Product Description

A Broadway chorine (Joan Crawford) needs a little help with her hoofing so her dance director (Clark Gable) gets an idea. A good idea. "Do you feel like going through that opening number with Mr. Astaire?" And Fred Astaire making his screen debut shows the lady how it's done. Three film icons give the backstage musical a jolt of superstar electricity in a song- dance- and romance-filled extravaganza featuring support by Nelson Eddy Robert Benchley and The Three Stooges and tunes by Rodgers and Hart Burton Lane Dorothy Fields and more musical greats. Gable and Crawford had such stellar chemistry that MGM teamed them for eight movies. Here as always they have street-smart glamour and charisma to burn. Add Astaire's sophistication and Dancing Lady can take a well-deserved bow.Running Time: 92 min.System Requirements:Run Time: 92 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: MUSICALS/MUSICALS UPC: 012569679047 Manufacturer No: 67904

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38312 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2006-06-20
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• 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

Buy for the Movie Not the Stooges
A surprisingly good movie. Disreputable dancer becomes star. Joan Crawford seen as a dancer, not as a dark character as portrayed in her later films. Also the First film of Fred Astaire. Other future stars can be spotted, for instance Eve Arden (Palmolive lady, Grease,etc...) Ted Healy and the Stooges really have a limited role, nevertheless an enjoyable film to watch.

Yes, she had poisonality(to jealous chorus girls)
"Them things won't mix with Those things". This was Jamie Barlow's(Joan Crawford) final excuse for again turning down dandy Todd Newton's(Franchot Tone) latest marriage proposal, leaving the door wide open to complete her long simmering chase of hard-to-get musical show director Patch Gallagar(Clark Gable). Her point was that, as a former downtown burlesque dancer, she wouldn't feel comfortable nor fulfilled as the ornament of a filthy rich high society scion. She wanted to continue her dancing career for an indefinite period. Although this film was included in my Clark Gable Signature Collection, as the title and credit order suggest, Joan Crawford was considered the primary star. In large part, it turned out to be semi-autobiographical. Crawford was primarily a dancer in her silent era show business career. Franchot Tone, frustrated in his pursuit of Crawford in this film, managed to get a marriage license out of her a few years later. But, the marriage failed within a few years, in part, because of their different backgrounds and preferred lifestyles. Tone was, in fact, a Yankee blue blood, as portrayed in this film. Although never including Gable among her 5 husbands, the two apparently were occasional lovers until his death.
The unbelievable sequence where Crawford pursues Gable whereever he goes for some days, and he refuses to even give her a verbal brush off, may simply serve to burlesque the strength of her ambition to join his troop and his fear of harassment by girls wanting a position in his troop.
However, I get the impression Gable instinctively knows at first sight that she is potential romantic dynamite for him and doesn't want to get involved at this time. The give and take between Crawford and Gable, and between Crawford and Tone, dominates the middle of the film. It's clear that Crawford's huge expressive eyes are hard to resist. But she's very stingy in dishing out her hard core romantic responses, even to always smiling debonair Tone, who bailed her out of jail and got her started with Gable's dance team.
The show, in its final form, in an extravaganza, featuring Crawford and newcomer Fred Astaire as dancing-singing partners in several numbers. In Busby Berekeley-style, it begins as a believable stage production and progresses into several surreal sequences which could only be produced via cinematic techniques, with occasional returns to stage musical sequences. Among the surreal sequences, we see Crawford and Astaire float up and down on a saucer-like magic carpet, while dancing.
In another sequence, various people in archaic dress and modes of transport are magically transformed into modern dress and fashionable transport as they emerge from behind an archway. The most visually complex surreal sequence features a carousel in which the horses and chorus girl riders are both floor and ceiling mirrored, as well as shadowed in the background. In addition, a cone-shaped rotating kaleidoscopic structure emerges skyward from the center of the carousel, studded with chorus girls who appear and disappear with rotation.
Nelson Eddy, in only his second cameo appearance in a film, dominates the vocals in part of the final show scene. Already, it's clear he will probably become a major film singer. Vaudevillian Ted Healy has considerable screen time as Gable's assistant. His 3 Stooges, still in their first year of films, appear briefly from time to time as wacky prop men. You'll never again see them in an Astaire or Gable film! Too bad they couldn't cut out their slapping and poking each other and been cast as a comedic element of otherwise musical or drama-dominated films.
This DVD also includes 2 shorts: "Plane Nuts" and "Roast Beef and Movies", that include one or all of the Stooges plus some Busby-Berkeley-like chorus girl routines.

fine MGM film with great acting and show stopping musical numbers
Dancing Lady is a wonderful early MGM musical. The convincing acting impressed me and the plot moves along at a good pace.

The action begins with Janie Barlow (Joan Crawford) and her pal Rosette (Winnie Lightner) dancing in a burlesque show. One drunken man nearly tears off Janie's blouse leaving her almost topless; and that's precisely the moment when the cops raid the place. They're all hauled off to jail. However, Janie gets out pretty quickly--it seems that a very wealthy would-be suitor, Tod Newton (Franchot Tone), bails Janie out to get to know her better. Eventually Tod helps get Janie a small part in an upcoming Broadway production. It is during rehearsals that Janie becomes much more familiar with the director Patch Gallagher (Clark Gable).

Of course, Tod has his eyes on Janie; and he tries to woo her every way that he can. He arranges with the head boss to have Janie paid for rehearsing, although in reality Tod is paying her through the head boss. Tod takes Janie to his home for a fancy swim and he eventually goes to extremes to win Janie's love.

Meanwhile, during rehearsals for the show Patch starts to have feelings for Janie even though he tries to fight them off. Janie does seem more comfortable with Patch than she is with Tod, too.

What happens next? The plot could go anywhere from here. Will Janie marry Tod as he wants her to? What will happen, if anything, between Patch and Janie? What happens when the production is suddenly closed down? How will the show go on--if it goes on at all? No spoilers here, folks, you'll just have to watch the film to find out.

The choreography is wonderful in every dance scene; and the theater scenes within the movie are very well done. The cinematography works well, too.

Overall Dancing Lady is a fine early MGM musical that some say is MGM's answer to 42nd Street. This is a wonderful movie for fans of Joan Crawford and Clark Gable. Look also for a great performance by Franchot Tone as Tod Newton; and there's also some comic relief by The Three Stooges. In addition, there are numerous stunning visual effects and a show stopping number or two toward the end of the film even if the Bavarian number is a bit unusual.

Enjoy!