Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Married Baby Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Skyler Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

zardoz-13 Joan Crawford plays a struggling dancer in "Dancing Lady" who alternates between Broadway producer Clark Gable and Wall Street tycoon Franchot Tone in this fast-paced, amusing musical with lots of dance numbers. This Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer release features the antics of the Three Stooges while they were still second bananas with Ted Healy. The finale with Joan and Fred Astaire on a floating saucer that takes them to Bavaria exemplifies a bit of early cinematic surrealism. Nelson Eddy makes his debut along with Fred Astaire in this predictable but entertaining 1930's melodrama. Director Robert Z. Leonard keeps the action scooting along with one surprise after another. Janie Barlow (Joan Crawford) is a dancer who lives to dance, even if she must dance in a burlesque show. Wealthy Park Avenue investor Tod Newton (Franchot Tone of "Lives of a Bengal Lancer") attends her show the evening that the police raid the theater and arrest Janie and his counterparts for indecent performances. Janie tells the judge that she is a social worker. He fines her $30 or 30 days, and the gallant Tod antes up the loot. Tod wines and dines Janie, but she remains focused on dancing, the art of dancing. In fact, she decides to quit burlesque and pursue Patch Gallagher for the chance of a big break. Tod provides the introduction to a stage producer, Jasper Bradley, Sr. (Grant Mitchell) and Patch's assistant Steve (Ted Healy) and the Three Stooges decide to give her "the brush off." Nevertheless, Steve is impressed by Janie's ability and urges a reluctant Patch to consider her. Patch berates Pinky (Sterling Holloway), the author of the play that the show is based on, because it is Spanish American War era relic. Indeed, Patch has dreams of staging a different show. No sooner has Patch got the show underway than the bottom falls out. It seems that Janie has to assure Tod that if the show bombs, she will marry him. The treacherous Tod pulls his money from the show and the Bradleys have to close it. Patch is left high and dry, while a clueless Janie accompanies Tod to Cuba. Meantime, Patch decides to put himself into hock to finance the show. Imagine Janie's shock when she learns about Tod's underhanded scheme to shut down the show. She goes back to do the show for Patch. Of course, everything works in the end. "Dancing Lady" provides Crawford with a good, strong role.

Claudio Carvalho In New York, the playboy Tod Newton (Franchot Tone) goes with his friend to the International Burlesque to have fun with the striptease of the dancers. During the performance, there is a police raid and the girls are arrested and brought to court. Tod feels attracted by the dancer Janie Barlow (Joan Crawford) that is sentenced to thirty days in jail or the payment of a thirty-dollar bail. Tod bails her out and Janie tells that she is an aspirant dancer that prioritizes her career and she does not accept to be his lover.Janie Barlow decides to seek a position uptown in Broadway musical but the director Patch Gallagher (Clark Gable) refuses to talk and give a chance to her. However Tod Newton uses his influence and secretly sponsors the show and Janie is hired. Patch believes that Janie is using Tod to reach her objectives but sooner he finds that she is a talented dancer indeed. Tod proposes to marry Janie but she wants to become a Broadway star. However, she accepts Tod's proposal: if the show is a success, she will follow the artistic career; however, if the musical fails, she will marry him. But Tod is a millionaire and wants to marry Janie and the bet is not fair."Dancing Lady" is a delightful film about a dilemma, where Joan Crawford is amazing, dancing inclusive with Fred Astaire in one of his first works. Her chemistry with Clark Gable is something very special, and the funny moments are in charge of the Three Stooges in the role of stagehands. There is also a cameo of Nelson Eddy in his first credited work. The "villain" Franchot Tone is also very pleasant and has a good performance in the role of a coxcomb. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Amor de Dançarina" ("Love of Dancer")

Jay Raskin This was released late in 1933, I suspect to try and cash in on the success of Warner Bothers' hits, "Gold Diggers of 1933" and "42nd Street" All the right elements are there - class conflict, overworked choreographers and dancers, conflicts with the show's backers, and even some Busby Berkeley choreography - yet everything seems a bit undercooked. There are some pleasant extras here, like the first appearance of Fred Astaire and Nelson Eddy and an early appearance by the three stooges. Yet, these all together take up only about ten minutes of the 90 minute running time. This leaves the main narrative story of a young girl's rise to fame and fortune as a dancer as the real central interest and that center falls, or should I say, taps flat.Someone described Joan Crawford as a dancing camel in one review. That is accurate to a degree, her dancing looks awkward. I suspect that it is because we are not familiar with the dances of the period that we feel that way. She did win numerous dancer-flapper contests, so I assume that she was good in the flapper style of dancing that she does. However when she goes outside that style that she really gets lost. Fred Astaire pushes her around and seems afraid of breaking her in the one main dance they do together.When she is not dancing, Crawford plays the virgin good girl trying to avoid the advances of millionaire Franchot Tone (Crawford married Tone for five years, two years after this movie). Since there were thousands of talented dancers in New York as pretty as Crawford who would have gladly slept with Tone, one wonders what the fascination he has for her is. Crawford comes off prudish, aggressive and dumb. I was surprised to see her like this when she had been so successful the previous year in "Grand Hotel," being sophisticated, passive and smart. She stole that movie from under the feet of Greta Garbo. Here, her acting seems to revert to her silent film days, acting with her whole body and being one dimensionally obvious.On the other hand, Clark Gable is wonderful. He plays it smooth and light, but can be sincere and intense at moments. The choreography by Sammy Lee and Eddie Prinz at times reaches the intense mixture of fabulous cinematography, art deco imagination and military precision of Berkeley. An airplane number and a past-to-modern times transformation number work nicely. One amazing thing that I've notice is that Joan Crawford looks a lot like Bettie Davis in some shots in this movie. In some of Bettie Davis' latter movies, she seems to look like Joan Crawford. I'm wondering who copied whom or if it is just coincidence.Its six years later, March 10, 2016, and I just saw the movie again. I was much more impressed. I would now give it a 9 or 10 out of 10. There are a lot of things I appreciated this time that I missed earlier. The beginning burlesque scene is amazing, very pre-code sexy and risqué. The touches of Art-deco and futurist propaganda -- speed, speed, speed and the new pace of modern life introduced at the very end of the film is amazing. The depression is the unseen "other" in the movie. It is only mentioned when Joan Crawford can't pay a $30 fine and gets sentenced to a week in jail, and Clark Gable proclaims that rich playboy Franchot Tone has thrown a hundred people out of work to court Joan. The little bits here and there, Healy and the three stooges, Fred Astaire, Sterling Holloway with a wonderful "You're crucifying me" cry, are not undeveloped as I thought -- they are bit gags by talented bit players. They were not meant to be developed. How could anyone have foreseen the great careers these bit players would have in the future?Note the flying carpet to Bavaria scene is a prototype for the Wizard of Oz trip to Oz scene. Note the whole "Dancing Lady" musical which we get to see in the last 15 minutes is an extended metaphor for wild and passionate sex. The movement is from rauchy atmostphere (the Burlesque house) to work and seduction (Gable and Tone), to sex (the play), to marriage (the closing kiss). This is a very happy and cheerful movie.

fwdixon I enjoyed "Dancing Lady" despite the fact that the titular "Lady" (Joan Crawford) is about as graceful as a pregnant camel. Other than her lead-footed dancing, Joan give a good performance. How many other movies can claim to feature The 3 Stooges, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone, Joan Crawford, Fred Astaire and Nelson Eddy? Even Eve Arden shows up in a bit part (years before being reunited with Joan in "Mildred Pierce"!) Only MGM could have come up with a cast like this! Nevertheless, it's apparent that MGM was still learning how to put on a proper musical. Warner's musicals of the period are light years ahead of this. The songs are terrible and, other than Fred Astaire's numbers, the dancing is mediocre. Maybe I'm making it sound awful but it really isn't. It's a fun 90+ minutes to pass away a rainy afternoon.