Dance, Girl, Dance

[osprey_archer]

I’ve been meaning to see Dorothy Arzner’s Dance, Girl, Dance almost since I started my women film directors project back in January 2018, and I’ve accomplished it at last. If you like Golden Age of Hollywood movies, you’ll probably like this: it stars Maureen O’Hara as Judy, an aspiring dancer with serious artistic ambitions, and Lucille Ball as Bubbles, Judy’s bad-girl colleague whom you may not exactly like but you can’t help admiring as she attacks life with fervent gusto. She may get knocked down, but she’s never out.

The film has a number of sequences that I quite liked. There’s the scene where Judy goes to audition for a modern dance troupe, only to flee in a panic after watching them rehearse: their choreography is so different and so much more technically challenging than the chorus girl routines she knows that she can’t imagine they’ll accept her. And there’s the scene near the end of the film, where Judy and Bubbles appear in police court and Bubbles flings off her fur coat dramatically to reveal the scratches on her back, because it’s just the most Bubbles possible moment.

(Also, it’s really interesting to see Lucille Ball portrayed as a sex symbol - it’s such a contrast to her image today, which is so dominated by I Love Lucy.)

But the best moment, certainly the main set piece of the film, is Judy’s scathing renunciation of the audience at the burlesque club where she and Bubbles have been dancing. For weeks, Judy has been acting as Bubbles “stooge” - she goes on stage to dance mannered ballet and get booed till the audience is wild enough for Bubbles’ racier act. (I feel that this is actually a pretty good justification for the cat fight scene that lands them in police court. Bubbles had it coming.)

Finally Judy snaps. She marches out to center stage, stands there staring scornfully at the audience, and tells them:

“Go on, laugh, get your money’s worth. No-one’s going to hurt you. I know you want me to tear my clothes off so you can look your fifty cents’ worth. Fifty cents for the privilege of staring at a girl the way your wives won’t let you. What do you suppose we think of you up here with your silly smirks your mothers would be ashamed of? We know is the thing of the moment for the dress suits to come and laugh at us too. We’d laugh right back at the lot of you, only we’re paid to let you sit here and roll your eyes and make your screamingly clever remarks. What’s it for? So you can go home when the show’s over, strut before your wives and sweethearts and play at being the stronger sex for a minute? I’m sure they see through you. I’m sure they see through you just like we do!”

The secretary from the modern dance troupe, who has come to try to recruit Judy, bursts into applause, and the whole theater - probably implausibly, and yet satisfyingly nonetheless - claps too.

Comments

[thawrecka]

I haven't seen the rest of the film but I've seen clips of that speec before and it's magnificent.

[osprey_archer]

It is truly an epic speech.

[asakiyume]

Speeches like that may not happen much in real life, and when they do happen, they may not get the reception that they receive in the script, but oh boy, they're satisfying to watch (or read).

[osprey_archer]

I was thinking about the speech in Daughters of the Dust in conjunction with this. It's slightly more rambling and the focus is somewhat different (and there isn't literal applause at the end), but it's got the same Crowning Feminist Speech thing going on.

[asakiyume]

Yes, for sure!