DAMES

US, 1935, 90 minutes, Black and white.
Joan Blondell, Hugh Herbert, Guy Kibbee, Zasu Pitts, Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler.
Directed by Ray Enright.

Dames is in the tradition of 42nd Street, Footlight Parade, Gold Diggers of 1933. In fact, it was originally designed as Gold Diggers of 1934. It has the regular Warner Bros case for musicals led by Dick Powell, Joan Blondell and Ruby Keeler. It also has their comedians, especially F. Hugh Herbert and Guy Kibbee, Zasu Pitts.

It is the old story of `the show must go on' but pokes fun, especially in the context of 1934 and the Motion Picture Code and the Legion of Decency, at zealots for purity and sends them up.

While the material is familiar, the significant part of Dames is the choreography by Busby Berkeley. There are elaborate treatments of `I Only Have Eyes For You' as well as the theme song `Dames'. They are some of Busby Berkeley's best. Direction is by Ray Enright.

1. Enjoyable popular 1930s musical? The artificiality of `the show must go on'? The send-up of the characters? The songs and dances? Popular material for the Depression?

2. Warner Bros production, black and white photography? New York atmosphere? Homes, streets, Central Park, ferries? The theatre?

3. The musical numbers, the popularity of the principal songs? Busby Berkeley's visual images, geometry, the beautiful girls, designs?

4. Uncle Ezra and his eccentricity, demanding to see Horace? The Purity League? The inheritance for Horace? The comedy between the two men? The punctual secretary? The trip to New York, the sleeping bodyguard, the difficulty for Horace in finding Mabel in his cabin? Uncle Ezra deciding to stay with the family? His hiccups, the remedy? the serious attitude towards morals, his association, their meetings, their plan to boycott the theatre?

5. Jimmy and Barbara, in love, Jimmy and his swift talk, asking Ezra for the money? The romance between the two? Mabel and her complaints, the producer who almost swindled them? The contact with Horace, persuading him to put up the money? His anxieties and wanting to cover up?

6. The show, the rehearsals, Barbara and her jealousy of Mabel and Jimmy? Her audition? The preparations for the show?

7. The preparations for the demonstration? The family coming to the theatre? The thugs ready to riot? Uncle Ezra and his elixir and its being alcoholic? Its effect on him?

8. The show going on, Mabel and her songs, Barbara and her songs? The elaborate staging? The Busby Berkeley effects? The appreciation of Horace and his wife, of Uncle Ezra?

9. The riot, their being in jail, Matilda coming to get them out, Uncle Ezra saying he had never had so much fun? The spoof on the moral right?

10. Popular themes of the '30s? the influence of this kind of musical on later generations?