The 42nd. Street Special (1933) User Reviews

How many of the "stars" introduced here were still ON the silver train . . .

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 11 December 2016]

. . . when it actually pulled away from Hollywood's train station? Did the Choo-Choo simply stop a mile or two down the tracks, where a fleet of stretch limousines were waiting to whisk the Celebs to a Malibu party? If Tom Mix, Joe E. Brown, and Glenda Farrell ACTUALLY were present (for a few moments, at least), WHY weren't they introduced as were the other luminaries? (I have watched this five minute short at least three times over the years, and this trio is NEVER mentioned.) Seeing this piece just makes a person sad that CGI was not invented in time for this RR PR stunt. Had CGI been available, the ACTUAL stars of 42nd STREET--the dancers--could have been featured strutting their stuff ATOP the seven train cars as they departed the station. Now, THAT would have been Entertainment! (Of course, in lieu of such visual effects, Warner Bros. could have just taught Yakima Canutt how to dance!)

The 42nd Street Special was an interesting enough promotional short of the time for me

[tavm · 7/10 · 8 January 2013]

Just watched on the Gold Diggers of 1933 DVD which means this was probably part of The Busby Berkeley Collection boxed set. In chronicles the train known as "The 42nd Street Special" which was a promotional tour promoted by Warner Bros. in conjunction with General Electric as it stops in several U.S. cities with the end being during the Inauguration Day of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Several Warner stars not in the film speak to the public on the train's inaugural leave of which the only one I recognized was Bette Davis who wasn't the big star she'd eventually become at the studio. Also addressing the crowd were Jack L. Warner, vice president of the studio and Darryl F. Zanuck, then head of production. Interesting enough of a vintage promotional short and like I said, it's on the GD of '33 disc.

For Film Buffs Only

[Michael_Elliott · 1 January 2010]

42nd Street Special, The (1932)

** (out of 4)

This co-production between Warner and GE was meant to highlight the movie 42ND STREET as the stars of the film (and studio) would jump on a train and take it from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. with a hundred stops along the way. Leo Carillo, Claire Dodd, Bette Davis, Preston Foster, Lyle Talbot, Darryl Zanuck and Jack Warner are just a few of the famous faces that appear here. This promotional short runs a brief six-minutes and the quality of the film really hasn't stood up well over time. Not only is the promotional stuff quite boring but so is the actual sound quality as quite often it's hard to understand what the speakers are saying. The film, I guess, does a good job at its goal, which is to make people interested in the film but only die hard fans will really need to watch this.

Pretty strange promo idea

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 29 January 2018]

"The 42nd. Street Special" is a black-and-white documentary short film from 1933, so this one has its 85th anniversary this year, which sadly means that everybody you see in this black-and-white short film is long dead now. It runms for a bit under 6 minutes and was an idea by Warner Bros to promote one of their upcoming films back then. The train's title is almost like the film title and you can read it in the title of this little add-on we got here. Nowadays you'd probably find it on a making-of DVD, but back then it was something special, especially the concept as a whole. Several relatively important people step up to the mic and say a few words (nothing extraordinary or memorable) before the train finally heads to Washington and President Roosevelt is mentioned, but not seen in here. It's pretty short, so you are doing not too much wrong by watching it, but the only ones I'd really recommend it is those probably very few who have seen the Oscar-nominated movie this is about and, even more important, have liked it. I personally haven't seen it and maybe that is also why this one here did very little for me. It's not a failure, but hasn't aged too well I guess and I'd say film historians can give it a go too. If you are not one of these, then skip it. A document of its time that hasn't aged particularly well.