Roxie Hart signs a murder confession in order to attract publicity for her dancing career as dames don't swing in Cook County. Will everything go as planned?

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 propel her faltering show business career. In the original play, and its other adaptations, Roxie was found guilty but acquitted. However, in order to conform to the Motion Picture Production Code, which regulated moral guidelines for Hollywood films at the time, this incarnation portrays Roxie as innocent but misguided in her attempt to achieve fame.

Plot summary

As soon as Stuart Chapman (Ted North) starts his new job as a newspaper reporter in Chicago, he is pulled into a murder investigation together with his new colleague Homer Howard (George Montgomery). As they sit down 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).

Back in 1927, a theatre booking agent, Fred Casely, was murdered, and his body was found in Roxie's apartment. Roxie's husband Amos (George Chandler) is immediately questioned by the police, but Roxie is persuaded to let herself get arrested for the murder, since a woman hardly ever gets convicted of murder in Chicago. Besides, the fame she would earn for taking the blame could definitely improve her fading career. Reporter Jake Callahan (Lynne Overman) and Casely's partner E. Clay Benham (Nigel Bruce) reason with Roxie to convince her of what to do.

Roxie takes the blame, even though she knows her husband is guilty of the murder. Her mugshot is taken at the police station. When in jail, Roxie talks to different reporters about the case, including Homer, who has just started out as a journalist. Her husband also gets her the best lawyer money could buy, Billy Flynn (Adolphe Menjou), who is the closest thing to a show artist to ever enter a court room.

Billy decides they will use the fact that Roxie is a weak woman and claim she killed the man in self-defense. Billy sets up a series of interviews with journalist reporters. Roxie is instructed to charm the reporters and perform her trademark dance, "The Black Hula."

Homer is one of these reporters who are charmed by the lovely Roxie. He also finds out that Amos in fact is the real killer from her apartment building janitor, Michael Finnegan, and decides to help Roxie out. When the press turns to report on another "lady criminal", Gertie Baxter (Iris Adrian), and the publicity tide turns in favor of a tougher treatment of women criminals, Roxie pretends to be pregnant to sway the public opinion back to her ring side.

To further create sympathy for Roxie, Billy moves her trial further into the future, and gets Amos to divorce her. Roxie still doesn't trust the legal system enough, and wants Billy to find Finnegan and get him to testify in court on her behalf. It turns out Finnegan is dead, and the written statement he left before he died is judged as inadmissible evidence.

Billy still manages to get Roxie off the hook, and her fainting in front of the jury helps her case tremendously. She is found not guilty of the murder, but Amos is arrested instead, stealing all the publicity from Roxie. Out of the limelight, Roxie has to choose between marrying the poor reporter Homer and a rich member of the jury, stockbroker O'Malley (William Frawley).

Cast

Ginger Rogers as Roxanne "Roxie" Hart
Adolphe Menjou as William "Billy" Flynn
George Montgomery as Homer Howard
Lynne Overman as Jake Callahan
Nigel Bruce as E. Clay Benham
Phil Silvers as Babe
Sara Allgood as Mrs. Morton
William Frawley as O'Malley
Spring Byington as Mary Sunshine
Ted North as Stuart Chapman
Helene Reynolds as Velma Wall
George Chandler as Amos Hart
Charles D. Brown as Charles E. Murdock
Morris Ankrum as Martin S. Harrison
George Lessey as Judge Cannon
Iris Adrian as 'Two-Gun' Gertie Baxter
Milton Parsons as Announcer
Frank Darien as Michael Finnegan (uncredited)

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