missing heiress. They find her in Switzerland. One of the journalists falls in love with her and saves her from marrying an aristocrat. His rival gets to write the story as a consolation prize.

Parisian playboy plays father to an abandoned baby who interferes with his womanising.

The film tells the story of Sylvia, a French teacher at an all-girl school, who wants to find love. When she hears Bill Williams on the radio, she decides to go visit and thank him. However, difficult problems lay ahead when Lili gets in the way.

A New York tramp falls in love with the mayor's amnesiac girlfriend after rescuing her from a suicide attempt.

A dancer falls in love with a puppeteer, much to the consternation of her manipulative manager. The puppeteer himself seems more interested in his puppets than in romance with her. Can she find true love?

In the Hollywood Hall of Fame - a wax museum - the figure of Eddie Borden comes to life and introduces us to various stars in effigy. Pining over the effigy of Clara Bow, her husband Rex Bell suggests that Eddie get on with Betty Boop. Betty asks Eddie to accompany her in a rendition of "My Silent Love."

Set in Vienna, this lively musical comedy stars Bebe Daniels as an actress who falls in love with her secretary, but has difficulty in persuading him to propose to her.

A kind-hearted young man is thrown out of his corrupt home town of West Rome, Oklahoma. He falls asleep and dreams that he is back in the days of olden Rome, where he gets mixed up with court intrigue and a murder plot against the Emperor.

A beautiful woman mistakes a Prince's butler for the Prince.

A fantasy satire on politics in which a little boy dreams that he becomes President of the U.S. and his 'mammy' is Vice President. The film spotlights two now legendary performers much earlier in their careers: Ethel Waters and Sammy Davis Jr. In his first screen appearance, around the age of seven, pint-sized Davis sings, dances and clowns. Nicknamed 'the beanpole' slim and slinky Waters looks far different from the heavier figure she displayed in Pinky (1949) and Member of the Wedding (1953). Statuesque in a long glamorous white gown, she sings her big hit "Am I Blue." Davis, in turn sings "I'll Be Glad When You're Dead You Rascal You." (Separate Cinema)

Showgirl Tony Landers, supported by her friend Flip Daly, fights for the custody of her son during a divorce hearing.

Duke Ellington and his orchestra play two jazz compositions plus 'Stormy Weather' (sung by Ivy Anderson).

Four convicts escape from a chain gang. Shortly thereafter, changes are made at the prison, because a blue ribbon commission will be investigating conditions there. The changes include steak every day for dinner and stage shows for entertainment. After reading about this, the four escapees plead with the warden to take them back in. Or was this all a dream?

In sixteenth century Spain, an elderly gentleman named Don Quixote has gone mad from reading too many books on chivalry...

Racketeer Frank Rocci is smitten with Joan Whelan, a dancer at Texas Guinan's famous Broadway night spot. He uses his influence to help her get a starring role in the show, hoping that it will also get Joan to fall in love with him. After scoring a hit, Joan accepts Frank's marriage proposal, more out of gratitude than love. The situation gets even stickier when she falls for a handsome band leader during a trip to Florida. Can she tell Frank she's in love with someone else?

Film musical taken from JB Priestley's novel about three musicians joining together to save a failing concert party, the Dinky Doos.

A college professor and the school's star football player are both rivals for the same beautiful coed.

Len Lye scraped together enough funding and borrowed equipment to produce a two-minute short featuring his self-made monkey, singing and dancing to 'Peanut Vendor', a 1931 jazz hit for Red Nichols. The two foot high monkey had bolted, moveable joints and some 50 interchangeable mouths to convey the singing. To get the movements right, Lye filmed his new wife, Jane, a prize-winning rumba dancer.

When she can't support her illegitimate child, an abandoned young woman puts her up for adoption and pursues a career as a torch singer. Years later, she then searches for the child she gave up.

19th century song pluggers in vaudeville theaters and in the streets invited audiences to join in the chorus; this tradition of participation appeared in movie theaters by the mid-teens. When sound arrived, Fleischer Studios’ delightful “Screen Songs” added witty animated prologues and celebrity singers to prepare the audience for the ball that bounced through the lyrics.

The owner of a fish-and-chips shop in the Billingsgate area of London harbors a secret ambition: to become a movie star. It turns out that she has a beautiful singing voice, and when that fact comes to the attention of a movie studio, it begins to turn her and her family's lives upside down.

Ted Healy and The 3 Stooges are fired and evicted from a theatre because Ted is annoying women working there. They then get jobs as waiters at a nightclub. Chaos ensues.

Musical where two friends fall for the same lady and work to make her a star.

Wealthy Mary Townleigh gets lost in the bush and hurts her ankle, but is rescued and stays with the Hayseed family. She starts a romance with their neighbour, Englishman John Manners...

An American woman visits a small South American town where she quickly falls for a charming lieutenant.

In this Merrie Melodies animated short, an organ grinder and his monkey make their way down a city street.

The owner of an unsuccessful greeting cards store decides to sell 'talking' greeting cards in the form of records.

A man tries to sell peanuts at the Zoo but is harassed by an elephant and various animals, so asks a singer for help (Note: not to be confused with the stop motion short of the same name)

In this through-the-years saga about a show business family, the fame of husband and wife vaudeville headliners of the 1880s is eclipsed by their son.

After hours, individuals on various magazine covers in a drugstore come to life and sing, speak, or perform. Caricature celebrity depictions include George Arliss, Eddie Cantor, Sonja Henie, Benito Mussolini, Ignacy Paderewski, Edward G. Robinson, Will Rogers, and Ed Wynn. A robbery sequence features bad guys breaking into the cash register and Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson on the case. King Kong also makes an appearance. A Merrie Melody cartoon.

Shirley is an aspiring actress is rejected by casting, but gets her chance to perform when the star doesn't feel like performing.

Christmas Eve. A poor orphan boy trudges through the snow, pathetically. He finally arrives at his miserable cabin. While he is crying, Santa arrives and, singing the title song, offers to take the boy to his workshop. They arrive, and the toys go wild (in the full version, they sing the title song, but this has been censored in some versions due to outdated stereotypes). He plays with a few toys. A candle falls off the tree and starts a fire. The toys try in vain to fight the fire; the boy hooks up a hose to a set of bagpipes and takes care of it.

In this parody of Grand Hotel, despite a dying man's efforts to enjoy his final days, a jewel thief trying to comfort a great dancer, and a big business deal in progress, there are still those who say that "nothing ever happens here."

After singing over the radio, Bing Crosby transmits a signal to elope to his sweeheart Helen; but her father is listening too. Undaunted, Bing tries, tries again.

Songwriter Harry Warren performs several of his own compositions, including "I Found a Million Dollar Baby" and "Shadow Waltz."

A singer on a gambling ship is married to a wealthy playboy. When he is found murdered, all evidence points to her as the culprit, and she is put on trial for the crime.

Bosko and Honey perform a wacky stage act that includes doing imitations of Maurice Chevalier, Greta Garbo and Jimmy Durante.