MOONLIGHT AND PRETZELS (1933)

Although the picture performed well at the box office and has been compared to Warner Bros.’ Busby Berkeley musicals, this low-budget pre-Code film from Universal is all but forgotten. Yet it’s a fascinating look at how much a creative director (Karl Freund) can do with limited resources. Out-of-work singer Roger Pryor lands a job in a small-town music store where he falls for his boss, played by Mary Brian. He also discovers a flair for songwriting that takes him back to Broadway, though a series of misunderstandings threaten his new romance. Freund had his cinematographer William Miller shoot the film in a small New York studio, so he added stock footage to give an epic sweep to his musical numbers, particularly one dealing with the Great Depression and the New Deal. He also mimicked Berkeley’s famed over-head shots in another number. Pre-Code materials include implications of nudity, a gay choreographer, and sympathetic and comic gangsters like Leo Carillo, who ends up backing Pryor’s big show.  

d. Karl Freund, 83m, 35mm

Print courtesy of Universal Pictures.