Movie Reviews for Dance with Me, Henry

Dance with Me, Henry

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Movie Reviews of Dance with Me, Henry

Movie Review: Not their funniest, nor worst, but appropriate final film.
Summary: 4 Stars

Dance With Me, Henry was the last film the great comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello made together, and far from their worst. Costello is the proprietor of Kiddyland, an amusement park, an appropriate character for his child like comedy style. Abbott is his gambling partner.
The main part of the plot concerns crooks Abbott is indebted to, but there's a subplot about orphans and Costello losing custody of his kids due to a nosy, prim social worker played to perfection by the great character actress Mary Wickes (Who Done It?, On Moonlight Bay, Father Dowling Mysteries).
The supporting cast also includes former child star Gigi Perreau, Robert Shayne (who played Inspector Henderson on Superman) as the district attorney, and, as the Priest at the orphanage, Frank Wilcox, recognizable from numerous TV guest shots like Brewster on The Beverly Hillbillies, Wally's principal on Leave It To Beaver, and a judge on Perry Mason.
Much of the comedy in this one may seem hackneyed or aimed at children - such as the extensive chase through the amusement park at the end - but there is some good original comedy as well, such as when Lou, suspected of murdering the DA, is questioned by cops, and gradually through the long, intense interrogation, he breaks down each cop, one after another. Plus, it's the only A & C film with rock music, or at least Rythm & Blues.
Dance With Me Henry is an appropirate final film for the great team, with higher production values than many of their other later films, certainly far better than Africa Screams, for instance, but more memorable for the characters they play than for laughs.

Movie Review: A&C Meet The Mob
Summary: 4 Stars

That should have been a subtitle title for Dance With Me Henry. While it's not their best work, a complicated plot which gets more complicated as it goes along, Henry is enjoyable if you like mob films. This represents a change in the direction of A&C films, with Lou playing Lou Henry, a play-it-straight, intelligent proprietor of Kiddyland amusement park. All he wants is to keep the Welfare Board from declaring him an unfit parent and take away his two adopted children. Bud plays Bud Flick, the semi-shady friend of Henry, who runs up a $20,000 gambling debt and gets in hot water with the mob. Flick uses Henry's generosity and friendship to bail himself out, with disastrous results, even leading to Lou being wrongly arrested for the murder of the D.A.

As this was to be their last film together, the change in character was used to try something new. While Henry will often remind the viewer of a 1950s mafia film, such as The Untouchables, there are plenty of laughs along the way. For instance, the very last chaotic scene in the amusement park contains plenty of slapstick humor. Also, the slick talking Flick manages to confuse Costello into disagreeable situations, as in many of their earlier films. Granted this is an atypical A&C movie, but any A&C fan will appreciate the boys' work here. As with other atypical A&C films, such as Time of Their Lives and Little Giant, Dance With Me Henry includes some of their most creative work.

Movie Review: Final film, better than many of A/C's
Summary: 3 Stars

Here was another chance for Lou Costello to show his acting talents - a prior effort, The Time Of Their Lives - was also an impressive performance. Too bad he never got to play Mayor LaGuardia on film, as I've read. He's capable of generating much pathos, where an actor noted for frantic slapstick might exaggerate, or be overly sentimental. His role as the proprietor of "Kiddyland", a nearby amusement park convenient to the kids he's taken in, to the concern of a local social worker, gives him room to show what he can do. His buddy Bud is also effective, in a more, shall we say "humbling role", compared to the affable con-man he usually plays.
What's really wrong in this oddball but fun affair is the ill-conceived, overdrawn plot involving Bud's gambling habits and his less than honorable cohorts who occasionally supply his funding. The mix of kids and crooks is at times very awkward - in fact there's a very bizarre scene in which a young girl witnesses a murder at the park, later to be questioned. The victim is the actor who played the Inspector on "The Adventures Of Superman" TV series, interestingly enough, also directed by Charles Barton. It was very poor scripting not to provide for this character to appear at the end, recovered from the gunshot.
I enjoyed the use of the 1950s classic, "Dance With Me, Henry" (of course based upon the slightly risque "Work With Me Annie" by Hank Ballard And The Midnighters); theres a nice scene where the children dance to the General Audience version at Kiddyland when the bad guys are vanquished.

Movie Review: Interesting to say the least
Summary: 3 Stars

Their last film, uses the team in non-comedic team roles. Not the first time, but it really stands out here. For an A&C fan, worth looking to see the changes that they went through as a team and all. Mostly this is a Lou vehicle, worth a look, but certainly not a classic.