``Chicago'' It took 80 years for Hollywood to recognize the picaresque romance.

"Chicago" synopsis

Chicago in the 1920s. Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger), who dreams of becoming a star, watches with envy as Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones) stands on a cabaret stage. However, Velma is arrested during the show on charges of murdering her husband and sister with whom she had an affair. On the other hand, Roxy, a married woman, was also having an affair with a man who said he would sell her on a show, but when she learned that his words were a lie, she impulsively shoots him to death. Naturally, Roxy is arrested and sent to prison. Velma is also imprisoned there, but she bribes the female warden and hires a talented lawyer, Billy Flynn (Richard Gere), to portray herself as a victim betrayed by her husband and sister and become a star. Stocks were going up. Roxy also decides to imitate Velma and hire Billy using her good-natured husband...

Index

• The two heroines serving time for murder had models!
  
• An original play born from two murder trials.
• Until Hollywood can accept bad girls

The two heroines serving time for murder had models!

The 2002 masterpiece “Chicago” is a film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical. This is a survival drama about female prisoners who are imprisoned for murder (even though they have committed the crime) and struggle to be exonerated while gaining public attention due to the scandal.

The explanation that it is a film adaptation of a Broadway musical is not incorrect, but when you look at the history, things get a little more complicated. The story of ``Chicago '' is based on the play `` Chicago ,'' which was born out of a trial that took place in Chicago in 1924, and was made into a movie twice before the stage musical was created.

So, what exactly was the original incident? The central characters were a young woman named Beulah Annan, who was the inspiration for Roxy, played by Renée Zellweger, and a cabaret singer named Belva Gardner, who was the inspiration for Velma, played by Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Beulah Annan was born in Kentucky and married as a teenager, but she met Albert Annan, an auto mechanic, and the two moved to Chicago and married for the second time. However, she began to have a number of encounters with a mistress named Harry Karstedt, and one day, it is said that she shot Karstedt to death due to an entanglement in their love affair. He was only 24 years old.

"Chicago" (c) Photofest / Getty Images

Beulah reportedly listened to a record of the song "Hoola Lou" on repeat for several hours after the crime. The lyrics, ``Her name is Hoola Lou, the girl who can never be faithful'' sound like a bad joke that's too good to be true. By the way, the fact that the record that Roxy plays in the movie resembles "Hoola Lou" is probably a play on the part of the production team.

Beulah's claims changed several times, but she maintained that she was acting in self-defense because she felt she was in danger. The way her husband Anand supported Beulah by paying for her court costs, how she gained sympathy from the public by announcing her pregnancy while in prison, and how she divorced Annan immediately after being acquitted are all explained by Roxy in the movie. I'm afraid because it's the same.

Velva, the model for Velma, had a husband 20 years older than her, but one night, the shot dead body of her lover, a man named Walter Rowe, was found in the driver's seat of her car. A bottle of gin and a handgun lay on the floor of the car. Belva repeated his claim that he was ``too drunk and doesn't remember anything,'' just like in the movie.

While in prison, Belva makes some pretty blunt statements to The Journalist. “There is no man worth killing for a woman out of jealousy, and there are plenty of alternatives. A gin and a gun alone would be troublesome, but since they had both, isn’t it natural that it would be a disaster?”

Belva's lawyer argues strongly that ``the possibility of suicide cannot be ruled out,'' and wins his acquittal. Billy Flynn, the money-obsessed lawyer played by Richard Gere in the movie version, was born from the two people he was in charge of at this time.

An original play born from two murder trials.