Frank Urson

Chicago Frank Urson

Sexy, jazz-loving, and dressed to kill, Roxie Hart (Phyllis Haver) is living a life of drama (if not stardom). She has a doting, handsome husband (Victor Varconi); a rich lover whose pockets are never quite deep enough (Eugene Pallette); and, soon, a full-blown murder charge. When Roxie secures the services of lawyer Billy Flynn (Robert Edeson) equal part mob mouthpiece and publicity agent and starts to make national headlines, the courtroom theatrics begin. Like the musical CHICAGO that won the Best Picture Academy Award and five other Oscars in 2002, this original1927 silent film descends from the 1926 hit Broadway play by Maurine Watkins. It's a terrifically entertaining mix of humor and melodrama, as well as a pungent critique of trash journalism. Frank Urson is the credited director of CHICAGO, although it is substantially the work of Cecil B. DeMille and his A-list technical staff. (DeMille apparently judged it unseemly to take full credit for this cynical and secular story while his religious spectacle THE KING OF KINGS was still in theatres!) CHICAGO is silent filmmaking at it's peak, with an outstanding score for this edition by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. The 1927 CHICAGO was long believed a lost film, but a perfect print survived in Cecil B. DeMille's private collection. This Blu-ray edition of CHICAGO was restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive in 2006, and is presented here by Flicker Alley and Blackhawk Films.