Although it had quite an impressive cast (Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone, May Robson, Sterling Holloway, Nelson Eddy, Robert Benchley and, yes, the Three Stooges) Dancing Lady (1933) is mainly remembered as the film debut of one Fred Astaire, playing himself, a dancer on Broadway, doing a single number with Joan. Less than one month later, he would have a significant supporting role in Flying Down to Rio where he would team for the first time with Ginger Rogers.
Another first of the film is the first Adolph Hitler joke/reference in a studio film. In one sequence, Larry Fine of the Three Stooges puts together a jigsaw puzzle only to realize upon its completion that it is a portrait of Hitler at which point he gives the camera a pronounced double take. The section was edited out for later release but then put back in. I've never seen the sequence myself and a brief check on Turner Classic Movies shows it is not currently scheduled but it is available on DVD. Unfortunately the DVD info does not say whether the sequence is there. No matter, it's a movie from the early thirties. I'll buy it anyway.
10 comments:
At the risk of kicking off the intercourse on a crass note...
1930s Joan Crawford = hot bitch!
An early November Sunday after Halloween does not equal loads of comment conversation so I wouldn't worry too much. But yes, I've always found the late twenties through the thirties Joan Crawford to be quite beautiful, hot and sexy. She is so known for the forties helmet hair-do and rigid shoulder pads look that predominated the rest of her career but before that set in she was a looker (at least that's what they say - she's got it all, yeah, she's got it made).
Al...ways...on... dis...play...
But when she smiles, is she really smiling?
Oh I definitely want to see this!
Wow, talk about psychic - I was just thinking about you. I was cleaning up my blogroll (lots of dead links and such) and saw yours and thought, "I wonder if Raquelle has seen Dancing Lady." I also wondered if the Siren and other classic movie bloggers had seen it. Then I started thinking I should break my blogroll down into categories and ... well, you get the idea.
It's very entertaining. Gable's name is "Patch" believe it or not, and Joan's falling for him so Franchot buys the show she's in and closes it and ... well, you'll see.
One of my favorite Three Stooges films is You Nazty Spy which is shorter and funnier than The Great Dictator. The Stooges' film was released in January 1940, beating Chaplin by ten months.
The Three Stooges were on all the time when I was a kid and I've probably seen them all at one time or another but I don't remember the The Nazsty Spy.
But I'll tell you what I do remember:
"B-A-bay, B-E-bee, B-I-bicky-bi, B-O bo, bicky-bi bo, B-U bu, bicky bi bo bu."
I've sung that song a zillion times.
That Stooge short in question with the memorable song is Violence is a Word for Curly, the title spoofing the now forgetten film, Valiant is a Word for Carrie.
My wife and I have played the song on YouTube for our kids. The Stooges (both the Three and the Iggy Pop variety) sure were good teachers.
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