Dance, Girl, Dance - Lucy’s Ball of Fun on DVD
June 20th, 2007 in Actors, Comedy, Dvd, Reviews, classic
While the film is now available as part of several films starring Lucille Ball, Dance, Girl, Dance is actually more of a starring vehicle for Maureen O’Hara. This 1940 film was the first to give Ball nearly top billing, along with 1940s matinee idol, Louis Hayward. Fans of Lucille Ball who have only seen her television performances are in for a treat with a younger, more glamorous actress on screen. Even then, Ball had her comic chops.
The story is about two dancers who are both friends and competitors. Judy (O’Hara) is serious about a career in ballet, while Bubbles (Ball) is happy just getting by on her looks. The two are first seen as part of a troupe of nightclub dancers in Akron, Ohio, performing in a nightclub that’s also a gambling joint. The club is busted and the girls decide to try their luck again in New York City. Bubbles gets a job as a burlesque performer, soon bringing Judy on stage to perform as her “stooge”. Judy performs straight ballet numbers that deliberately elicit boos from the men in the audience, setting the stage for Bubbles, who performs a couple of songs with strip tease in the style of Gypsy Rose Lee.
In the meantime their are romantic complications involving Hayward, the two women, and his ex-wife, and Ralph Bellamy as the director of a prestigious ballet company. The film is based on a story by Vickie Baum, the author of Grand Hotel, and was directed by Dorothy Arzner. Arzner was the only woman director who had a career starting in the silent era, who worked into the Forties. Dance, Girl, Dance definitely represents entertainment of a different, older era. There are a few bits in the film which sharp eyed viewers will see as very progressive for the time the film was made.
When much of our ideas of Lucille Ball are based on her performance as a showbiz wannabe in “I Love Lucy” who always manages to find herself in a mess of trouble, Dance, Girl, Dance provides a terrific contrast. The young Lucille Ball is not only very capable both on and off stage, but as the song goes, she’s got legs and she knows how to use them.
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