For Barbara Stanwyck's few sequences on the stage as a burlesque performer, 4 out of 5 stars. Not because the numbers are amazing or anything, but because it's Stanwyck, and despite the Production Code keeping things tame, she's cute and captures the flirty, somewhat corny era of burlesque well. She sings "Take it off the E string, play it on the G string" while shimmying about early on, acts as the 'straight man' during a comedy number, and then later lets loose on a jitterbug, including dropping down into the splits a couple of times and cartwheeling. It's impressive to me that she took this part and put herself out there at the height of her career. And just watch how she walks on-stage, how she crosses her legs, and how she shakes her hips while her "motor is running" during the comedy bit - if you've ever seen old footage of burlesque variety shows, you can tell she knew the medium (and indeed, her first hit on Broadway at the age of 20 was a show called 'Burlesque').
For the rest of this train wreck, a murder mystery that wants to be an Agatha Christie whodunit, 1 out of 5 stars. What a plodding, nonsensical mess that was. Don't even bother trying to follow it, there is no clever payoff and it reeks from a poor script. The tone is off, and despite a salacious premise (burlesque strippers being strangled with their G-strings, I mean c'mon), surprisingly there isn't a lot of grittiness to it, and the bits that are present are icky. In one scene, one of the women is being punched out by her boyfriend, and the orchestra and Stanwyck are encouraged to perform louder to drown out the sound. In another, Stanwyck says of her growing up, "When I was 11 the comics were looking at my ankles. When I was 14 they were ... just looking." The scenes where the personality-free detective tries to make progress by interviewing 20+ people all crowded around in the room are especially tedious. It's hard to believe William A. Wellman directed this film, as he's capable of much better.
For the rest of this train wreck, a murder mystery that wants to be an Agatha Christie whodunit, 1 out of 5 stars. What a plodding, nonsensical mess that was. Don't even bother trying to follow it, there is no clever payoff and it reeks from a poor script. The tone is off, and despite a salacious premise (burlesque strippers being strangled with their G-strings, I mean c'mon), surprisingly there isn't a lot of grittiness to it, and the bits that are present are icky. In one scene, one of the women is being punched out by her boyfriend, and the orchestra and Stanwyck are encouraged to perform louder to drown out the sound. In another, Stanwyck says of her growing up, "When I was 11 the comics were looking at my ankles. When I was 14 they were ... just looking." The scenes where the personality-free detective tries to make progress by interviewing 20+ people all crowded around in the room are especially tedious. It's hard to believe William A. Wellman directed this film, as he's capable of much better.