Dance, Fools, Dance (1931)
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54% of users liked it
(101 ratings)
Joan Crawford and William Bakewell play the spoiled-rotten grown children of stockbroker William Holden. When Wall Street lays its famous egg in 1929, Crawford and Bakewell find that they can no longer pursue their flamboyant lifestyle (for example, they'll have to put a moratorium on the sort… More Joan Crawford and William Bakewell play the spoiled-rotten grown children of stockbroker William Holden. When Wall Street lays its famous egg in 1929, Crawford and Bakewell find that they can no longer pursue their flamboyant lifestyle (for example, they'll have to put a moratorium on the sort of "lingerie parties" with which this film opens). Crawford gets a newspaper job, while Bakewell ties up with vicious bootlegger Clark Gable. When Gable is implicated in the murder of seven gangsters (a transparent reenactment of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre), Crawford's fellow reporter Cliff Edwards gets proof of Gable's complicity. Bakewell is ordered to kill Edwards; Crawford, not knowing of her brother's actions, takes Edwards' place, wooing Gable in hopes of getting a scoop. When Gable finds out that Crawford's working undercover (so to speak), he prepares to rub her out, but her life is saved by Bakewell at the cost of his own. Compared to the rest of the stick-figure leading men in Dance Fools Dance, Clark Gable stood out like a testosterone-soaked thumb, and it wouldn't be long before he'd be promoted from villains to heroes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Directed By
- Harry Beaumont
- Written By
- E. Richard Schayer, Aurania Rouverol
- Genres
- Mystery & Suspense, Drama
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- Feb 21, 1931 Wide
- Studio
- Unknown
Critic Reviews
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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.
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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
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Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Briskly made pre-Code melodrama.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
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Cast
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Joan Crawford
as Bonnie Jordan
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Cliff Edwards
as Bert Scranton
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William Bakewell
as Rodney Jordan
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William Holden
as Stanley Jordan
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Clark Gable
as Jake Luva
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Earl Foxe
as Wally Baxter
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Purnell Pratt
as Parker
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Hale Hamilton
as Selby
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Natalie Moorhead
as Della
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Joan Marsh
as Sylvia
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Russell Hopton
as Whitey
- Clara Blandick
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James Donlan
as Police Reporter
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Sherry Hall
as Reporter
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Robert Livingston
as Jack a Hood
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Harry Semels
as Dance Extra
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Lester Vail
as Bob Townsend
