Dance, Fools, Dance

Trailer—Dance, Fools, Dance

Dance, Fools, Dance_720p(480P)

source: Dance, Fools, Dance

Joan Crawford is Bonnie Jordan, an ex-society girl working as a reporter investigating the murder of a fellow worker named Bert Scranton played by future Jiminy Cricket, Cliff Edwards. She goes undercover as a dance hall girl at gangster Jake Luva's joint. Luva is played by Clark Gable, at the time just a working actor but possibly due to his brief kiss with Ms. Crawford, about to become a superstar. In fact, the king of the box office for much of the 30s. The way the camera is stationed as well as the lack of music score reveals the picture's early talkie roots but the expressions of the actors are enough to carry it to still-interesting heights. In summary, Dance, Fools, Dance is still well worth a look for the historical first teaming of Crawford and Gable.

"Dance, Fools, Dance" is one of the better movies of 1931. Its topics (the spoiled and not-so- spoiled rich, the choices we make between the easy way and the hard way, alcoholism, the newspaper and bootlegging games) have ongoing resonance; it moves swiftly; Joan Crawford is beautiful and arresting even if she gets a little too arch with some of her line readings in the early scenes; the main supporting players are all distinct and effective representatives of their types; the dialogue is frequently snappy. Bonnie Jordan, a passionate young socialite (Crawford), is introduced saying to her boyfriend during a dull midnight party on a yacht, "If something doesn't happen, l'll die!" whereupon the boyfriend suggests that all of the young hedonists strip and jump into the ocean for kicks. Since this was 1930, they only strip to their fancy underwear, but the point is made. These are flaming and privileged youth who just wanted to have fun. Unfortunately for Bonnie and her alcoholic brother Rodney (William Bakewell – whatever happened to him? He is terrific in this) their indulgent father drops dead after taking a beating on the stock market and they are left penniless (which in MGM terms translates into sharing a high-ceilinged two-bedroom apartment) and—to the horror of the son—have to get jobs. Bonnie, the more mature of the pair, uses a family social connection to land a spot as a cub reporter covering garden parties and the like for the city newspaper where she befriends a fellow newshound (Cliff Edwards at his peculiar best). Good newsroom shot: The camera pans from one typewriter to another revealing each reporter's story as it's being banged out. Meanwhile, Rodney, desperate to make easy money, agrees to drum up business for a hardened bootlegger (Clark Gable) by persuading his wealthy liquor-consuming former friends to switch to Gable's suppliers. This all leads to big trouble, eventually involving Bonnie, which in turns leads to Gable and Crawford in their first screen pairing. And now for the highlight of the film: Gable and Crawford are now displayed front and center on a sofa in Gable's lair. The screen smolders as these two ferally attractive and impeccably decorated young stars go to it – rugged Gable in starched white shirt and black jacket; Crawford in her shimmering satin; he forcing kiss after kiss, first on each of her cheeks as she tries to turn her lips away from his, and then finally hitting the mark. Cinema magic. Another kind of intensity emanates from Natalie Moorhead, as Gable's erstwhile female companion, who gives him the eye as she blows out the flame of his cigarette lighter. Moorhead always made the most of her limited screen time (no more than a few minutes here). Oh, and we get to see Crawford do one of those lead-footed dances she was forced to perform in early talkies. She has energy, spirit and determination to spare but very little grace.

Joan Crawford and William Bakewell are the spoiled, yet uneducated children of wealthy William Holden (Not the popular matinée idol of the 40's and '50's) who must find other means of supporting themselves when he looses all of his money. Crawford becomes a cub reporter on a big city newspaper while drunkard Bakewell gets involved in bootlegger Clark Gable's racket, seemingly to set him up with wealthy new clients. When Crawford's reporter pal (Cliff Edwards) is spotted investigating a St. Valentine's Day Massacre type assassination on members of a rival gang, Gable forces Bakewell to kill him. Crawford goes undercover to unmask those responsible, wins Gable's confidence, and is horrified by what she discovers. This quick-moving and entertaining melodrama was MGM's answer to "Little Caesar", "The Public Enemy" and "Scarface", with a woman's angle added to make things a little different. As she did in many of her earlier films (both silent and sound), Crawford dances up a storm, proving herself as one of the best "Jazz Babies" of the late 20's and early 30's. Star-to-be Clark Gable is billed way down in the credits, playing a brutish role that made him extremely unlikable, although his sexiness does show in his scenes with Crawford and the feisty Natalie Moorehead as his moll. In all of his future movies with the future "Mommy Dearest", Gable softened his image and was more the lover rather than the brute man, even though he was still all man. Bakewell, who was a major player in the early 30's (usually cast as insensitive and selfish young men who cause their families a lot of heartache), was never really likable on screen, and in bit parts of the late 30's and 40's, this trait continued as well. Well-written and excellently photographed, this is one of the films that assured Crawford stardom, making her a major threat to Norma Shearer. (Garbo would be in a category all her own.) There's a lot of pre-code innuendo, some great montages, and a memorable exchange between Natalie Moorehead and Gable involving a lit match.

Dance, Fools, Dance (1931) *** (out of 4) Fun Pre-Code has a father dropping dead when he learns that he's lost everything in the stock market crash of 1929. His daughter (Joan Crawford) and son (William Bakewell) have no money and never had to work a day in their lives until now. She goes to work as a reporter for a newspaper while he gets involved with a gangster (Clark Gable) and soon all three are going to collide. DANCE, FOOLS, DANCE is a must-see if you're a fan of the starts or just this era in history. I always enjoy watching these early films from the 30's because you just never really know what type of wildness you're going to get. The film starts off at a society party where all the young adults decide to go swimming even though there's not enough bathing suits. The entire stuff dealing with the stock market crash was obviously still very hurtful to most in 1931 so many films from this era used it for starting point on a plot. I thought the film was extremely entertaining thanks in large part to the excellent performances with Crawford leading the way. She gets to play a rich society brat, a hard-working reporter and an undercover gangster's girl and she does a very good job with all three. Gable is also excellent as the gangster and there's just no question about it but he and Crawford just had a certainly magic to all their films together. Bakewell is good as the brother and there's nice support from Cliff Edwards and Lester Vail. I'm not going to ruin the ending but it's certainly a great one and something that Tarantino would likely do nearly seventy-years later. DANCE, FOOLS, DANCE is a must see for fans of the genre and there's no question the stars are in good form.

The story is simple, but Joan Crawford is one of those empowering roles that are such a feature of the pre-Code era, and you get Clark Gable in just his 3rd film as well. The setup is that a rich family living it up in the roaring 20's go bust with the stock market crash. Not only do they lose everything but the father dies on the exchange floor, leaving behind two kids (Joan Crawford and William Bakewell) who have never held jobs or gotten an education. While the son can't fathom working and would prefer to sit around getting drunk (a nice little critique of the spoiled rich), he eventually gets involved with bootleggers. The daughter, on the other hand, is a plucky young woman who turns down a marriage proposal that would have made her rich, and goes out and becomes a newspaper reporter instead. You can probably guess what I love about Crawford's character. She's a modern woman who looks great out on the dance floor, believes in "trying love out on approval" (a scene which clearly signals pre-marital sex), and would rather work and be independent than settle for the traditional role of wife. Her brother is incredulous, leading to this exchange: Bonnie (Crawford): "I'm not going to do any of those stupid, silly, conventional things. You'd be surprised what a girl can earn when she sets her mind to it. I'm no dud." Rodney (Bakewell): "You've got the looks, kid. Trade on 'em. Open up a beauty parlor. ..." Bonnie: "That's your idea of me, huh? Beautiful but dumb. All right, I'll show you. I'm going out to get a man-sized job." That second dance she does when she's working undercover in the gangster's nightclub to get a story is delightful and evokes the flapper era, but to me the feminism in the film is what makes it a solid film, despite its basic plot. Crawford is not known for her on-screen charm, but she summons it here, and does well in the various aspects of her role - society woman, flapper, newspaper reporter, and love interest (hey, the complete woman). Gable is suitably tough as the gang leader, and he and Crawford have great chemistry together. I didn't care for the contrived confrontation which occurs and how the film ends though, which was really unfortunate, and kept it from a higher rating. Another quote, from Gable to Crawford after her dance: "You got me going, sister." "Can I depend on it?" "In a big way."

This was the first movie that Joan Crawford and Clark Gable made together and they would go on to make several more. Crawford stars a young rich girl who's father is wiped out in the stock market crash and there is nothing left for her and her brother. They have never worked before and the brother, William Bakewell, gets a job with Gable, who is a gangster and Bakewell thinks it will be an easy job but gets in over his head pretty quick. Crawford becomes a reporter at a newspaper but wants to work on the big stories but is given worthless stuff to work on. Their is a massacre in which several of Gable's men are killed and Crawford was a witness to the whole thing. It's a good movie but not one of their best.

The opening scenes of Dance, Fools, Dance paint a picture of spoiled rich kids Joan Crawford and her brother William Bakewell. Neither has apparently completed school or ever done anything worthwhile. Their father—who worked his own way up to wealth from the bottom—is worried. Joan smokes before breakfast; her brother buys liquor by the suitcase. The height of adventure and success for Joan is a yacht party where she boldly talks everyone into skinny dipping (well, stripping down to their underwear) out on the ocean. The father dies and it turns out he's broke; the picture turns to chapter two, or, How will the spoiled kids survive? –Well, the brother finds work with a bootlegging mob, and Joan gets a job as a cub reporter. (Influential friend of the family helps her out, apparently...no, she's not remotely qualified, but shows a knack for the work right away!) Rather quickly, the brother finds himself over his head in the sordid business of bootlegging...and Joan, eager for a real story instead of the tea parties she's initially assigned to, takes on....you guessed it, the mob. There's more to it than that, including Joan's sometime boyfriend (Lester Vail), who half-heartedly offers to marry her when her fortune goes kaput and hangs around when she sets off to make her own success; and Cliff Edwards as the veteran reporter who mentors Joan at the paper but hears too much for his own good at a speakeasy. Clark Gable is riveting as boss gangster Jake Luva; pre-mustache, the swagger is already there. His first scene features a cigarette-lighting routine with girlfriend Natalie Moorhead (excellent in a tiny role as the soon-to-be discarded moll): he blows smoke in her face, she blows out his lighter, and they hold a stare for a lingering shot that speaks more about their characters' relationship than any of their dialog even attempts. Midway through the story you have a pretty clear idea of where the plot is going to go….but the second half of the picture is still livelier than the first: at least the characters have some purpose in the second half. Crawford is especially good: she is always at the center as the picture revolves through her relationships with the various men in her life—lover, brother, mentor, gangster. Joan also gets in one good dance—undercover as a chorus girl, she sees her former rich kid friends in the audience and really puts on a number. No classic as far as plot goes, or dialog…but worth seeing for Crawford's performance. Research question: How would a 1931 movie audience have been impressed by spoiled rich girl Crawford flashing an electric hair dryer?