If anyone still remains unconvinced, here is proof in joyous abundance that the day Ginger Rogers stopped being the other half of Fred Astaire was one of the brightest days the motion picture art has ever seen. As Roxie Hart she is all things at once--comedienne, dramatic actress, dancer, and complete proof that not only something good, but something terrific can come out of Hollywood, even if they do say so themselves.

She is Roxie all the way through the picture, and not Ginger or Hollywood or anything else for a single minute. And what is even more amazing, the whole picture keeps within the limitations of its own claims with commendable restraint. It's not a universal theme, and it's not a great picture, and it doesn't try to be either. What it does try to do is capture the flavor and the essence of the America of the twenties, and this it does with perfection and big-hearted ridicule. It's parody all the way through, but it never crosses the line to become burlesque. It has the sure and subtle touch that makes true parody an art in its own right.

The whole spirit of the picture is that of the present age, mellowed by maturity and a conception of deeper tragedy, looking back on a gangling and naive but ever enthusiastic and dauntless period of its development. Roxie had her brief burst of glory in a time when bigness was the sole criterion of success, when the papers were full of nothing but big murders, big investments, big swindles, big fortunes, big failures, and big trials. So a publicity mad public, a press that knew which side its bread was buttered on, and a lawyer to whom law was all Greek but a jury an open book, got together and built a gigantic myth and a spectacular murder trial around an innocent but willing flapper named Roxic Hart. The story is no more than enough to hold the picture together, but every scene, from Roxie, the press, and the law doing the black bottom in the city jail to the broadcasting of the trial over a nation-wide network, is a masterpiece in itself. With Adolf Menjou turning in some of his best acting since "Golden Boy," and Ginger Rogers playing her part as though she had never been anyone else, "Roxie Hart" is as healthy and heart-warming a bit of self-ridicule as has been seen in a long time.