Roxie wants the stage more than she wants to be good, and the film does not lie about that want. Billy Flynn sells a jury the way he would sell a ticket. The merry murderesses are a chorus of women the city would rather watch than judge. That is a true picture of a public. It is also a picture so pleasurable that the public in your living room may join it.

Watch it for the cynicism, with adults who can hear the cynicism. If the room starts rooting for the acquittal as a happy ending, stop the disk and say the dull fact. She did it. The dance was the defense.