Dance, Fools, Dance

Released Feb 7, 1931

1h 21m

Crime

Drama

List

Reviews

46%

100+ Ratings

Audience Score

A broke socialite (Joan Crawford) gets a newspaper job and goes undercover at a cafe to expose a bootlegger (Clark Gable).

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Steve D

It is obvious why the people who became stars did so, and why those that didn't, didn't.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

06/09/23

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Audience Member

Totally silly and mildly amusing vehicle for a young Joan Crawford. Some of the spoiled antics look dated and juvenile, but it is make watchable somewhat by Crawford and William Bakewell.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/09/23

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Audience Member

Campy early gangster flick based very loosely on Chicago gang wars. Not at all factual but spirited fun with good acting from Gable and Crawford. While it sort of earnestly deals with the St Valentine's Day massacre and the murder of reporter Jake Lingle , Clark Gable is no Al Capone :)

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/05/23

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Audience Member

The first pairing of Crawford and Gable is Good. Both would go on to improve as the talkies continued to get better technically. The film I viewed had an excessive amount of scratches, although it was probably the best print available. The basic plot of the film needs work. It can't seem to stick to one theme and execute it before moving on to something else. The hysterical theatrics involved in the film do not necessarily reflect the times as this kind of reaction was only seen in the movies -- as we see here. Nevertheless, it's good enough to watch, and it's a movie you like despite the ridiculous ending. I guess they had to do it because high society girls had to be saved from the grind of the work day world. The world that all the rest of us inhabit.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/16/23

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Audience Member

~ A classic of the early '30's - especially the Crawford tap scene at almost an hour - and more of a Prohibition era crime yarn than a dance movie. A brother & sister's world goes akimbo in the wake of current events, the Crash of '29, and they're forced naively into a darkening & unfamiliar world. Some of Crawford's lines about sampling a relationship before jumping-in are startling for what one thought were the more conservative, coquettish mores of the day. ~ Not great perhaps, it's still a good look at the legendary pairing of Gable & Crawford in the crank 'em out movie-a-month studio system. ~ Of interest, Gable is listed with the full-screen cast of Supporting Players, not as a headliner. Crawford is still a beauty here; in just 2-yrs she would begin the morph into the unattractive middle & older aged lady she became. | ~ Norm de Guerre

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/18/23

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Audience Member

Joan Crawford suffers again. When here family is ruined by mobster Clark Gable, she becomes a reporter and sets out to get her revenge. Fairly standard stuff, but worth watching for some of the pre-Code sexiness and being loosely based on the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, which only happened two years before this film came out.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

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Harry Beaumont

Director

Joan Crawford

Bonnie

Cliff Edwards

Bert Scranton

Clark Gable

Jake Luva

Lester Vail

Bob

William Bakewell

Rodney

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Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

A frenetic pre-Code drama.

Rated: 3/4

Nov 19, 2023

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Michael W. Phillips, Jr.

Goatdog's Movies

A wonderful little film on its own, but it's also a handy little primer of early-1930s genre conventions.

Rated: 3.5/5

Aug 19, 2011

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Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Beaumont directed this preposterous MGM melodrama, starring Joan Crawford as a rich girl, just before Clark Gable became a star and thus could still play a gangsters

Rated: C+

Aug 4, 2011

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Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

Briskly made pre-Code melodrama.

Rated: B-

Oct 7, 2005

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Synopsis

A broke socialite (Joan Crawford) gets a newspaper job and goes undercover at a cafe to expose a bootlegger (Clark Gable).

Director: Harry Beaumont
Screenwriter: Richard Schayer, Aurania Rouverol
Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Production Co: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Genre: Crime, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Feb 7, 1931, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 23, 2017
Runtime: 1h 21m

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