Lady of Burlesque (1943)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

William A. Wellman

Writers:

James Gunn (writer)
Gypsy Rose Lee (novel)

Release Date:

1 May 1943 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Horror | Music | Mystery | Romance

Tagline:

GIRLS and GAGS! MUSIC and MIRTH!

Plot:

Sassy Dixie Daisy is the hot new attraction at a former opera house that's been turned into a burlesque theater...

Plot Keywords:

Theater | Burlesque | Grandfather Granddaughter Relationship | New York City | Rivalry

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Barbara Stanwyck	...	Deborah Hoople, aka Dixie Daisy
Michael O'Shea	...	Biff Brannigan
Iris Adrian	...	Gee Gee Graham
Charles Dingle	...	Inspector Harrigan
J. Edward Bromberg	...	S.B. Foss
Frank Conroy	...	'Stacchi' Stacciaro
Victoria Faust	...	Lolita La Verne
Gloria Dickson	...	Dolly Baxter
Marion Martin	...	Alice Angel
Frank Fenton	...	Russell Rogers
Stephanie Bachelor	...	The Princess Nirvena
Pinky Lee	...	Mandy
Eddie Gordon	...	Officer Pat Kelly
Janis Carter	...	Janine
Lou Lubin	...	Moey, the Candy Butcher

Also Known As:

Striptease Lady (UK)
The G-String Murders

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Sweden:15

Company:

Hunt Stromberg Productions

Trivia:

Craig Rice, mystery writer from the 1940s and roommate of Gypsy Rose Lee, ghost-wrote "The G-String Murders" for her.

Quotes:

Biff: What's the matter with comics?
Dixie: I went into show business when I was seven years old. Two days later the first comic I ever met stole my piggy bank in a railroad station in Portland. When I was 11 the comics were looking at my ankles. When I was 14 they were...just looking. When I was 20 I'd been stuck with enough lunch checks to pay for a three-story house. Naw, they're shiftless, dame-chasing, ambitionless...

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Lady in Question Is Charles Busch (2005)

Soundtrack:

So This Is You

Barbara Stanwycke Plays Gypsy Rose Lee

Geeeeee! I just saw this on Turner Classics for the first time since I was a kid when you went to the movies 'cause there was no television in the homes in those days. Everything was radio, or a 78 rpm record player, and as teens we would sneak into the Gayety Burlesque House here in Cincinati to watch Rose La Rose perform. This may be going off on a tangent, but Bob Edwards, the head of A.G.V.A. (American Guild of Variety Artists in which I was a performing member; no, I was not in Burlesque) told me about the time that the manager of the Gayety called him and said the musicians went on strike and that he was needed. Of course, he didn't know what he could possibly do, but he told the manager to find something to play music so they hooked up a radio, and the dancers would dance to whatever kind of music they could find and Bob said he went down to the theater in hot pursuit. So, he got there just in time for the star stripper to do the finale to the show and just as she got ready to go into her bumps and grinds, the music stopped, and a voice came over the theater system saying, "Have you had a rough day? Has it made you tense? Then bare it all with Bayre Asprin!" Well, Bob said he grabbed the curtain backstage and almost tore it down trying to stand up and laugh at the same time. The star stripper was not amused! So, here we have Barbara playing Gypsy Rose Lee, of course, because it's known that the first first novel someone writes is always an autobiography with a changed name, and for Gypsy's G-String Murders turned into Lady of Burlseque. They had to change the name in those days! It's lucky that the books title got mentioned on the screen seeing the power that The Hayes Office had for decency in those days! So, we have a different Barbara here. We have her singing in Burlewque, yes that's her singing, and she's dancing, doing cartwheels and playing straight-man to all the comics and turning in quite a remarkable performance. There are only two movies that she has made that I really like, this one and Christmas in Conneticut which has become a Christmas Classic to enjoy during the Christmas Holiday! They tried to re-make Christmas in Conneticut a few years ago. Big flop! Please, will the God of Burlesque never let them re-make Lady of Burlesque? Between this movie and Gypsy with Rosland Russell and Natalie Wood playing Gypsy Rose Lee, these are my two favorite Burlesque movies of all time! It's just a shame that they didn't have a Guitar Playing Female Singer in the cast which reminds me of the time that I was doing this show and this girl was on before me and she was playing her guitar and singing and all of a sudden she broke one of the strings on her guitar and not realizing it, she said, "Oh, my God! I just broke my G-string!" Brought the house down and I'm suppose to go on after that? Ah, the trials and tribulations of show business! Those great days are gone forever, but great are the memories!