Dance, Girl, Dance

Released Aug 30, 1940

1h 30m

Musical

List

83%

Tomatometer

12 Reviews

64%

Audience Score

500+ Ratings

A burlesque queen (Lucille Ball) competes with an aspiring ballerina (Maureen O'Hara) for a divorced playboy (Louis Hayward).

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Richard Brody

New Yorker

Arzner films it with fascination and enthusiasm, and the choreography is marked by the point of view of the spectators and the dancers' awareness that they're being watched.

May 30, 2016

Full Review

Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

The themes are female friendship and a woman's fulfillment, and it is one of Arzner's most coherent and accomplished films.

Sep 28, 2015

Full Review

Paul Taylor

Time Out

Arzner's internal critique of Hollywood ideology (woman as silent object of male scrutiny). It works within the confines of a stock vaudevillian golddiggers comedy-drama.

Sep 28, 2015

Full Review

Douglas Davidson

Elements of Madness

With this release and its wonderful supplemental interviews, an opportunity is created to shed some light on a forgotten director and her work.

Rated: 4/5

Jun 9, 2020

Full Review

Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Not surprisingly, the scene where O'Hara's character directly lambasts an audience for its collective "male gaze" retains its topicality.

Rated: 3/4

Jun 7, 2020

Full Review

Fernando F. Croce

CinePassion

Without rising out of the cinematically conventional, the movie's self-reflexivity continually questions the gaze of the camera.

Sep 28, 2015

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John H

A romp with a drunken trust fund baby lead, a lot of marginal dancing, non-titillating burlesque, and a soliloquy followed by a cat fight.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/12/24

Full Review

Audience Member

Lucille Ball as you rarely see her, sultry and catty. Directed by Dorothy Arzner, the only woman director in Hollywood at the time. Who had the fortitude to tell the male gaze to take a long walk off a short pier. Loved it.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/19/23

Full Review

ashley h

Dance, Girl, Dance is a decent film. It is about a a troupe of danseuses who become unemployed. Maureen O'Hara and Lucille Ball give good performances. The screenplay is a little slow in places. Dorothy Arzner did an alright job directing this movie. I liked this motion picture because of the humor and drama.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

William L

A solid enough comedy-drama that uses a pretty conventional Horatio Alger-esque narrative about hard work, talent, and passion sustaining a sympathetic protagonist to eventual success, infused with a distinctly feminine perspective and a Lucille Ball performance that together give the film its identity in a sea of similar films of the period. The film's critical revival has hinged largely on its feminist stance, capped by a scathing speech from O'Hara's Judy to a crowd of jeering onlookers; there's a dated, somewhat conservative flair to it (the whole narrative includes a focus on traditional ballet's superiority to modern performance styles, and part of O'Hara's speech includes references to a "mother's disappointment"), but considering this stance in the context of the day reveals a greater significance and daring. Ball is the real star in her supporting role, just eating up the screen at each opportunity as the opportunistic and bawdy Bubbles/'Tiger Lily'; even if she's not the focus, it's a perfect encapsulation of the type of character that she excelled at. (3/5)

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/19/21

Full Review

Audience Member

Some interesting proto-feminist stuff here with a fascinating early Lucille Ball performance, but not much of interest otherwise.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

Full Review

s r

I enjoyed it. Lucille ball was a ball of fire, while Maureen's motivations were oddly placed. Had it been better written it could have been great. 1001 movies to see before you die.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

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Dorothy Arzner

Director

Maureen O'Hara

Judy O'Brien

Louis Hayward

Jimmy Harris

Lucille Ball

Bubbles

Virginia Field

Elinor Harris

Ralph Bellamy

Steve Adams

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Synopsis

A burlesque queen (Lucille Ball) competes with an aspiring ballerina (Maureen O'Hara) for a divorced playboy (Louis Hayward).

Director: Dorothy Arzner
Producer: Harry E. Edington
Screenwriter: Vicki Baum, Tess Slesinger, Frank Davis
Production Co: RKO Radio Pictures Inc.
Genre: Musical
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 30, 1940, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 11, 2008
Runtime: 1h 30m

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