Dancers in the Dark (1932)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

David Burton

Writers:

James Ashmore Creelman (play)
Herman J. Mankiewicz (writer)

Release Date:

11 March 1932 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A bandleader tries to romance a dancer by sending her boyfriend, a musician, out of town. However, things get complicated when he finds out that a gangster has designs on her too. |

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman | Based On Play

Cast

Miriam Hopkins	...	Gloria Bishop
Jack Oakie	...	Duke Taylor
George Raft	...	Louie Brooks
William Collier Jr.	...	Floyd Stevens
Eugene Pallette	...	Gus
Lyda Roberti	...	Fanny Zabowolski
Maurice Black	...	Max
DeWitt Jennings	...	Sergeant McGroody
Paul Fix	...	Benny

Runtime:

74 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.

Taxi Dancers and gangsters

Jack Oakie is a band leader at a dance hall who is worried that his best friend (William Collier), the band's saxophonist, is getting in over his head with taxi dancer Miriam Hopkins. Oakie arranges for Collier to get hired by another band in order to get him out of town for a month, hoping this will cool down the affair. In the ensuing month, gangster George Raft shows up with designs on Hopkins and Oakie himself starts falling for the dame. There's a shoot-out at the end and some great music throughout, including 'St. Louis Blues' as sung by Hopkins. Lyda Roberti is fun as Fanny Zobowolski who puts the moves on a reluctant Eugene Palette. Viewed at Cinesation in Massillon Ohio, October 2004.