Dames (1934)

Directors:

Ray Enright
Busby Berkeley

Writers:

Robert Lord (story) &
Delmer Daves (story) ...

Release Date:

1 September 1934 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical

Plot:

Multi millinaire Ezra Ounce wants to start a campain against 'filthy' forms of entertainment, like Broadway-Shows...

Plot Keywords:

Show Girl | Staten Island New York City | Theater | Broadway New York City | Dancer

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Joan Blondell	...	Mabel Anderson
Dick Powell	...	James 'Jimmy' Higgens
Ruby Keeler	...	Barbara Hemingway, aka Joan Grey
Zasu Pitts	...	Matilda Ounce Hemingway (misspelled Mathilda in opening credits)
Guy Kibbee	...	Horace Peter Hemingway
Hugh Herbert	...	Ezra Ounce
Arthur Vinton	...	Bulger, Ounce's Bodyguard
Phil Regan	...	Johnny Harris, Songwriter
Arthur Aylesworth	...	Train Conductor
Johnny Arthur	...	Billings, Ounce's Secretary
Leila Bennett	...	Laura, Matilda's Maid
Berton Churchill	...	Harold Ellsworthy Todd
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Bess Flowers	...	(scenes deleted)

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (1936) | USA:Approved (PCA #103)

Filming Locations:

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company:

Vitaphone Corporation, The

Trivia:

In the "Dames" number, Dick Powell as a Broadway producer doesn't want to see composer George Gershwin, but when asked by his secretary about seeing Miss Dubin, Miss Warren and Miss Kelly, he lets them enter his office. Al Dubin and 'Harry Warren' wrote the music, and Orry-Kelly was costume designer of this picture.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: While Joan Blondell is singing "The Girl at the Ironing Board", a stage hand is seen in the background hanging a clothesline.

Quotes:

Barbara Hemingway: I'm free, white, and 21. I love to dance AND I'm going to dance.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Ask the Dust (2006)

Soundtrack:

The Girl at the Ironing Board

Hugh is huge

An old theatrical term for what an accomplished character actor/actress could do onstage is "chew on the scenery". This vigorous description perfectly fits the shenanigans of Hugh Herbert in the movie DAMES, among others. Herbert spent a lifetime portraying bumptious simpletons and no one did it better, chewing the cinema scenery to ribbons. His face alone is a comedy mask; with the baggy eyes of a dullard, the potato nose of a busybody, and an agile mouth that could pout like a child or grin like a gargoyle. Reviewing this movie I am astounded at how fun it is to watch a professional idiot at work. Long, long before there was DUMB & DUMBER there was Hugh Herbert -- the dumbbell's dumbbell. Herbert's mature looniness (he never looked young in the movies) is what Jerry Lewis should have evolved to. The dignified business suit, the twinkle of dementia in his eyes, the body-wrenching double-takes, and the arms that flap and flutter and skitter like a thing alive & apart from the brain -- in cold print they seem like slapstick cliches -- as indeed they are -- but in the hands of a master clown like Herbert these mannerisms convey a startling & enthralling portrait of the dimbulb par excellance. Herbert is a comedy hallucination and as such fits perfectly with the weird musical numbers in this film staged by Busby Berkley. When all is said & done, the dancing just a trail of dust & the music just an echo, there still remains the ineffable sight of Hugh Herbert playing with his toy elephants or battling a profound case of hiccups. Herbert gives silliness a stature it has never since attained again.