Dance, Girl, Dance by Dorothy Arzner was a fabulous film starring Maureen O'Hara and Lucielle Ball. Maureen plays Judy, a women who's dream is to become a great dancer and Lucielle Ball, plays Bubbles, a dancer who is more concerned with money and men. The two dance together in a dance academy until Bubbles gets her big break and is hired as a hula dancer for $25.00 a week. Once at her new job, she is discovered and becomes a burlesque dancer and the star of the show, and changes her name to Tiger Lily.
Bubbles is rather mean and stuck up to her supposed friends,including Judy and is very competitive and full of herself. In the opening scene both Judy and Bubbles fall for the same guy and he ends up leaving with Bubbles. Judy is hurt and a bit jealous of Bubble's ability to capture the male gaze and attention. Bubbles is constantly showing off and going out with different guys. One day, Bubbles returns to the dance academy and offers Judy a job doing burlesque. Judy at first denies the offer but being out of work and in need of the money, she accepts and at her first night she goes on stage in a ballerina costume and the audience heckles her to get off stage and bring Tiger Lily back and that is when she realizes that she was hired to be Bubble's stooge. At first she decides to quit but when Bubbles comments that Judy couldn't be a stooge Judy agrees to stay on just to prove to Bubbles that she could do it.
Arzner shows the femine struggle within the two women and it is intersting that given the time period of when this film was made, that Arzner made it a point to shift the male gaze with the scene towards the end of the film where Judy is on stage and the men are heckling her and she stops and addresses them as though they should be ashamed of being there.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/03/movies/homevideo/03dvd.html?ex=1341115200&en=a606eb8d6c97054e&ei=5088&partner=rssn
http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=65302
http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=65302
1 comment:
I enjoyed reading your blog. It is difficult to comment on such a professional blog. Don't be afraid to be more opinionated. I think that Bubbles really did help out her friend Judy. And remember when she paid for her former girlfriends' outstanding rent money, but she did not want them to find out? So even though I agree with you that Bubbles is full of herself, she does have some humanity in her. I liked Bubbles. Her character is similar to a man who always acts real macho around others but deep down is a nice person.
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