Monday, January 20, 2025

6. Chicago

 

 6. Chicago. Maurine Dallas Watkins. 1926 (December). 111 pages. [Source: Online] [play, classic] [3 stars]

First sentence from the prologue: You damned tightwad!

Premise/plot: Roxie Hart stands trial for murder in Maurine Dallas Watkins' play titled Chicago. Will Amos, her husband, stand by her side faithfully? Will Flynn, her lawyer, be able to talk his client out of trouble? Will the newspapers stay focused on the prettiest little murderer the city has ever seen? 

The fictional play was inspired by a handful of crime stories from the time--circa 1924--notably Beulah Annan. The play premiered on Broadway in December 1926 (at least according to Wikipedia).

My thoughts: I saw the musical in theaters when it released ages ago; I wasn't particularly impressed. I became interested in the story again during my deep-diving into silent films. I watched the 1927 silent film, Chicago, and found it intriguing/entertaining. The next day I watched Roxie Hart a 1942 film adaptation. Chicago (1927) and Roxie Hart (1942) are two very different adaptations. Same basic story, radically different interpretations. After watching these two I decided to seek out the play which I believe may be in the public domain? I found it on archive.org. 

I am glad I read this three-act play. It was interesting to see what lines (dialogue) the film(s) kept and how they interpreted the story. Of course, the silent film didn't really have dialogue. But it did capture ALL the melodrama. And it had quite the cat fight between women prisoners. There were scenes that were just GOLD in terms of their timelessness in being entertaining. The 1942 film, of course, had dialogue. Both movies were WORTH watching. I appreciated them for different reasons.

Notably the main difference between Chicago (1927) and Roxie Hart (1942) was WHO was likeable!

In terms of preference, I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED Roxie Hart (1942). I loved Chicago (1927). I liked the play.

 

© 2025 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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