morrison-dylan-fan 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.

Applause Meter 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."

Ted Amidst the boy's club of classical Hollywood cinema, Dorothy Arzner's Dance, Girl, Dance is notable as a rare female vision. While the film's behind-the-scenes-at-the-girly-show subject matter might have been sensationalized in other hands--"NOT SUITABLE FOR GENERAL EXHIBITION" brags the poster--Arzner unceremoniously mutes the male gaze throughout: rather than command her camera to linger leeringly on the female form, she chooses to communicate her dancers' eroticism through,for example, an unmoving shot of a man's eyeballs.The film's characters are faced with two modes of femininity to embrace, neither particularly appealing: Lucille Ball's Bubbles exploits her sexuality so that she might latch on to--and this is a direct quote, and I s*** you not--a "great big capitalist;" Maureen O'Hara's Judy maintains a healthy self-respect and work ethic to absolutely no avail.Dance, Girl, Dance will be entertaining to contemporary audiences for its antiquated weirdnesses-- Louis Hayward in particular is delightfully insane as Mr. Harris, completely derailing the movie every time he's on screen--but the movie's real power is in its harrowingly cynical finale: our protagonist is literally forced into a chair and told not to think by a patriarchal businessmen, and through the least convincing laughter I've ever seen on screen, Judy laments how easy her life could have been had she subjugated herself sooner. I don't know if Arzner was trying to make a statement on the impossibility of maintaining a strong female identity in male-dominated culture, but that is certainly what she did. -TK 9/2/10

thien314 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.