Roxie Hart

Roxie Hart (also known as Chicago or Chicago Gal) is a 1942 American comedy film directed by William A. Wellman, and starring Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou and George Montgomery. A film adaptation of a 1926 play Chicago by Maurine Dallas Watkins, a journalist who found inspiration in two real-life Chicago trials (Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner) she had covered for the press. The play had been adapted once prior, in a 1927 silent film. In 1975, a hit stage musical premiered, and was once more adapted as the Oscar-winning 2002 musical film. The screenplay by Nunnally Johnson focuses on a Chicago showgirl who confesses to a murder in hopes the publicity will help her faltering show business career. In the original play, and its other adaptations, Roxie was guilty but was acquitted. However, in order to conform to the Motion Picture Production Code, which regulated moral guidelines for Hollywood films at the time, this adaptation portrays Roxie as innocent but misguided in her attempt to achieve fame. Plot summary Stuart Chapman (Ted North) starts a new job as a newspaper reporter in Chicago, and is pulled into a murder investigation together with his new colleague, veteran reporter Homer Howard (George Montgomery). As they sit in a bar having a drink after a long day, Homer starts telling about a case he reported on in 1927 - a murder case involving the young dancer Roxie Hart (Ginger Rogers).