NFR Project: 'Dance, Girl, Dance' (1940)

 

NFR Project: ‘Dance, Girl, Dance’

Dir: Dorothy Arzner

Scr: Frank Davis, Tess Slesinger

Pho: Russell Metty, Joseph H. August

Ed: Robert Wise

Premiere: Aug. 20,1940

90 min.

It’s a rags to riches story, involving two women, one the victim of the other, both oppressed by their sexuality. It was directed by the sole female director in Hollywood in the 1930s, Dorothy Arzner (1897-1979). It is her best-known and most studied film.

Arzner made 20 films between 1927 and 1943. Her primacy as a director was such that she was not penalized for her sexual orientation – she was simply another among a crowd of studio directors. Her skill is evident, and the film is no better or worse than the typical studio output of the day.

It is interpreted as a feminist document by many film scholars. (It tried to arouse the potential audience's interest by proclaiming on one poster "NOT SUITABLE FOR GENERAL EXHIBITION/") It deals with two dancers, the innocent and aspiring young ballerina Judy (Maureen O’Hara) and the popular, cynical sexpot Bubbles (Lucille Ball). They are both looking for opportunity – but Bubbles, with her burlesque-level bumps and grinds, finds popularity much sooner. (Don’t miss the diminutive character actress Maria Ouspenskaya as Judy’s teacher.)

Soon, Bubbles is packing them in the burlesque theater. Judy goes on after her act, doing ballet and being thoroughly razzed by an unappreciative audience. She is the “good girl,” Bubbles’s “stooge,” employed to whet the appetite for the ensuing Bubbles. Meanwhile, both of them interact with a charismatic but moody millionaire Jimmy, still in love with his ex-wife  (Louis Hayward), Judy gets fed up with being objectified and berates the audience of horny males over their catcalls. Bubbles and Judy fight over Jimmy.

The two end up in court, where Judy gets ten days. She is bailed out by a beneficent ballet impresario, Steve (Ralph Bellamy), and told that she is a brilliant dancer and that he is going to elevate her to star status.

It is what was termed a “woman’s” picture – though Arzner took over the project from Roy del Ruth, who got fired – in the sense that it deals with emotions and questions of identity. Bubbles is happy to market herself like a side of beef, so she succeeds immediately. Judy holds on to her integrity and, by implication, her virginity, almost saintlike in her pursuit of her art. Bubbles gets the guy; Judy gets the career path she merits.

It's in some ways a comedy of manners, and at other times it veers into melodrama. It is all over the place, but it is firm in its address of the peculiar status of women in America at that time. Ultimately, these two women's fates are in the judgmental hands of men. The gulf between Judy and Bubbles, what makes them oppose each other, is not so remote from the dichotomy between the virgin and the whore.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Down Argentine Way.