The week’s most surprising movie announcement? Ryan Gosling is considering playing legendary dance director Busby Berkeley in a new biopic he’s producing.
Given Gosling’s attraction to dark material, it’s possible he’s interested in Berkeley’s three trials for vehicular manslaughter. After two hung juries, Berkeley — who witnesses said smelled of alcohol — was acquitted at his third trial for driving head-on into another car, killing two people, in 1935.
Berkeley was also married six times and was sued by actress Carole Landis after he withdrew his marriage proposal. But I’d like to think that Gosling, a dancer earlier in his career, is a fan of Berkeley’s much-imitated work, which contains some of the sexiest and most jaw-dropping production numbers ever committed to celluloid.
Here are ten of the most outrageous:
‘Pettin’ in the Park’ (1934)
Berkeley took full advantage of the era’s loose censorship with this innuendo-laden number full of scantily clad chorus girls, Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler and a leering “child’’ from “Gold Diggers of 1933.’’
‘Remember My Forgotten Man’ (1933)
Berkeley drew on his experience staging military marches for the remarkable (and serious) finale of “Gold Diggers of 1933,” featuring Joan Blondell and Etta Moten.
‘By a Waterfall’ (1933)
This aquatic spectacle — with the camera caressing the swimmers’ thighs — takes place on a stage that would fit in no real theater. In fact, they had to cut through the soundstage roof to get the high overhead shots for this number from “Footlight Parade.’’
‘I Only Have Eyes for You’ (1934)
Not really a choreographer, Berkeley, a former Army drill sergeant, was more interested in arranging chorus girls into increasingly surreal geometric patterns — as in this number from “Dames.’’
‘Lullaby of Broadway’ (1935)
Berkeley received the first of his three Oscar nominations in the short-lived Dance Direction category for a pair of numbers from “Gold Diggers of 1935.’’ This is his career masterpiece, an astounding minimovie featuring storm trooper-like dancers.
‘The Words Are in My Heart’ (1935)
The other number that Berkeley was Oscar-nominated for in “Gold Diggers of 1935’’ offers the spectacle of “dancing’’ pianos manipulated by disguised little people.
‘Girl Crazy’ finale (1943)
Warner Bros. lost interest in Berkeley’s expensive musicals by the late 1930s, and he moved to MGM to work on more star-oriented numbers. He was supposed to direct this entire film, but was fired after the first over-the-top number he shot with Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney went way over budget.
‘The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat’ (1943)
“The Gang’s All Here,’’ Berkeley’s only film for Fox and his first in Technicolor, is a campfest with some of his most striking work — especially this Freudian head-spinner with Carmen Miranda and scantily clad chorus girls wielding 6-foot bananas.
‘The Polka Dot Polka’ (1943)
Don’t be fooled by the title: The finale of “The Gang’s All Here’’ begins innocuously enough with Alice Faye and dancing children, before launching chorines into outer space — where the stars’ disembodied heads sing a medley of songs.
‘Million Dollar Mermaid’ (1952)
Esther Williams reportedly ended up in traction after shooting Berkeley’s last major production number in this biopic of superstar swimmer Annette Kellerman.