Dance, Girl, Dance (1940) User Reviews

Two Redheads In Their Salad Days

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 26 October 2011]

Dance Girl Dance tells the story of two redheaded dancers in their salad days. One is Lucille Ball who makes it to the top in burlesque. The other is Maureen O'Hara who has the ambitions and the talent, but not the drive to succeed in classical ballet. She acts as a stooge/foil for Lucy's burlesque act and takes the money as well as the audience jibes that come with it.

Both of them pique the interest of Louis Hayward a soon to be divorced playboy from Virginia Field. In addition even though O'Hara chickened out of the audition, ballet company head Ralph Bellamy thinks she has that something which will make her succeed in ballet.

All these lives are tangled up with each other, but the focus is on the rivalry between Lucy and Maureen. It's friendly at times and not so friendly at others. It gets real nasty when the two have a knock down drag out brawl on stage. The customers at the burlesque sure got their money's worth that night, all these two needed was a pit of mud.

In her memoirs Maureen O'Hara had nothing but kind words to say for Lucille Ball whom she got to be great friends with. She also said that by dint of her training as a Goldwyn Girl, Lucy had quite a head start on her in the dance department. O'Hara recalled the shoot as exhausting but she was proud of the finished product. As well she should have been.

Lucy also met her leading man from her next scheduled picture Too Many Girls and fell in love with him. That would be Desi Arnaz and we all know where that romance went.

O'Hara also enjoyed working for Dorothy Arzner and felt that Arzner brought a special dimension to what is a 'woman's picture' since it's about the friendship between two women. In any event Dance Girl Dance is a work anyone associated with it can be proud of.

Lucille Ball is great in this movie!

[thien314 · 7/10 · 19 January 2002]

Considering the fact that Lucille Ball has the third name in this movie, she has a very noticeable role that proves she is a great actress. Of course, everybody knows that Lucille Ball is best known for her character in "I Love Lucy," but watching this movie would really surprise you. She does a terrific job as a vain and conceited girl who wants to be on top of everyone. Not to mention, she is very attractive and alluring in this movie. I personally believe that this movie focuses a great deal on Lucille Ball, and that's the best part. "Dance, Girl, Dance" would probably be one of the few movies, where Lucille Ball fans can actually see her terrific talent as an actress on the big screens and on television.

I love Maureen!

[cutter-12 · 7/10 · 14 April 1999]

Of all Maureen O'hara's pictures, this is definitely one of her best. How good would Lucille Ball have been as the streetwise floozy without Maureen's counter-role as a decent and moral girl struggling to overcome obstacles to fulfill her dream of becoming a dancer. Not once does her performance stray into the realm of treacle, her character, though perhaps a little naive never becomes timid to the point where she can't take care of herself in the clutch. She handles Lucy quite admirably in the latter stages of this film. Tis true Lucille Ball does her fair share of scene stealing and her performance is effective, but this is still Maureen's picture all the way. Also good performances by Louis Hayward (his only good role?) and Ralph Bellamy ensure this movie is well worth sitting through.

odd film, directed by Dorothy Arzner

[blanche-2 · 7 August 2011]

As one of the industry's few female directors, Dorothy Arzner's participation in this film is, I would guess, the main reason this movie is still known today. One wonders what Arzner could have accomplished if she lived in today's times, free of studio intervention. Arzner was able to direct this when Roy del Ruth had problems with the producer, Erich Pommer, and left.

The story is about two dancers - one a burlesque queen (Lucille Ball) and one an aspiring ballerina (Maureen O'Hara) -- commercialism versus art. Bubbles (Ball) goes for the money both in her work and in her search for a man, while Judy (O'Hara) attempts to be independent, even turning down Ralph Bellamy when he wants her to stand under his umbrella in the pouring rain.

The lives of these two women intertwine in work and in personal life -- Judy becomes a "stooge," a ballet dancing set-up as the burlesque audience screams for Bubbles; and they both take up with the same man, Jimmy (Louis Hayward) who's rich and conflicted. Judy understands him; Bubbles understands his wallet.

The cast is wonderful, with the O'Hara as a gentle, refined woman with the soul of an artist and accompanying sensitivity, and Ball as a classless sex bomb with a flashy personality. Both are gorgeous and play off one another beautifully.

The men make less of an impression -- this is, after all, a woman's picture. Louis Hayward as a tortured man going through a divorce somehow disrupts the flow of the film; and Ralph Bellamy is charming but doesn't have much to do.

A little slow but very entertaining and well worth seeing. Dorothy Arzner was a remarkable woman who survived in a man's world and made some excellent films, finishing her career as a teacher at UCLA. Her work is definitely worth checking out.

Lucy is terrific!

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 11 July 2015]

It's great to find this Dorothy Arzner movie (she was hired as the director when Roy Del Ruth had a dispute with producer Erich Pommer and resigned) available today on an excellent Warner DVD, although one has the feeling that the somewhat strained, repetitive and even rather dull and boring at times Maureen O'Hara/Louis Hayward story is merely a sop for the censor and that the movie's real appeal is actually directed at third-billed Lucille Ball who is handed all the torchy dialogue and all the sexy stagework. Ball rises to the occasion with bells on and – like the movie's own impatient audiences – we too tend to suffer through O'Hara's scenes (although she doesn't outstay her welcome half as long as Hayward does) and wait impatiently for Ball's return. Yes, thank heavens for Lucille Ball who spices up what would otherwise be a rather dreary screenplay about the ingénue who wants to be a great dancer and the totally irrelevant but even more dreary story of the tipsy millionaire playboy whose wife has understandably divorced him. Similarly, while the burlesque numbers with Lucy are super, super- attractive, I cannot say the same about the ho-hum attempts at "modern" dance. The choreography is uninspired.

Stage dancing as art vs. sex appeal: Maureen vs. Lucy

[weezeralfalfa · 7/10 · 26 November 2016]

Having just watched "The Big Street", released by RKO 2 years after this 1940 film, I couldn't help noticing that both films were dramas including the marital designs of a superaggressive, heartless, gold digging prima dona theatrical singer or burlesque queen, played by Lucille Ball. The main difference in the plots of the two films is that, in the present film, Lucy, representing low class dancing talent, is scripted as a bad girl to Maureen's good girl image, representing high brow dancing, especially ballet. In "The Big Street, Lucy's character is the only main female character, becoming permanently crippled early in the film. In a sense, she is both good and bad, mainly the latter, usually acting arrogantly or complaining to everyone. Yet, she is worthy of some sympathy, as a successful Broadway night spot entertainer, who is rendered crippled in a spat of jealousy by her gangster boyfriend.

In the present film, the two female stars are often friends, but are also jealous of each other because of their different dancing personas, and their competition for matrimony to a rich playboy drunk(Jimmy), who is nice to the girls. There is also a 3rd woman involved: Jimmy's recently divorced ex-wife,played by Virginia Field. She will come into prominence in the confusing final portion of the film.

Judy(Maureen) has struck up a friendship with Jimmy, but when Lucy(Bubbles or, later, Tiger Lily) learns that he is rich and divorced, she manages to get a marriage license out of him while he is good and sauced. He doesn't even like her. Judy is jealous and has a cat fight on stage with Tiger Lily, getting the best of her.

While this is primarily a drama about the problems of surviving in the commercial world when your primary interest is in serious dance, it does have its comedic moments. Besides the afore mentioned cat fight, Maureen is funny in night court, with her unexpectedly candid answers to the judge's questions relating to the cat fight.

Tiger Lily gets Judy a dancing job as her stooge between her own performances. But the raucous patrons only jeer at her conservative dancing style and relatively cool demeanor, whereas they cheer for Tiger Lily's sexy performances. But, at least she is surviving and being paid more than her previous job as a chorus girl in a dive.

Judy eventually comes to realize that Jimmy, with his drinking problem, would not make an ideal husband for her. In the end, she realizes that Steve(Ralph Bellamy), whom she just found out apparently is the director of a Broadway theater troupe, is very impressed with her potential, and appears to be a very nice man. He bailed her out of jail, and offers to train her to be a classy Broadway dancer. Clearly, he loves her, but we have no idea whether he is married or interested in her as a wife, despite the parting scene in the film.

This film, appropriately, was directed by the only Hollywood female director during Hollywood's "Golden Age": Dorothy Arzuer. This was her next-to-last film. While some interpret it as being pro-women's lib, I can think of various films from that era and the '50s that were much more so.

Enjoyable and a bit like "Old Acquaintance" combined with "Showgirls".

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 8 September 2013]

In some ways, the plot to "Dance, Girl, Dance" is a lot of nonsense. After all, if you are looking for a realistic movie that could happen on this planet, you'd better keep looking. However, if you can accept the film for the campy picture that it is, it is quite enjoyable.

The film begins with a dance troop. Their performance is interrupted by a police raid and they appear to be out of work when a nice guy (Louis Hayward) encourages the patrons to pay the girls for that show. He then shows a lot of interest in Judy (Maureen O'Hara), but the super self-absorbed Bubbles (Lucille Ball) steals the guy and goes off on a date with him. Although the date turns out to be a bit of a bust, this is the pattern that would continue throughout the film. In other words, although Judy is a nice person and the most talented dancer, Bubbles would routinely step in and hog all the glory. And, in the world of dancing, Bubbles ego-centrism really helps her make a splash with a new job--doing a dance that is only a step or two better than being a stripper. Later, she gets Judy a job--but only in a very subordinate role which is meant to be laughed at by the audience! There is far, far more to the movie than this.

The best way to describe it is to compare it to two movies--one old, one rather new. It reminds me of a Bette Davis/Miriam Hopkins film called "Old Acquaintance". The two are friends but repeatedly, the one 'friend' takes all the glory and treats her friend poorly. This continues throughout the film until finally the put-upon friend has had enough and she realizes that this friendship just isn't worth it--and finally tells her off. The other film is "Showgirls". While I've never seen all of this trashy film, the behind the scenes backstabbing and egos are clearly evident in both films. Overall, "Dance, Girl, Dance" is entertaining and the ending is pretty satisfying. However, don't expect a film that is particularly realistic or that seems even remotely plausible--though both actresses did a nice job in their respective roles.

A formula dance girl movie done strictly to formula

[secondtake · 6/10 · 10 October 2010]

Dance, Girl, Dance (1940)

This competent if unremarkable film was directed by Dorothy Arzner, Hollywood's one female director of note between the silent years and Ida Lupino. It's a package of different kinds of dance numbers, from show girl to burlesque to high art ballet. The thread that keeps it going is the usual: girls trying to make it in one show or another.

Lucille Ball, famous for her television shows of the 1950s and 60s, might seem to be making an early appearance in this 1940 song and dance drama. But she had made fifty (fifty!) films before this one. She's no a remarkable dancer by any means, nor singer, but she has personality to spare, and she's fun, period. She plays the worldly girl who will dance anywhere, anyhow. In contrast is the Maureen O'Hara character, sweet and restrained. She's rather humiliated in the movie, and you can feel her pain, but it's a forced contrast.

Musical numbers intersperse the thin plot, and those might or might not be your taste. I found even the ballet, which looked like a serious ballet troupe in action, pedestrian. And it was poorly filmed: the camera sat at the edge of the stage and watched. In truth, the movie as a whole was functional, not reaching for the stars, and not getting any. The one surprise, for me, was the ease and presence of Louis Hayward as a kind of good guy leading man who appeared now and then to properly show his love for O'Hara's struggling character.

Tiger Lilly White.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 6/10 · 19 June 2017]

To finish Father's Day me and my dad watched the sweet Comedy Drama Never a Dull Moment on BBC iPlayer. Checking the next day to see what else was on the service,I was happy to spot a second rare RKO title,which led to me putting my dancing shoes on.

The plot:

Dreaming of being a ballerina, Judy O'Brien joins a struggling dance troupe. Being the other side of the coin to O'Brien, Bubbles/Tiger Lily White is vocal on her boredom at the classes. Playing the last dance,O'Brien is left shaken when their music teacher is run over. Grabbing a job in a burlesque bar,White pulls weak O'Brien in as her stage stooge. During the performances, Jimmy Harris catches the eyes of both ladies,which leads to O'Brien and White doing their own dance number against each other.

View on the film:

Co-starring with someone soon to be a close friend and her future husband, Lucille Ball gives a sparkling performance as Bubbles/Tiger Lily White,thanks to the happiness behind the scenes coming across in Ball giving White a gliding diva elegance. Up against ultra glamour puss White, Maureen O'Hara gives an earthy performance as Judy O'Brien,with O'Hara giving Judy a tough perfection edge to dance White off the stage. Bouncing between the ladies, Louis Hayward lays out dashing light Screwball Comedy charm as James 'Jimmy' Harris Jr.

Replacing original director Roy Del Ruth two weeks into production,director Dorothy Arzner and her long-time lover Marion Morgan stage the song and dance numbers with a classy shadow-lit backdrop,which never quite escapes the stage origins of the project. Working with editor Robert Wise, Arzner sets off some Broadway sparks on the film with criss-crossing dance/singing exchanges between the ladies and a refreshingly risqué side to Judy and White putting any hecklers in their place,as the audience yell dance,girl dance.

Beautiful, powerful movie

[zetes · 10/10 · 22 January 2002]

I love classical Hollywood as much as anyone I know, but I am also aware that the films are often mechanical and emotionally distant. Very few reach the level of Dance, Girl, Dance. The plot is great. It is not exactly original, but it seemed that way to me. I was entirely hypnotized. This is due to the direction, characterizations, and acting. This is one of the few Hollywood films of the era directed by a woman, Dorothy Arzner. Generally, you can't tell this fact, except for in the climactic scene of the film, where Maureen O'Hara delivers a powerful feminist speech. The direction is amazing, but it's definitely subtle and sometimes hard to catch. All the characters in this film, especially the lead two, are very well realized. They're people, and we believed them. The acting is the best of all. Lucille Ball may be best known for her television show, but she was a great movie actress, as well. I can't say that I've seen too many of her films, but it would shock me if she was ever better than she is in Dance, Girl, Dance. She is the spark of the film, and Maureen O'Hara is the emotional core. I think that her part represents one of the best female characters to be found in the cinema. O'Hara is simply fabulous as a ballet dancer who has to lower her artistic standards to make a living. And, like I mentioned before, listen for that speech she gives near the end of the film. I hadn't heard of this film before. I had never heard of Dorothy Arzner. I love the feeling that I've made a major cinematic discovery. This is most definitely one of those. 10/10.

Lucy, Bellamy, O'Hara !

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 8 June 2019]

Soooooo many big, fun, hollywood names in this one. Lucy, Maureen Ohara, Ralph Bellamy. Ed Brophy, Sydney Blackmer. Lucy and the girls are working in a dance hall gambling house, which gets raided. one of the earlier, more risqué roles for Lucy. This was ten years before she and hubby Desi did I Love Lucy! and she even does the Hula in this one. The dance director in the show is played by Maria Ouspenskaya, who always played older, wiser, stately woman. Check out her role in "the rains came". great stuff. Lucy really shines in the lead role here. and of course, she and Desi would go on to buy the whole damn studio. Great Stuff. i really recommend this one, if only for historical value. one of the more serious roles for Lucille Ball. A show within a show. climbing the ladder of success. Lots of references to Tiger Lilly... which Woody Allen would parody later on. Bellamy has a pretty minor role in this one, but would receive a Lifetime achievement oscar for his various roles in pictures. Dorothy Arzner stepped in to direct when the original director bailed out. Arzner has a great story on wikipedia... you gotta check it out! really good stuff.

A fine film by a great early female Hollywood director!

[talisencrw · 8/10 · 16 May 2016]

A really fun film that I found in my Maureen O'Hara TCM 4-pack that I highly recommend if you enjoy films from that era. I like the two films I've seen so far from Arzner, who was one of the earliest and most successful of female directors and I believe the first openly lesbian one--the other work I've seen of hers is the great pre-Code look at alcoholism, 'Merrily We Go to Hell'.

This is great if you either like musicals from the era, are a Maureen O'Hara or Lucille Ball enthusiast (holy, she was unbelievably a knockout in her early filmic days!) or are simply curious about the works of early female and/or lesbian directors. Arzner--at least in the two films I have seen from her thus far--showed she truly deserved to be successful in the industry.

Lucille Ball Steals the Show

[LeonardKniffel · 6/10 · 9 April 2020]

This is not a great musical, but you must see it for the performances of Lucille Ball (playing a character named Bubbles) and Maureen O'Hara (playing a good girl names Judy). Ball singing and dancing "The Beer Barrel Polka" and "Jitterbug Bite" with the Bailey Brothers Burlesque Theater is worth her weight in gold. Plus, the film is directed by Dorothy Azner, Hollywood's one female director of note between the silent era and Ida Lupino's directorial debut in 1950. --Musicals on the Silver Screen, American Library Association, 2013

Lucy and the Jitterbug

[moonspinner55 · 5/10 · 23 August 2015]

Although directed by a woman (Dorothy Arzner) and co-written by a woman (Tess Slesinger), from Vicki Baum's original story, this behind-the-scenes glimpse at Broadway Burlesque is hardly any different than the fame-and-footlights movies the men in Hollywood were grinding out during this era (it even includes a catfight!). Clichéd story concerns two boarding-house girls (Lucille Ball and Maureen O'Hara) who hit the big time: Lucy as a Burlesque Queen, would-be ballerina Maureen as her 'stooge', or warm-up act. Predictably, a smooth-talking womanizer threatens to come between them. When O'Hara sneaks out with Ball's guy, she shows no misgivings over her actions--nor does Lucy seem to care about the abuse Maureen suffers every night performing for unruly crowds. Arzner's cynical take on the girls' smooth-and-scratchy friendship gives the material a bit of an edge (good for about three scenes); however, the plot mechanisms reveal the same old soapy story, and neither actress is able to rise above the dross. ** from ****

Unique RKO Oddity

[MCMoricz · 7 March 2002]

Is it unfair to judge a film by the gender politics suggested by its director? I walked into a screening of this film tonight (free at a library branch) knowing only that it starred Maureen O'Hara and was directed by Dorothy Arzner. Yet it seems impossible to react to the the film without factoring in the subtle yet remarkable effect on its content that Arzner's participation represents.

Though thoroughly in a B-movie mold (back projections and modest decor abound), the film has a distinctively assured "feel" and personality, seems photographed intimately and with distinction and even boasts one ambitious "modern ballet" production number that must have borrowed one of those RKO Fred Astaire soundstages for a few days.

Grittily rather than luminously shot, Maureen O'Hara still manages to look astonishingly lovely throughout, whether in occasional soft-focus moments or in dramatic shots and contexts. Lucille Ball comes off extremely well in a relentlessly "bad girl" role, though while some claim she steals the picture, I wouldn't agree. Bellamy and Hayward are effective, though clearly subsidiary in importance and focus.

The whole proceeding seems to unfold metaphorically, almost like a fable, as though no one really expects us to find it believable for a minute. No-one behaves realistically, yet neither is it a farce. Nor is it a conventional "romance," since Judy (O'Hara) ends up transcending the whole issue of love "saving" her; when she is seen embracing Steve at film's end, it can be easily seen as an expression of relief or exhaustion after all the preceding duress, of accepting the new professional direction in her life rather than in any way being "saved" by anyone but herself, despite a brief unconvincing flurry of conventional "you listen to ME now" dialogue from Ralph Bellamy that Judy doesn't seem to be heeding anyway.

In fact, Judy walks a refreshingly hybrid line between enlightened self-determination, pluck, and competence tempered by a gentler, luminous femininity. Every character of any real dignity or depth or dramatic power is female, and the male characters are truly secondary in their dimensionality.

Judy's old Russian dance mentor Basilova (representing another weird parallel to FLASHDANCE, wherein a real-life Alexandra Danilova played the old Russian dance mentor to Jennifer Beals) is a striking catalyst in this context, rendered initially as very masculine by starkly drawn-back hair and male clothing (she's always seen in a suit and tie). We could easily be unsure of her gender in her first scene (on the phone) though gradually and knowingly she is "softened" by Arzner (we see the severity of the hair is a result of her dancer's "bun", she gradually morphs to a more maternal role after her initial mercenary businesslike impression, etc.).

Judy has the upper hand, ultimately, in every situation. Wonderful moments include the scene where she confronts a brusque audience in a burlesque theater, her cogent assessment of the nature of Jimmy's heart in a warmly realized courtroom scene, and yes, even that famous catfight with Ms. Ball. Many scenes require O'Hara to react in ways where certain complex emotions need to be communicated wordlessly. She does not fail us, in reaction shots throughout the picture to injustices, frustrations, assessments of people's true personalities, her indignance and misunderstanding of Steve's motives, "awe" at the ballet company and even her association of a kind of idealised love with the little "Ferdinand" stuffed bull (one of two unabashed examples of RKO's nearly exploitatitive relationship to Disney at the time).

Yet the "Ferdinand" subplot is handled with real aplomb by both writers and director. Judy associates the little bull (clearly a masculine image) with a kind of idealized love, and while it ulimately isn't a love in which she participates, her instinctive take on it proves authentic as an image which connects two other characters.

Another recurring image is starlight: Judy dreams of a ballet about a star, then when she visits "Club Ferdinand" with Jimmy, a singer sings of starlight (in a song by Wright & Forrest). At the close of that evening, she wishes upon a star in one of the film's more romanticized views of New York City.

Ultimately though, this film is more "about" the disparity between art and commerce than it is about love. Ball's "Bubbles" character is a financial success while Judy's ballet dancing is maligned completely. An issue that remains unresolved in our own cultural lives, over 60 years later, "Art" still lumbers along, clumsily out of the mainstream, ignored by a public which embraces well-crafted junk and rewards the less challenging with higher ratings and plenty of dough.

And yet Steve's "populist ballet" number is nothing to write home about. Then, as now, the dilemna still exists when so much "art" seems more pretentious and less well-crafted than a good vaudeville act. It's goal is higher, but it can be irrelevant to a public clamoring for ready-made fun.

However all this plays out as aesthetic philosophy, Ms. Arzner has achieved a unique and decidedly pro-woman tour-de-force within this little forgotten RKO classic. While closer in spirit of imagery to STAGE DOOR than any other film that I can think of, it creates its own small symbolic world full of not-quite-real characters telling a fable-like structure. And although at some point, someone in the film (I can't remember now who!) says "I don't believe in fairy tales!" -- that's exactly what this film is, in its accomplished, proto-feminist way. Judy is our Sleeping Beauty or Snow White, but triumphs not through being "saved by a man" but by her own integrity, adherence to a dream and inner strength of conviction and values.

That alone makes this oddly compelling little film well worth seeing.

Silly Film but what a cast!

[Sylviastel · 7/10 · 8 October 2006]

Film director, Dorothy Arzner, was perhaps one of the first women directors in male Hollywood. Maybe her lesbianism helped in others forgetting that she was a female. Anyway this cast included Maureen O'Hara, Lucille Ball, Ralph Bellamy, and others who would have fabulous careers in Hollywood at the time. Dance, Girl, Dance is nothing more than a comedy and melodrama. Of course, Arzner's direction is not inspiring because she has such a wonderful cast. Who would have thought that Lucille Ball could have had a dramatic role for a change before her own hit show on television? Maureen O'Hara is truly an Irish beauty who is still with us for now while most of the cast have gone to a better place. Dorothy Arzner paved the way for other women directors, lesbian or not, to put their stamp on Hollywood. Sadly, this film is not the greatest or worst film of all time but you can still watch it and debate on whether women have come so far in Hollywood.

Forgettable

[kenjha · 6/10 · 22 July 2010]

Aspiring dancers try to make it big in New York City. This is a forgettable movie that can't decide if it wants to be a comedy, a drama, or a musical when it grows up. A good cast is wasted. Ball is the main attraction here, energetically singing and shaking her groove thing as a dancer named Bubbles. O'Hara, playing Miss Goody Two-Shoes, isn't given much to do, but handles herself well. Hayward is underwhelming as a ladies' man. Bellamy fares better as a decent fellow who's smitten with O'Hara. Arzner, while historically important as a female director in Hollywood, fails to make this interesting. Despite the cast, it feels like a B movie.

Formalaic but enjoyable enough.

[Boba_Fett1138 · 7/10 · 21 November 2008]

This is a real typical early '40's musical, that only this time isn't focusing on signing but dancing. Not that it makes much difference to the story though and the movie progresses just in the same manner as you would expect from a genre movie such as this one. Not that this makes the movie a bad one but it of course also doesn't exactly make this an original one either.

Of course nothing really happens as a surprise within this movie but I guess that is what makes this movie also perfectly enjoyable and good to watch, for the genre fans in particular. It however can't be really seen as the best movie within its genre, fore it has some problems.

One problem of the movie are its characters. There are some good actors within the movie but due to the writing, most characters feel very messy within the movie. You also just don't really start to care about any of them, also since Maureen O'Hara, who plays the movie's main lead, plays her character far too naive and friendly. You would almost cheer for the more 'bitchy' part played by Lucille Ball who does a surprising much better job.

Making it in the big town as a ballerina dancer in my book also isn't already the most compelling or interesting concept to start off with. Combine with this all the usual formulaic ingredients and you have a very average movie in basically every regard.

Yet it's a perfectly watchable movie, perhaps because of the very reason that you already know what is going to happen all in this movie. After all, more important thing of course also remains not what is going to happen but how its going to happen. In that regard this movie simply does not fail, for it brings some good quality entertainment that is brought well to the screen by female director Dorothy Arzner and acted out well by most of its principal cast members.

7/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

dance girl dance

[mossgrymk · 6/10 · 7 November 2021]

While it is certainly refreshing to see, right smack dab in the middle of sexist 1930s/40s Hollywood, a film directed by a woman, Dorothy Arzner, with the two leads both women who end up with careers rather than husbands and seem quite happy about it (although boring Ralph Bellamy lurks in Maureen O'Hara's wings) this is, alas, not a great or even particularly good film. The big problem for me, aside from the cheesy background shots from vehicles and even phonier back lot sets, was the lack of conflict between Maureen O'Hara's ballerina and Lucille Ball's burlesque queen. Indeed the scenes between them are so tepid that when they finally have their knock down/drag out onstage it's more energetic than effective because it has not been sufficiently motivated like, say, the fight between Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins in "Old Acquaintance", a better film to which this one has been compared by one of my IMDB colleagues below. Part of the blame for this dearth of struggle between Bubbles and Judy must be laid at the typewriter of scenarists Tess Slesinger and Frank Davis of "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" fame, for not providing more emotional, visceral scenes with these two working gals at loggerheads. And part of the blame must go to Ms. O'Hara who proves once again that when she doesn't have John Ford around to light a fire under her sightly backside she is one dull actress. Even her angry speech to the male gazers at the burlesque house falls kinda flat. Ms. Ball, on the other hand, has never been better in a non comedic role, in my opinion, so I don't think you can blame Arzner unduly for O'Hara's lack of fire. Give it a C plus. PS...Ironically, Louis Hayward, the third leg of the triangle, was married to another pioneering woman director, Ida Lupino.

Heartfelt movie but odd.

[PatrynXX · 6/10 · 28 April 2020]

Not alot of plot to this movie. Has some good lines to it as well as making women look dumb , says it's a feminist movie i have a doubt, cause that ending was a bit too rushed. Can't imagine ever watching this again but I've said that before ;)

Quality: 4/10 Entertainment:6/10 Re-Playable 2/10

An American Classic

[tito-13 · 10/10 · 21 October 1998]

Directed by a woman (!) in 1940 (!) and written by a team of two women and a man, "Dance, Girl, Dance" tackles a central plot explored later in "Flashdance" and "Dance With Me" (also directed by a woman, Randa Haines) - the serious dancer struggling for identity in a cheap, commercialized world.

Artistic dancer Judy is forced to sleaze it up as a stripper to earn a living. But she refuses to sacrifice either her dignity or her dreams. Lucy's a hoot as a whore in a rare big-screen appearance before her TV show. And Maria Ouspenskaya of the Chaney Jr. werewolf pics is hysterical as Judy's ballet teacher. "When ze moon iz full my child yu vill do plies!" Well, she doesn't actually say that, but she might as well.

The strengths of "Dance, Girl, Dance" lie in Arzner's telling the story of an emancipated, free-thinking American woman discovering and flexing her muscles of independence. O'Hara gives a rousing performance as Judy. Her onstage tongue-lashing of the trenchcoat wearing men in her audience is a speech equal to Jimmy "Mr. Smith" Stewart's Washington address.

While much of the dialogue and editing crackle with the wit of 40s screwball comedy, Arzner masterfully turned her camera to dramatic insights and crafted a true American gem, one of the most underrated classics of its day.

Dance, dance, dance

[bob998 · 7/10 · 20 October 2019]

This was in the Maureen O'Hara TCM compilation, along with The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Wings of Eagles and The Spanish Main. It may be the weakest of the lot. You just don't care much for Maureen's struggling ballet dancer--her battles with Lucille Ball raise few laughs--and the supporting cast is not very strong. Ralph Bellamy is not as effective as he was in His Girl Friday, or any number of other films, and Louis Hayward doesn't impress me at all. My first Dorothy Arzner picture, and I won't look for more.

Dance, Girl

[baron1-1 · 9/10 · 17 September 2005]

Dance, Girl, Dance, which sounds like a Joan Crawford movie, is not. It features superb dance sequences which exemplify the superior ballet technique and style of the '40s. Vivian Fay is outstanding. Lucille Ball is hot, girl, hot! Who knew our Lucy could be a burlesque queen and skillful dancer, not to mention Maureen O'Hara dancing her socks off with fine ballet technique. I don't think they used a dance double, or did they? I hope not. But who is this choreographer, hitherto unknown? What became of him? He did an excellent pastiche of Leonid Massine's ballets. Why do we have to write so many lines? Don't they know that pithy comments can say so much more? I think the movie dragged as it got soapy, but the emotion was convincing, and I could personally relate to the story of the ballet teacher very much. I had one just like her.

Notable for more than just Lucille Ball's turn

[dfloro · 7/10 · 1 August 2023]

Despite what the absurd cat fight near the end of the movie might have you believe, Maureen O'Hara and Lucille Ball became what would ultimately be lifelong friends while making this film. And while having lunch on the set one day, Lucy would meet the love of her life, Desi Arnaz. So some said O'Hara was upstaged by Ball in "Dance, Girl, Dance" but I'd have to disagree. She was far too good an actress for that (and also Dorothy Arzner too good a director of actresses for that), as well as Lucy, who was playing the part of a performer terrified of being upstaged. Despite being largely expendable, Ralph Bellamy and Louis Hayward handle their thankless male roles with some aplomb (Hayward had recently married another of Hollywood's greatest female directors, Ida Lupino). All these relationships add to this film's level of interest (and make me grant it a couple of extra rating stars!), but the film itself isn't otherwise terribly notable (for its plot or character development, for example). So you may take all that under advisement, as you appreciate these two legendary redheads: the radiant O'Hara and burlesque bombshell Ball!

"Your temperament's out of place, even down right idiotic " And so

[rose_lily · 5/10 · 29 July 2013]

A frustrated, chiding Ralph Bellamy confronts dancer Maureen O'Hara. And, yes., there is something "out of place" that permeates this whole film. The whole production feels dated, even for a movie made in 1940.

Dorothy Arzner, the director, started her career in the silent film era, and the movie could easily be re- imagined and visualized as a silent film. There is an absence of wit; the verbal exchanges are limp and clichéd and could easily be relegated to dialogue cards on the screen. The storyline seems to want to illuminate the challenges of women's empowerment in a man's world but fails as a "message movie" and offers only minor entertainment.

Maureen O'Hara, as Irish lass Judy O'Brien, is the demure ballerina, determined to make a career in her own way, on her own terms, and without the entanglements and compromises entailed in relationships with men. She is "sweet" on wealthy playboy Jimmy Harris but is confused by his attentions and doesn't know how to pursue the target of her infatuation. In both the world of romance and career, we see O'Hara play out the virtuous determination of a dull, stubborn girl, who can't recognize opportunity when it comes her way, and wouldn't know what to do with it if she did recognize it. Lucille Ball, is Tiger Lily White, her exact opposite. Dynamo queen of the burlesque house, Balls plays the stock figure of the brazen, gold digger, adept at manipulating and seizing any advantage that comes her way.

Ralph Bellamy and Louis Hayward, Broadway producer, and wealthy, dissolute playboy respectively, are just masculine stereotypes, templates of character types portrayed, (and to greater effect) in countless earlier films made in the 1930s.

Maria Ouspenskaya, in a supporting role as dance mentor Madame Lydia Basilova, turns up cast as an often used type: the European elderly woman for all reasons and all seasons. She's fun to watch, often unintentionally comical, for no matter her character or country of origin, she courageously carries out her performance always emoting with an unmistakable Yiddish accent and inflections.

Lucille Ball, an energetic performer when roles allowed her to expand her persona, adds some verve and energy to the storyline. She seemingly is the only cast member invested with any interest in this B movie concoction from RKO… a wan, limp example of what was known as a "women's film."