DANCE, GIRL, DANCE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 78, 20 December 1940, Page 16

DANCE, GIRL, DANCE

(RKO)

S I had occasion to remark the other week, Hollywood has recently recognised the existence of ballet. It happens again in "Dance, Girl, Dance."

But this time ballet has some strong opposition from, of all things " burlesque" (or, as it is perhaps better known, "strip tease"). Indeed, the whole theme of the film is the competition between a ballet dancer (Maureen O’Hara) and a "burlesque artist" (Lucille Ball) for the affections of a rich, unreliable young man (Louis Hayward). At the risk of seeming to possess a low brow (or even worse, a low mind) I must say that my interest all the way through was with the strip-teasing Miss Ball. But then the rather simpering sweetness of Miss O’Hara’s role never has a chance by contrast with the latter’s high spirits and frank vulgarity. Lucille Ball would dominate any company. She is the nearest approach to Jean Harlow since the original died. In the story, of course, it is obvious that virtue, as personified by Miss O’Hara, will eventually emerge triumphant, but Miss Ball gives everybody a run for his money and does not come out of it so badly. The story of "Dance, Girl, Dance" was written by Vicki Baum. Its chief feature, apart from the ballet v. burlesque motif and the scope given to Miss Ball to exhibit her personality, is the bewildering number of divorces, desertions, and re-marriages which it contains. Husbands and wives are tossed away so freely and nonchalantly (Continued on next page)