Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9026 in VHS
• Released on: 1995-02-23
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Formats: Black & White, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 92 minutes

Amazon.com
Joan Crawford and Clark Gable were both in their young MGM prime when they suited up for Dancing Lady, the studio's big, shiny, silly reply to 42nd Street. Joan is a burlesque dancer (but mind you, serious artiste) when she is plucked from the ranks by a playboy, played by Franchot Tone, Crawford's future real-life hubby. Gable is the bluff, hard-driving theater director guiding a new Broadway musical that has room for one more chorus girl. Maybe. It all builds to the opening of the big show, and some utterly insane musical numbers including a Bavarian spectacle and the mind-bending "Rhythm of the Day." The saving grace in these scenes is that Fred Astaire, in his film debut, partners Joan onstage and sings a bit. The movie also has Nelson Eddy and soused one-liners from Robert Benchley, plus Ted Healy and His Stooges doing some surreal comedy. Vaudevillian Healy actually has a pretty big role here, but the Stooges (three fellows named Moe, Curly, and Larry) would go on to stardom without him. The movie may not be a great one, but it gives the sugary flavor of early-'30s MGM, and even a simple scene like a gym workout (with Gable and Crawford in especially sassy form) provides the pleasures of art deco production design and cool costumes. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews

A BLAST FROM THE PAST...
In this glossy 1933 hit, Joan Crawford is an aspiring dancer who wants a chance to make it big. She meets a rich playboy (Franchot Tone), who, behind the scenes, paves the way for her to get her big break. He arranges for her to get a part in the new Broadway musical directed by Clark Gable, who grudgingly gives her a part, after he realizes that she does, in fact, have talent.

This is an MGM extravaganza in which the studio pulled out all the stops. There is something for everyone. Look for Busby Berkley-esque musical numbers, cameo performances by the three stooges, Fred Astaire's screen debut as Joan's dancing partner, and a Nelson Eddy performance that pre-dates his Jeanette MacDonald days. This is definitely an oldie but a goodie.

Delightful performances are given by the entire cast. Joan Crawford can, in fact, dance and is terrific in her role. Gable is definitely on his way to becoming a screen heart throb. This is also one of Franchot Tone's most ingratiating performances, as he looks like he is really besotted with Ms. Crawford. It comes as no surprise that he later became her second husband, as his performance is positively inspired. The film is vintage Hollywood. Joan Crawford fans will love it, as will anyone who enjoys classic films.

ALL THIS AND HITLER TOO!!
So where's the DVD???

MGM's answer to Warner Brothers' "42nd Street", which was released earlier in 1933.

Produced by David Selznick-
Clark Gable at his dashing, tough guy best-
Joan Crawford's fine acting and gawky dancing-
Franchot Tone's suave but unscrupulous Park Avenue beau-
Robert Benchley as a whimsical gossip columnist-
Ted Healey's brash, wise-guy humor AND
his current proteges, The Three Stooges!

PLUS the screen debuts of BOTH Fred Astaire AND Nelson Eddy--inthe SAME FILM!
Songs by Rodgers and Hart and Burton Lane ("Everything I have is Yours")-

AND a wild, zany, over-the-top Musical Finale, including Fred and Joan dancing in the clouds on a flying-carpet which lands
(accompanied by Max-Steiner-ish "King Kong" music) in the middle of an old-world Bavarian beer bash:

"Here in Bavaria
They take good care-a-ya,
In all this area
Skies are clear"

all of this culminating in Rodgers'and Hart's "That's the Rhythm of the Day", with Nelson Eddy singing the praises of the motorized, pulse-pounding world of the "Moderne" age, as quaint figures from past historical eras pass under an archway and are transformed into "hot", jazz-age swingers! Plenty of pre-code girlie shots, including a sequence where a chorus line of old, hobbling grannies are bopped, sawed, hacked, drilled and chopped (all in silhouette behind closed drapes in a futuristic "beauty parlor"), thereby transforming them into young 30's-style babes, while Rodgers' music is honked out in brassy, saxophone-and- banjo-laden brilliance.

The ladies then end up riding a giant mirrored carousel in the sky, with Rodger's tune now transformed into a Tchaikovskian waltz.

And Gable and Crawford kiss for the final fade-out!

I KID YOU NOT!!

And so---will this wacky, wonderful, Depression-era delight ever be preserved on DVD, representing as it does a high-point in sheer lavish Hollywood escapism of the period? Don't hold your breath.

NOTE: During the back-stage scenes, Larry Fine (of the 3 Stooges)plays the company's rehearsal pianist. The script includes a running gag as he works on a jig-saw puzzle on a card table during the slow periods of the rehearsals. When he fits the last piece of the puzzle into the frame, he FINALLY realizes the puzzle's visual subject matter--- "Oi!" he shouts:
"It's Hitler!"

A very timely reference, since Hitler had recently been voted into power in Berlin. I actually saw this scene in a TV print of "Dancing Lady" shown on a local Washington D.C. UHF station in summer of 1975; when I next saw the film--in a revival house in Chicago in 1984, the scene was MISSING. I was even MORE suprised and disappointed upon viewing the commercial VHS release in the late 80's to find that the scene DOES NOT EXIST in the official print. IT will probably never be seen again.

SENSATIONAL PRODUCTION THAT HAS EVERYTHING!!!!!
I was so impressed with this great production on DVD. Young, beautiful Joan Crawford is so talented ~ I had no idea. She is vivacious, sexy, dances, sings, dives and swims ~ she absolutely sparkles. Clark Gable is young, handsome, and shows off his athletic body in the gym. Fred Astaire is in his debut in this film where Joan and him dance together. There is also the Three Stooges, as well. It has great fun dialogue, is very technically modern for its time, extremely entertaining, fast paced, and an absolute joy to watch this CLASSIC film ~ WHAT A TREAT!! THEY SURE DON'T MAKE MOVIES LIKE THIS ANYMORE. YOU WILL LOVE IT AS I DO AND PLAY IT AGAIN AND AGAIN!!