On Your Toes (1939)

A young hoofer quits vaudeville to become a composer and hooks up with a Russian ballet troupe.

Director:

Ray Enright

Writers:

Jerry Wald (screenplay), Richard Macaulay (screenplay),

Stars:

Vera Zorina, Eddie Albert, Alan Hale

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Vera Zorina	...	Vera Barnova
Eddie Albert	...	Phil Dolan Jr.
Alan Hale	...	Sergei Alexandrovitch
Frank McHugh	...	Paddy Reilly
James Gleason	...	Phil Dolan Sr.
Leonid Kinskey	...	Ivan Boultonoff
Gloria Dickson	...	Peggy Porterfield
Queenie Smith	...	Mrs. Lil Dolan
Erik Rhodes	...	Konstantin Morrisine
Berton Churchill	...	Donald Henderson
Donald O'Connor	...	Phil Jr. as a Boy
Sarita Wooton	...	Vera as a Girl (as Sarita Wooten)

Storyline

Junior Donal, an ex-vaudevillian now teaching music at Knickerbocker University in New York, enlists to help of patroness Peggy Portefield to persuade Sergei Alexandrovich, the director of the Russian Ballet, to stage a friend's jazzy "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" ballet. Junior becomes involved with the company's prima ballerina, Vera Barnova, and even takes over the male lead in "Slaughter". This so enrages Vera's lover and regular dancing partner that he hires two thugs to kill Junior while he is performing on stage.

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Plot Keywords:

ballet | vaudeville | composer | hotel | russian | 

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Genres:

Music | Comedy

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 October 1939 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Dançarina Russa

Filming Locations:

Toluca Lake, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

"On Your Toes" was adapted from a Broadway musical that opened at the Imperial Theater in New York on April 11, 1936 and ran for 315 performances. Ray Bolger starred in the original stage production. The musical was revived on Broadway in 1954 and 1983.

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Crazy Credits

Lorenz Hart, the lyricist for the original Broadway show, receives onscreen credit, but his lyrics are never sung at all in the film.

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Connections

Featured in Great Performances: The Rodgers & Hart Story: Thou Swell, Thou Witty (1999)

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Soundtracks

"Oh, You Beautiful Doll"
(1911) (uncredited)
Music by Nat Ayer
Second number performed by the Dancing Dolans, repeated during the vaudeville bits
Danced by Donald O'Connor, Queenie Smith and James Gleason

User Reviews

Nice cast in what is the shadow of a Broadway musical

Vera Zorina, Eddie Albert, Alan Hale, Jr., Frank McHugh, Leonid Kinskey, Donald O'Connor, and James Gleason star in "On Your Toes," a 1939 film based on the Broadway show of the same name, which starred Ray Bolger and had music and lyrics by Rogers and Hart. If you think you hear "There's a Small Hotel" in the background throughout this film, you are - it was one of the songs in the musical that is not performed here. Since the star is Vera Zorina, the song omissions are presumably because she wasn't a singer. You'd think Hollywood just never dubbed anyone or just never assigned a song to a different character.

At any rate, if you forget the original show, what's left is actually entertaining, with Albert playing Phil Dolan, Jr., a young hoofer turned composer who writes "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue." The two dance sections, "Princess Zenobia" and "Slaughter" are the highlights of the film, with Slaughter very importantly shown with the original Balanchine choreography.

The other highlight for me was seeing a young Donald O'Connor, who plays the Phil as a young boy in vaudeville - he's delightful.

Some trivia: the head of the ballet company, played here by Alan Hale, Jr., was played on Broadway by Monty Wooley.