Dancing Lady
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Movie Reviews of Dancing Lady
Movie Review: Ideal situation. Gable and Crawford together.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an excellent vehicle for Clark Gable and Joan Crawford. He has a gruff, devil may care part, which suits him perfectly. Ms. Crawford gets a chance to show off her dancing prowess, which was a reason she broke into show business. When young, she was a dish, and Gable, can I say, hunk. This film is a keeper and should be in every classic film buff's library.Movie Review: 1933 dance-a-romance a little off-balance, but with lots of things to like
Summary: 4 Stars
On the minus side, the plot is obvious, sometimes forced, the comedy often trite, and the big production numbers are strange. OK, production numbers are always strange, I suppose. "Heigh-Ho, the Gang's All Here"/"Let's Go Bavarian" is a paean to beer, no doubt inspired by the end of Prohibition, first in formal dress, then after a magic carpet ride to Bavaria, lederhosen and dirndls ensue. The other number puts a happy face on the times, showing people from other periods of history and various dispositions being transformed into the chic and modern "Rhythm of the Day."
On the plus side, most of the actors are interesting and attractive, some parts are funny (my favorite sight gag has Crawford and Gable seeming to duke it out with opposing weight machines), there is some life in the plot, and the production numbers do have quite a bit of dazzle and appeal just the same.
It's interesting to watch Crawford before her face became harder--though she already has that edge at times--and to see her dance and hear her sing. She can move her feet well, not with the grace of the best dancers, but with good tapping. And her singing was OK too. We get to see a lot of her in this pre-Code movie. Great legs. She brought more nuance to the acting than was probably asked of her, which does help.
Gable's young and energetic, thinner, and holds his own with Crawford. Franchot Tone comes in a distinct second to Gable, as he was supposed to.
The screen debuts of Fred Astaire and Nelson Eddy are limited almost entirely to singing and dancing numbers, which they do well, of course. Standing out like sore thumbs with their physical comedy, still fun for many, are Ted Healy and His [Three] Stooges, who show up several times. Healy has a major supporting role, mostly straight when he's not dealing with the Stooges. And the ever-distinctive Eve Arden has an uncredited early bit part. There's what may have been intended to be a (brief) caricature of a gay Broadway writer, over-the-top emotionally and effeminate, played for laughs.
The film appears to be clipped a little on the sides to fit the full-screen format. (The opening credits have small blacks bars at the top and bottom that widen the aspect ratio, and later, when the bars are gone, the action occasionally goes off the edge a little. IMDb confirms that the original aspect ratio was 1.37:1, not the 1.33:1 we get on the DVD.) The print is clean, the mono sound OK.
For those who didn't get enough production numbers and stooges in the main feature, there are two short films as extras. Plane Nuts, also from 1933, is almost 20 minutes of Healy, the Stooges and dancers (dancing with a theme of airplanes). Roast Beef & Movies, from 1934, is over 16 minutes of stoogelike behavior from George Givot, Jerry (Curly) Howard and Bobby Callahan, with dancing women, and music by Dmitri Tiomkin. There's minimal evidence (outside the credits that say so) that it was originally in color; the colors are very faded. Great for people who like that kind of thing. I found both shorts too long by about their entire lengths, but I'm not a Stooge fan.
The main feature is worth seeing, but approach it with only moderate expectations.
Movie Review: MGM's answer to 42nd Street
Summary: 4 Stars
In 1932, Joan Crawford cut her teeth as Sadie Thompson in "Rain" and, worse still, was miscast as a British aristocrat in the dreadful Howard Hawks buddy movie "Today We Live". She wanted (needed) a hit. "Dancing Lady", MGM's response to the trendsetting "42nd Street", was the result.
This film placed Crawford squarely within her comfort zone as an ambitious hoofer determined to make the big time, an almost autobiographical screenplay. Surrounded by MGM gloss and 2 leading men, the superstar Clark Gable and the rising aristocrat, Franchot Tone, Crawford was easily able to suggest the drive of an ambitious performer even if her singing and dancing skills were merely adequate. The result is an odd musical which combines some earthiness with the customary artificial MGM glamour. Crawford is at her most appealing, both physically and emotionally, with Gable and she puts on the Ritz with Tone. The musical numbers are a mess without the focus of the best of Busby Berkeley and the songs, with the exception of the standard "Everything I have is Yours", are unmemorable. Nelson Eddy and Fred Astaire famously made their debuts here, neither showing any particular star quality, particularly Astaire. The awful Ted Healey is on hand with the 3 Stooges mainly hovering in the background. Also, you can see Eve Arden in a short cameo as a southern dame and Lyn Bari is a teenage chorus girl in one number. The good news is that, contrary to so many MGM DVDs, the print is immaculate, preserving the crisp black and white lighting and the shiny art deco sets.
Some unusual extras are included. One short has some vaudeville comedy from Healey and the Stooges and Curly appears in the other. Both are dreadful except for historical reasons because they contain some discarded musical numbers from a shelved MGM musical called "The March of Time", filmed in the crude 2 strip Technicolor of the time. Ann Dvorak is clearly visible hoofing away in one number.
The package is expensive but can be purchased more cheaply as part of the Clark Gable Signature Collection within which it is an odd fit for this is a Crawford opus and not one of Gable's finer moments.
Movie Review: "Slumming in ermine"
Summary: 4 Stars
Frequent co-stars Joan Crawford and Clark Gable are very memorable indeed in DANCING LADY, perhaps the most popular of their films. Their unique chemistry carries over perfectly from the screen. Also appearing in this movie is Franchot Tone, who would go on to marry Crawford two years later.
DANCING LADY was filmed by M-G-M in 1933 as their answer to rival studio Warner Brothers' hugely-successful "42nd Street", choreographed by Busby Berklely. The formula is copied in DANCING LADY with a fair degree of success. Joan Crawford plays Janie Barlow, a street-smart burlesque dancer who finally hits the bright lights of Broadway...but will she marry the society gent who picked her up from the gutter, or her hard-boiled Broadway director?
As mentioned above, the musical numbers are very reminiscent of those choreographed by Busby Berkeley for "42nd Street"--even the final number, "Rhythm of the Day", is staged as a direct parody of the title song in "42nd Street". This was Crawford's return to the glittery musicals that had made her name, following a series of successful ("Grand Hotel", "Letty Lynton") and not-so-successful ("Rain", "Today We Live") comedies and dramas.
Clark Gable and Franchot Tone are well-cast in the two leading male roles. The movie also features early screen appearances from The Three Stooges and Fred Astaire, plus a singing cameo from Nelson Eddy. For fans of the classic musicals, it's hard to resist DANCING LADY.
The DVD also features two Vitaphone musical shorts ("Plane Nuts" and "Roast-Beef & the Movies"), plus the trailer. Also available as part of Clark Gable - The Signature Collection (Dancing Lady / China Seas / San Francisco / Wife vs. Secretary / Boom Town / Mogambo)
Movie Review: Adorable.
Summary: 4 Stars
Dancing Lady (Robert Z. Leonard, 1933)
Leonard, who made over one hundred fifty films during his lifetime and was twice nominated for the Best Director Oscar (for 1930's The Divorcee and 1936's The Great Ziegfeld), here directs a handful of stars on the rise in a film that time seems to have forgotten. I don't really understand why, given the cast. The leads are Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, and Franchot Tone, and the cameos include the Three Stooges, Nelson Eddy, and (in his first screen appearance) Fred Astaire. The cast alone seems to be enough to raise this one to immortal level, and yet it hasn't happened. I have no idea why.
Crawford plays Janie Barlow, a dancer who's fallen on hard enough times in New York that she's performing in burlesque shows. After a police raid, she's hauled in front of the bench and gives a passionate speech about her love for dancing. The speech affects a court hanger-on, wealthy playboy Tod Newton (Tone), who springs her from jail and uses his connections to get her some more legitimate jobs. It's at this point she meets well-known producer Patch Gallagher (Gable), who's also attracted to her. Cue love-triangle melodrama, but instead of going the way of the weepie, Leonard and screenwriters Rivkin and Wolfson (if I started mentioning credits we'd be here all day) keep this flick planted firmly in the screwball-comedy-musical genre.
I have to say that the whole thing is actually kind of tame for a pre-code flick released not long before the Hays Commission clamped down on the industry in 1934, but it's still quite amusing, the acting is as good as you'd expect it to be, and the script is dazzling. Whether you are already a fan of pre-code film or whether you're just starting to unearth some of the many gems to be found there, Dancing Lady is well worth your time. ****