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...And now our feature presentation

Dance, Fools, Dance (1931)

Cast                                                                                    Credits
Joan Crawford. . . . . . Bonnie Jordan                                   Studio . . . . . . . . . . .MGM
Lester Vail. . . . . . . . . Robert Townsend                              Director . . . . . . . . .Harry Beaumont
Cliff Edwards. . . . . . . Bert Scranton                                    Written by. . . . . . . Aurania Rouverol
William Bakewell. . . . Rodney Jordan                                  Cinematography. . . Charles Rosher
William Holden . . . . . Stanley Jordan                                   Costumes by. . . . . .Adrian
Clark Gable. . . . . . . . Jake Luva                                         Sound by. . . . . . . . Douglas Shearer
                                                           Run Time: 82 minutes

The possible ratings are as follows:

   Abysmal. Complete trash-- bad acting, writing, cinematography, etc.

   Bomb. One or two redeeming qualities, but inferior overall.

    Average. Not outstanding in most respects, but worth checking out.

    I had a ball. Solid acting, writing, cinematography, etc. Superior in many respects.

Excellent. A true classic. Few, if any, flaws.

TAKE ONE: BOOMER

Dance, Fools, Dance is a pretty simple movie. First we see how life was for the leisure class before the stock crash of 1929, and let me tell you, it was pretty good. Then we see what life was like for the segments of the leisure class after the market went kaplooie, and let me tell you, it was bad for many but you'd never know it by this film.

Stanley Jordan is heavily invested in the stock market, and when it goes bad, he has a heart attack right on the trading floor. His death leaves his do-nothing children, Bonnie and Rodney, penniless. The house and all of its furnishings are sold at auction to pay off the estate's debts. This forces Bonnie and Rodney to face reality as they have never done before, and like many instances in which two people face adversity, Bonnie and Rodney handle the situations very differently. Bonnie buckles down and finds honest work as a cub reporter. Rodney joins Luva's mob and, unknowingly, becomes the wheel-man for the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Not only that, after being tricked by Bert Scranton, a reporter and co-worker with Bonnie, into believing that the reporter is also a part of the gang, he tells the reporter all about the gangland murder. Luva, fearfule of the exposure, tells Rodney that he has to gun down the reporter or be killed himself. Rodney obliges and kills the reporter. This makes the paper even more interested in finding who killed the reporter. The editor assigns Bonnie to go undercover and infiltrate Luva's group in an effort to find the killer. She does learn that her brother killed Bert and reports it to the editor. There is also a sub-plot romance, but that isn't really what this film is about, so I will not dwell on that here.

Dance, Fools, Dance is a very edgy piece of work for its time. Sexuality and violence permeate the story. We see scenes in which the kids of the rich and famous strip down into their underwear and go swimming. Bonnie is very clearly not a virgin, and she wears that fact on her sleeve; she is proud of her sexual liberation. On the other side, we see Luva order hits be carried out the way you or I might order a veg-o-matic. This film was made just before the production code was established, and this film could not have been made just a few years later.

While I have no question that the sexuality that we see in this film was merely an attempt to titilate, I have mixed feelings about the use of violence. While there is no commentary about the baseness and savagery of the gangs as you might find in a film like Goodfellas, the violence does not seem to be placed to shock or horrify. The violence, for the most part, is done so quickly and so understatedly that adventure seekers will be disappointed by this film. I believe there is a real attempt to show the sociopathic side of mobsters rather than just the glitzy life that many other films have portrayed both then and now. To this extent, I disagree with the critics who have pushed this film away as a simple glorification of the mafia. I think there is a real sense of condemnation for the essentially vacuous lifestyle that is the mafia. But then again, I may just be giving this film too much credit.

On the social side of things, we are presented with a pretty unlikeable group of snobs. Bonnie and Rodney show absolutely no respect for their father, and in return I doubt the old man had a lot of respect for either of them. In the end, Bonnie has more fidelity to her job than her brother when she reveals him as the gunman who killed Bert. Some things should remain family secrets. Friendship is also superficially presented. Bonnie's "friends" revel in her misfortune and even flock to the auction like vultures to pick up pieces of furniture, not because they like or desire the pieces, but because it is a tangible symbol of their social defeat of Bonnie. It's really kind of disgusting, because when you strip away the materialty of their lives, most of these characters are no better off than Mr. Stanton--they are emotionally and morally dead.

The question about these oafs is why we have characters like this. I think this was done on purpose to serve as a critique of the leisure class and its simple bourgeois mentality. Contrast this with the vapid idiots of Indiscreet who served no function at all.

I have two criticism. First is the casting of Gable as a gangster. While he has style similar to the stereotypical gang boss, I think he lacked substance. I didn't really find him all that intimidating, and his efforts to appear overpowering just didn't work. I think Gable was more properly suited to straight-up romantic leads. Also, he seemed a bit drunk throughout the entire film. He just seemed out of it.

Criticsm number two is that the sound on this film was only mediocre on average and down right awful at times. Shearer was probably the best sound man in Hollywood, so I will chalk the lack of sound quality up to this being an early (but not that early) sound film. Just listen closely to catch everything.

Gable's inability to deliver is only highlighted by the great performances of Joan Crawford, William Bakewell and Cliff Edwards. I think that Cliff Edwards actually stole the show. He brought a simple compassion to a story full of unsympathetic bores and brutes. He delivered comic relief without being hammy. Great performance.

Overall, Dance, Fools, Dance, is a quality film. There is enough social commentary to take ity beyond a simple gangster film and enough titilation to please most people. My rating:

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