Review of Dancing Lady (1933) by Luke D — 20 Jan 2011

A hooftastic hoedown from Joan, plowing up the dancefloor at the height of her Depression-era typecasting as the hard-boiled floozy who just wants to dance, damn it, and to hell with anyone who gets in her way.

It's easy to see why the world's shopgirls so loved her: she's a wise-cracking, gum-chewing hoot, but never anything less than classy. The David O Selznick touch is clear - this is pacy, glossy fun.

A screwball montage of Joan pursuing Gable all around town feels unexpectedly ahead of its time. Gable as the whip cracking theatre director is a laugh, as are his and Joan's traditional fireworks along the way to their lip-puckering finale.

There's a startlingly sexy scene when Joan pulls a hammy and Clark gives her a leg rub, which must have caused palpitations in 1933. Ditto Joan's stripper routine in the opening burlesque. Sugar daddy playboy Franchot Tone is a stand out.

What a looker he was. It was during the filming of this one that Joan found her eye wandering in his direction for real. Not hard to see why. Clark was apparently mighty displeased. 'Dancing Lady' was Clark and Joan's first pairing in a couple of years, thanks to Louis B Mayer relaxing their enforced separation/punishment for adultery.

Old prude. Clark must have thought he and Joan would be on for young and old again, but Joan had other ideas: Franchot. Clark clinched her on screen but Franchot clinched her in the trailer. Saucy times.

Fred Astaire makes his film debut in 'Dancing Lady', playing himself. Apparently, he filmed his bits in a two week window before starting with RKO. His 'Hi Ho, the Gang's All Here' number with Joan is absolutely glorious.

I hummed the tune for days. The Three Stooges also make a surreal appearance - just like Fred, movie stardom was still ahead of them here.