After a troupe of danseuses becomes unemployed, one of them takes up burlesque dancing while another dreams of performing ballet.After a troupe of danseuses becomes unemployed, one of them takes up burlesque dancing while another dreams of performing ballet.After a troupe of danseuses becomes unemployed, one of them takes up burlesque dancing while another dreams of performing ballet.
- Awards
- 1 win
- The Ballerina
- (as Vivian Fay)
- Directors
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaLucille Ball and Maureen O'Hara became inseparable friends while shooting this film, and remained lifelong friends until Ball's death in 1989. O'Hara was having lunch with her when Ball first saw her future husband Desi Arnaz.
- Quotes
Judy O'Brien: 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 it'd 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 there 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!
- ConnectionsFeatured in Gotta Dance, Gotta Sing (1982)
- SoundtracksBeer Barrel Polka
(uncredited)
aka "Roll Out the Barrel"
Music by Jaromir Vejvoda
Lyrics by Wladimir A. Timm (song Skoda lásky)
English lyrics by Lew Brown
Played at the Palais Royale Club
Danced and sung by Lucille Ball and the chorus girls
This competent if unremarkable film was directed by Dorothy Arzner, Hollywood's one female director of note between the silent years and Ida Lupino. It's a package of different kinds of dance numbers, from show girl to burlesque to high art ballet. The thread that keeps it going is the usual: girls trying to make it in one show or another.
Lucille Ball, famous for her television shows of the 1950s and 60s, might seem to be making an early appearance in this 1940 song and dance drama. But she had made fifty (fifty!) films before this one. She's no a remarkable dancer by any means, nor singer, but she has personality to spare, and she's fun, period. She plays the worldly girl who will dance anywhere, anyhow. In contrast is the Maureen O'Hara character, sweet and restrained. She's rather humiliated in the movie, and you can feel her pain, but it's a forced contrast.
Musical numbers intersperse the thin plot, and those might or might not be your taste. I found even the ballet, which looked like a serious ballet troupe in action, pedestrian. And it was poorly filmed: the camera sat at the edge of the stage and watched. In truth, the movie as a whole was functional, not reaching for the stars, and not getting any. The one surprise, for me, was the ease and presence of Louis Hayward as a kind of good guy leading man who appeared now and then to properly show his love for O'Hara's struggling character.
- secondtake
- Oct 9, 2010
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Details
- Runtime1 hour 30 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1