Chicago
About Chicago
Roxie Hart (Phyllis Haver), a housewife hungry for fame, kills her lover. She tries to make her husband Amos (Victor Varconi) take the blame. She is tried for murder. The film expands the killing beyond Maurine Dallas Watkins's 1926 play, gives Amos a larger and more sympathetic part, and changes the ending so that Roxie is punished.
Cast & crew
More about Chicago
Frank Urson is the credited director. Cecil B. DeMille produced and is also listed as an uncredited director. Lenore J. Coffee wrote the screenplay from Watkins's play. J. Peverell Marley photographed it. Pathé released it on 27 December 1927.
Themes
Background
The first film of Watkins's 1926 play, rushed out by DeMille's company the year after the Broadway production.
In film history
The same play was later the source of the Kander and Ebb stage musical and the 2002 film. This 1927 picture is the first screen version, and it ends with Roxie punished, which the play did not.
Music
Cecil Copping is the credited composer.
Preservation
Complete prints are held by the CNC, the Cinémathèque royale de Belgique, Filmoteka Narodowa, MoMA, Gosfilmofond, the George Eastman Museum, UCLA, and the Cinémathèque française, among others.
Notes
- Wikidata lists 118 minutes. The English Wikipedia gives 103 minutes.
- Eugene Pallette plays Rodney Casley. May Robson plays the matron Mrs. Morton. Julia Faye plays Velma. Robert Edeson plays William Flynn.
- Cecil Copping is the composer listed on Wikidata.
- Flicker Alley issued a DVD in 2010 and a Blu-ray on 6 October 2020.
Scenes
- Roxie tries to push the blame onto Amos.
- The film's ending has her punished, unlike the play.
Influenced by
- Maurine Dallas Watkins's play Chicago (1926)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Chicago (1927) by Frank John Urson.webm)
- Flicker Alley DVD (2010)
- Flicker Alley Blu-ray (2020)