Singin' and Dancing Back in Time.: Dames(1934)

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Dames(1934)

Dames(1934) Director: Ray Enright with dance numbers created by Busby Berkeley. Cast: Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Joan Blondell, Guy Kibbee, ZaSu Pitts, and Hugh Herbert. Production numbers and songs include "When You Were a Smile on Your Mother's Lips (and a Twinkle in Your Daddy's Eye)", "The Girl at the Ironing Board", "I Only Have Eyes for You", "Dames" and "Try to See It My Way".

Multimillionaire Ezra Ounce, wants to make sure that his fortune will be inherited by deserving relatives, so he visits his cousin, Matilda Hemingway in New York City.
Ounce, is offended by the musical comedy shows and finds that Matilda's daughter, Barbara, is a dancer and singer in love with another singer and songwriter, her 13th cousin, Jimmy Higgens the family's black sheep.

Matilda's husband, Horace meets a showgirl Mabel, who's been stranded in Schenectady when her show folds, and talks her into sleeping in Horace's train compartment to get back home. Not wanting to be involved in scandal, he leaves her some money and a note asking her to keep quite. Will Mabel keep his secret?

I thought the film Dames, was wonderful entertainment and loved all the dance numbers. Although... I did not think this was Ruby Keeler's best performance. DAMES, is the fourth and final Powell-Keeler-Berkeley collaboration. Pitts, Kibbee and Herbert fit their characters perfectly.

Soundtracks:
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"Dames"
(uncredited)
Music by Harry Warren (1934)
Lyrics by Al Dubin (1934)
Played during the opening credits
Danced to by Ruby Keeler at rehearsal
Sung by Dick Powell and chorus in the show
Played as background music often

"I Only Have Eyes for You"
(uncredited)
Music by Harry Warren (1934)
Lyrics by Al Dubin (1934)
Sung by Dick Powell on the ferry
Reprised by Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler and chorus in the show
Played as background music often

"Shuffle Off to Buffalo"
(uncredited)
Music by Harry Warren (1932)
Lyrics by Al Dubin (1932)
Played as background music when the scene is in Buffalo, New York
Reprised by the chorus in the show

"When You Were a Smile on Your Mother's Lips (and a Twinkle in Your Daddy's Eye)"
(uncredited)
Music by Sammy Fain (1934)
Lyrics by Irving Kahal (1934)
Sung by Dick Powell

"Try to See It My Way"
(uncredited)
Music by Allie Wrubel (1934)
Lyrics by Mort Dixon (1934)
Sung by Dick Powell
Reprised by Joan Blondell and chorus in the show

"The Girl at the Ironing Board"
(uncredited)
Music by Harry Warren (1934)
Lyrics by Al Dubin (1934)
Sung by Joan Blondell in the show

"My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean"
(uncredited)
Traditional
Sung by chorus with modified lyrics during "The Girl at the Ironing Board" number

"Frühlingslied (Spring Song)"
(uncredited)
Music by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
Played briefly during "The Girl at the Ironing Board" sequence

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Bob Fosse

Was a musical theater choreographer and director, screenwriter and film director. He won an eight Tony Awards for choreography, as well as one for direction. He was nominated for an Academy Award four times, winning for his direction of Cabaret. He was identified with his third wife, Gwen Verdon. She was both the dancer/collaborator who he choreographed much of his work and, together with dancer/choreographer Ann Reinking, a guardian of the Fosse legacy after his death. Fosse is considered to be one the most influential coreographers of the 20th Century.

Esther Williams.

JANE POWELL

After rising to fame as a singer in her home state of Oregon, Powell was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer while still in her teens. Once there, the studio utilized her vocal, dancing and acting talents, casting her in such musicals as Royal Wedding, with Fred Astaire, A Date with Judy, with friend Elizabeth Taylor and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, with Howard Keel. In the late 1950s, her film career slowed, only to be replaced with a busy theater and television career.Click picture to enter websight.

Jeanette MacDonald

Singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier (Love Me Tonight, The Merry Widow) and Nelson Eddy (Naughty Marietta, Rose-Marie, and Maytime). During the 1930s and 1940s she starred in 29 feature films, four nominated for Best Picture Oscars (The Love Parade, One Hour With You, Naughty Marietta and San Francisco), and recorded extensively, earning three gold records. She later appeared in grand opera, concerts, radio, and television. MacDonald was one of most influential sopranos of the 20th century. Click picture to view fan website.

Joan Crawford.

Click picture to view website. Joan Crawford, born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre. Starting as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway, Crawford was signed to a motion picture contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925. Initially frustrated by the size and quality of her parts, Crawford began a campaign of self-publicity and became nationally known as a flapper by the end of the 1920s. In the 1930s, Crawford's fame rivaled MGM colleagues Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo. Crawford often played hardworking young women who find romance and financial success. These "rags-to-riches" stories were well-received by Depression-era audiences and were popular with women. Crawford became one of Hollywood's most prominent movie stars and one of the highest paid women in the United States, but her films began losing money and by the end of the 1930s

Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Richard Rodgers (1902 – 1979) and Oscar Hammerstein II (1895 – 1960) the songwriting duo, on our musical page. They created many popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age. With Rodgers composing the music and Hammerstein writing the lyrics, five of their shows, Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I and The Sound of Music. They won thirty-four Tony Awards, fifteen Academy Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, and two Grammys. Click picture to read movie reviews.

Cab Calloway

Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the United States' most popular African American big bands from the start of the 1930s through the late 1940s. Calloway's band featured performers including trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Adolphus "Doc" Cheatham, saxophonists Ben Webster and Leon "Chu" Berry, New Orleans guitar ace Danny Barker, and bassist Milt Hinton. Calloway continued to perform until his death in 1994 at the age of 86 .Click picture to view official website.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Dames(1934)

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