Sunday, March 1, 2009

Dancing Lady

Dancing Lady. 1933 MGM/Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone, May Robson, Winnie Lightner, Fred Astaire, Robert Benchley, Nelson Eddy, Ted Healy and His Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard)
Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Buy Dancing Lady at Amazon.
Also part of the Clark Gable Signature Collection.

An early MGM all-star movie. This one introduced Fred Astaire to the world, made a star out of Nelson Eddy, and showcased an early appearance of the Three Stooges with their old mentor, Ted Healy. Larry Fine is Harry, the pianist, and actually has a substantial part, while Moe and Curly (billed as Jerry Howard) play stagehands.

Tod Newton (Tone) is a millionaire who takes his friends to a burlesque show in a seedy place, where he is attracted to a dancer named Janie Barlow (Crawford). The club is raided, and Janie is among the many arrests, but she is bailed out by Newton, and insists on paying him back honestly instead of becoming his mistress in return.

With some help from Tod, Janie is able to secure work in a Broadway musical produced by Patch Gallagher (Gable), who initially tried everything he could to sabotage her audition, but reluctantly hires her when he realizes Janie "has something". Janie works hard and becomes the star of the show. Tod worries that he'll lose the girl, so he buys the production and shuts it down.

Patch uses his own savings to restart the show, which entices Janie to come back, after she discovers what Newton did to halt the first run of the show. She and Patch fall in love, and surprise, the show is a big hit with Janie starring with Fred Astaire and Nelson Eddy.

Recommended. For those Three Stooges fans out there, the DVD contains two bonus shorts that would be of interest to them.

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