Dancing Lady

While chasing Patch, Janie is splashed by mud from a passing car; when she hops out of a cab minutes later, her shoes and stockings are clean.

Released in November, 1933,Dancing Lady beat 42nd Street onto the screen by one month and it would be interesting to know if contemporary audiences and critics noticed the strong similarities between the two putting-on-a- Broadway-musical-chorus-girl-turns-star plots. Certainly 42nd Street boasted a better score although having said that the Burton Lane-Harold Adamson number Everything I Have Is Yours is not exactly chopped liver.

This pre-code production is well worth seeing. Regardless of how good or bad this film is, I believe it is a seminal film.

Aspiring Broadway dancer Janie (Joan Crawford) works as a burlesque stripper and is arrested in a raid. Rich playboy Tod Newton (Franchot Tone) is instantly attracted to her and bails her out.

"Dancing Lady" is a film like many others that Hollywood made during the 1930s - the decade of the Great Depression. Perhaps the fact of sound pictures had a lot to do with it, but these films of mixed genres of comedy, romance and music were very common, and popular for several years.

With Warner Brothers turning out three brilliant musicals in the same year it was only natural for Hollywood's major studio MGM to get a piece of the action with Dancing Lady. Featuring major stars Joan Crawford and Clark Gable, leading man Franchot Tone and the about to be discovered talents of Fred Astaire, Nelson Eddy and the Three Stooges along with the expensive sleek pristine art deco sets overseen by Cedric Gibbons Lady on paper dwarfs the Poverty Row entries.

Metro's attempt to duplicate the success of 42nd Street with some of their biggest stars served as the screen introduction of Fred Astaire even though he really isn't properly showcased. Joan starts out as a cooch dancer but because of grit, determination, the right connections and a dancing talent that is apparently great she becomes the star of a Broadway bound show.

Joan Crawford plays a struggling dancer in "Dancing Lady" who alternates between Broadway producer Clark Gable and Wall Street tycoon Franchot Tone in this fast-paced, amusing musical with lots of dance numbers. This Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer release features the antics of the Three Stooges while they were still second bananas with Ted Healy.

This was released late in 1933, I suspect to try and cash in on the success of Warner Bothers' hits, "Gold Diggers of 1933" and "42nd Street" All the right elements are there - class conflict, overworked choreographers and dancers, conflicts with the show's backers, and even some Busby Berkeley choreography - yet everything seems a bit undercooked. There are some pleasant extras here, like the first appearance of Fred Astaire and Nelson Eddy and an early appearance by the three stooges.

Spoilers. Observations.