IslandGuru Who payed the critics

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.

JLRVancouver "Gold Diggers of 1935" is golden age Hollywood at its over-the-top best. Busby Berkley, the undisputed master of epic song and dance numbers, pulls out all the stops to enchant his depression era audience with escapist fantasies including dancing grand pianos and a surreal Broadway 'day in the life' (to the Academy Award winning song "Lullaby of Broadway"). The humour and acting style are a bit dated and the plot chiffon-light, but everything serves simply to set up the musical numbers, which are superb. All in all: a great film from a different time. Enjoy!

nomoons11 When you see the original then see this, it's like seeing Chinatown then seeing The Two Jakes. Not even remotely close to being as good as the original.A seasonal only hotel opens for the summer and some wealthy folks come to town for a visit. A rich heiress and her kids show up and whilst there, the daughter is suppose to marry a richer man than her mother. She doesn't care for him but the mother pushes her because of the money. The son has been married and divorced 4 times...and marries...again while there. Among all this the heiress decides she'll put on a ply to benefit the "Milk Fund". When a no-goo producer hears about he tries to milk her for all she can. Mixed in you'll see people that are suppose to be married marrying others and goldigging women setting up a man to get his dough and blackmails him.My complaint was that this is the "meanest" of the Busby Berkley musicals. I mean I know this is suppose to be comedy and all that but the original was way more fun. This is just not what I expected in the Gold Diggers series. The real surprise is the girl who sets up the guy by forging/faking a letter of intent and she tells her lawyers to sue. Before this she tries to take $7,500 from this guy who's holding it cause it's the receipts for the play that is to support the milk fund. I mean, does this girl have any conscious? Stealing money from the Milk Fund? Geez.It doesn't help that the cast in this is just not up to the the task. There are a few known ones but this early on they weren't very established. You'll notice Adolphe Menjou and Dick Powell. You also get to see Gloria Stuart but she wasn't an A-list actress during that time.The musical number at the end is all Busby Berkley for sure. He does it like only he could do. Very entertaining but this is not the best of this series by a long shot. I guess to me it's almost always the case that most sequels aren't near as good as the originals. This one just doesn't hold a candle to 1933.

Michael_Elliott Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Boy (Dick Powell) meets girl (Gloria Stuart) story is the backdrop of big musical numbers in this Busby Berkeley directed film. The two leads are wonderful and have some great chemistry and even a couple of the musical numbers are good but these come at the very end. The story is just so underwritten that it's hard to find much entertainment out of this thing. The film isn't really bad but it's not really good either. We've got better romantic comedies from this period and better musicals from this period so this is only recommended for fans of the stars.

itsmits Three production numbers with the finale being the apotheosis of group tap dancing. The 'Lullaby of Broadway' production number will probably never be duplicated. If one considers the time when this musical was produced, the effect of the Winifred Shaw special(Dick Powell actually finishes off the song)is a wonderful example of encapsulating the fast paced life of the Broadway of the 30's. "I'm Going Shopping With You" is a catchy tune but not of classic standards. Still the production of this number is entertaining."The Words Are In My Heart" does not start out well when first introduced by Dick Powell while sitting in the parked speedboat. Notice the strain on his voice in the line '. . .the moon above makes the mu-sic'. Very strident. He improves on this when he gets an opportunity to sing it again. '. . mu-sic' is much less strained. The production of this number with the pianos, however, is extremely enjoyable. The pianos seem to glide effortlessly across the floor and manage to mesh perfectly. Remember, this was done before computers and much hydraulic equipment. So how was this accomplished? If one looks closely under the pianos nearest the screen, unmistakably you will see a pair of black trousered legs propelling the outline of each piano as it glides into place. Imagine the hours of preparation and drill it took to perform this feat to produce the effect seen on the screen. That's how it was in the Depression 30's. This writer must confess that the visibility of the trousers was not noticeable until pointed out on a program discussing the film within the last couple of years. It certainly was not noticeable to the 12-year old who was fortunate enough to view this classic when it first appeared in the middle of the Depression 30's. These musicals helped to make the Depression bearable.