Lady of Burlesque (1943)
This is a pretty goofy movie with a forced murder plot thrown in. Some of the actors are comedians in this theater group, so there are gags and one liners throughout. Others are dancers, so there's some dancing, though nothing too worked out.
It's fascinating to see how Barbara Stanwyck is head and shoulders above the other actors in screen presence (if not in dancing--she's never been elegant, just sharp). The scene is limited to a few rooms in a dingy theater, and it's filmed with the camera usually just sitting there facing one way and the actors sitting or standing facing the other. It didn't help that the print Netflix has streaming is faded out so the shadows are merely grey. But director William Wellman is better than this film would let on--he's one of those working experts of ordinary cinema, cranking out lots of really good if rarely astonishing films over many decades.
It's worth noting that the music is routine stuff, too, so if you are in it for the "musical" aspects you might beware. I just happened to finish a couple of hours ago the 1943 "Stormy Weather" which has incredible music (and an even weaker plot). Needless to say, this one is not about the music, per se.
This whole scenario is based on the milieu of Gypsy Rose Lee, a famous burlesque dancer from the early 20th Century, and her apparently silly murder mystery "The G-String Murders" was the basis for this movie. But she wrote an autobiography in 1957 which led to a movie actually about her life, "Gypsy." Ethel Merman of all people was the start of that (with Sondheim music). These are the more interesting tidbits here. I really think this movie is best avoided, especially with many other good musicals out there from the 1940s.
This is a pretty goofy movie with a forced murder plot thrown in. Some of the actors are comedians in this theater group, so there are gags and one liners throughout. Others are dancers, so there's some dancing, though nothing too worked out.
It's fascinating to see how Barbara Stanwyck is head and shoulders above the other actors in screen presence (if not in dancing--she's never been elegant, just sharp). The scene is limited to a few rooms in a dingy theater, and it's filmed with the camera usually just sitting there facing one way and the actors sitting or standing facing the other. It didn't help that the print Netflix has streaming is faded out so the shadows are merely grey. But director William Wellman is better than this film would let on--he's one of those working experts of ordinary cinema, cranking out lots of really good if rarely astonishing films over many decades.
It's worth noting that the music is routine stuff, too, so if you are in it for the "musical" aspects you might beware. I just happened to finish a couple of hours ago the 1943 "Stormy Weather" which has incredible music (and an even weaker plot). Needless to say, this one is not about the music, per se.
This whole scenario is based on the milieu of Gypsy Rose Lee, a famous burlesque dancer from the early 20th Century, and her apparently silly murder mystery "The G-String Murders" was the basis for this movie. But she wrote an autobiography in 1957 which led to a movie actually about her life, "Gypsy." Ethel Merman of all people was the start of that (with Sondheim music). These are the more interesting tidbits here. I really think this movie is best avoided, especially with many other good musicals out there from the 1940s.