Dancing Lady (1933)
There are so many reasons to love this film above and beyond the dance numbers, which are only dazzling filler starring Fred Astaire. Yes, I mean to say that there is a lot going on here that is unsuspected and moving, beautiful and hilarious.
Start with Joan Crawford. By now a star in her own right, she gets to reprise some of the routines, and personal history, that led to headlining a major movie like this MGM spectacle. Or start with Clark Gable, also a great star, and a year before It Happened One Night (which is surely a better film, but a more restrained one). Gable is held down a little by his role, which is meant to be secondary to the pretty and charming Franchot Tone, the other leading man, except that Gable has twice the screen presence, and of course has the underdog part.
Add the music, which I can take or leave in many musicals, and which is more or less forgettable here, but which is so integral to the plot it works just fine. Related to this are the many amazing sets, including the sets within the sets when shooting rehearsals and performances, all of which are great Deco showcases. And finally, the brilliant, unrelentingly stunning photography by Oliver T. Marsh (see also another Crawford film, The Women). This is no small feat.
Did I mention Fred Astaire? With little fanfare, arriving on stage with Crawford but under his own name, he dances, and sings! A perfect element for authenticity and flair, and it's his Hollywood debut. Oh, and we may as well mention the well placed, often used, never overused threesome known elsewhere as the Three Stooges, who appear and reappear with their usual comic zaniness. This was their debut year, doing cameos in several features with MGM. Yeah, all of this is in one film.
For those wondering, the director, Robert Z. Leonard, did do a range of films over several decades, including some other musicals, and dramas worth seeing like the notable 1940 Pride and Prejudice (the one with Olivier). I suppose it was the producer who corralled such a terrific cast, but the director made them integrate with amazing fluidity. And there are some camera effects, too, that are first rate--virtuosic and fun, like the fast blur-pans (sideways and vertically) and a sequence or fast motion walking legs on the sidewalk as Crawford pursues Gable.
Someone might say, hey wait a minute, the plot is contrived (it is only a little) or the overall tone is one of bald entertainment, not real drama. And the reply is, of course, of course! Just like any other Fred Astaire movie, or An American in Paris, or any number of serious dramas. No, there is little holding back Dancing Lady. You have to see it.
There are so many reasons to love this film above and beyond the dance numbers, which are only dazzling filler starring Fred Astaire. Yes, I mean to say that there is a lot going on here that is unsuspected and moving, beautiful and hilarious.
Start with Joan Crawford. By now a star in her own right, she gets to reprise some of the routines, and personal history, that led to headlining a major movie like this MGM spectacle. Or start with Clark Gable, also a great star, and a year before It Happened One Night (which is surely a better film, but a more restrained one). Gable is held down a little by his role, which is meant to be secondary to the pretty and charming Franchot Tone, the other leading man, except that Gable has twice the screen presence, and of course has the underdog part.
Add the music, which I can take or leave in many musicals, and which is more or less forgettable here, but which is so integral to the plot it works just fine. Related to this are the many amazing sets, including the sets within the sets when shooting rehearsals and performances, all of which are great Deco showcases. And finally, the brilliant, unrelentingly stunning photography by Oliver T. Marsh (see also another Crawford film, The Women). This is no small feat.
Did I mention Fred Astaire? With little fanfare, arriving on stage with Crawford but under his own name, he dances, and sings! A perfect element for authenticity and flair, and it's his Hollywood debut. Oh, and we may as well mention the well placed, often used, never overused threesome known elsewhere as the Three Stooges, who appear and reappear with their usual comic zaniness. This was their debut year, doing cameos in several features with MGM. Yeah, all of this is in one film.
For those wondering, the director, Robert Z. Leonard, did do a range of films over several decades, including some other musicals, and dramas worth seeing like the notable 1940 Pride and Prejudice (the one with Olivier). I suppose it was the producer who corralled such a terrific cast, but the director made them integrate with amazing fluidity. And there are some camera effects, too, that are first rate--virtuosic and fun, like the fast blur-pans (sideways and vertically) and a sequence or fast motion walking legs on the sidewalk as Crawford pursues Gable.
Someone might say, hey wait a minute, the plot is contrived (it is only a little) or the overall tone is one of bald entertainment, not real drama. And the reply is, of course, of course! Just like any other Fred Astaire movie, or An American in Paris, or any number of serious dramas. No, there is little holding back Dancing Lady. You have to see it.