Dance, Fools, Dance (1931) User Reviews (40)

Joan Goes To Work

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 17 November 2010]

Joan Crawford got to display some of her dancing talents which brought her to films in the first place in Dance Fools Dance. She also was paired for the first time with Clark Gable. Although Gable was sixth down on the billing the impression he made assured that he and Crawford would work together again.

In fact when Dance Fools Dance came out Crawford was already shooting another film, Laughing Sinners with Neil Hamilton and Johnny Mack Brown as her leads. The reviews Gable got made Louis B. Mayer scrap all the footage that had been shot with Brown and Gable was immediately recast in that picture.

Crawford and William Bakewell play a couple of rich kids whose father William Holden loses everything in the Crash of 29 and dies from the shock of it. And I mean he lost everything as the mansion and its furnishings are auctioned off to pay all the debts the estate owes. Both of them have to go to work, Bakewell not all pleased with that prospect.

Joan goes to work for a newspaper, writing sob sister stuff and she proves she has a knack for it. Bakewell on the other hand gets a job with your friendly bootlegger and his boss who is Clark Gable.

At this point the film makes use of the real life incidents of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre and the murder of reporter Jake Lingle in Chicago who covered the gangland beat. Cliff Edwards who plays the reporter does an excellent job, possibly the best acted part next to Gable.

Playing opposite Crawford as her ever faithful boyfriend from the good old rich days is Broadway actor Lester Vail. I looked Vail up on the Broadway Database and he had considerable stage career. He did not do too many films and truth be told he did not register well as a screen presence. No wonder all the talk was about the few scenes Gable and Crawford had together when she went undercover to investigate the murder of her friend and colleague Edwards.

Though it goes over the top in the melodrama toward the end Dance Fools Dance was a significant milestone in the careers of two screen legends.

Primarily for fans of both precode cinema and Joan Crawford

[AlsExGal · 7/10 · 18 April 2010]

This is not a great precode, but it's good enough to keep your interest, particularly if you are fans of Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, or even Cliff Edwards. As others have already mentioned, it is historical for being the initial teaming of Joan Crawford and Clark Gable, although Gable is sixth or seventh billed at this point. Don't expect Gable the gallant cad in this one - here he is pure cad.

The film is largely an unremarkable morality tale about the follies of the very wealthy spoiling their children even into adulthood to the point where they complain about having to "get up in the middle of the night (9 AM) to eat breakfast.", which are the sentiments of the two Jordan children. When Wall Street crashes, dad dies from the shock and Bonnie Jordan (Joan Crawford) and her brother are left penniless. Bonnie chooses to break into newspaper reporting, but her brother chooses a less honest option which brings him into contact with Gable the gangster. After her close friend, reporter Bert Scranton (Cliff Edwards), is shot to death, Bonnie decides to go undercover as a dancer at Gable's nightclub to try to get to the bottom of the murder. She solves the crime, but at great personal cost.

The best parts of this film are watching Joan Crawford in a dance number and watching the great chemistry Crawford and Gable have together. You get bigger doses of Crawford and Gable together in "Possessed", which was made later this same year - 1931. Joan Crawford was already a big star at this point. As for Clark Gable, he has to wait until he manhandles Norma Shearer in "A Free Soul" before he catapults to true stardom.

You got me going, sister

[utgard14 · 5/10 · 3 January 2014]

Bonnie and Rodney Jordan (Joan Crawford, William Bakewell) lose everything in the stock market crash. First their father dies of a heart attack and then they discover why: he lost his entire fortune in the crash. Now broke for the first time, Bonnie and Rodney must go to work. Bonnie gets a job as a reporter. Rodney goes to work for bootlegger Jake Luva (Clark Gable). The two being on opposite sides of the law leads to inevitable conflict.

Middle-of-the-road crime drama will appeal most to fans of Crawford and Gable. It's hardly the best work of either, though. It's a pre-Code film, which sometimes is all you have to say to get some classic film fans interested in a movie. Personally I didn't see anything all that risqué in this one. An early scene of a bunch of people in their underwear going for a swim seems to get the most talk but it's pretty tame despite the description. The story is something that was done many times and better over the years, in one variation or another. The insipid romance between Joan and Lester Vail leaves a lot to be desired.

Crawford holds up melodrama turned gangster picture

[csteidler · 6/10 · 14 February 2012]

The opening scenes of Dance, Fools, Dance paint a picture of spoiled rich kids Joan Crawford and her brother William Bakewell. Neither has apparently completed school or ever done anything worthwhile. Their father—who worked his own way up to wealth from the bottom—is worried. Joan smokes before breakfast; her brother buys liquor by the suitcase. The height of adventure and success for Joan is a yacht party where she boldly talks everyone into skinny dipping (well, stripping down to their underwear) out on the ocean.

The father dies and it turns out he's broke; the picture turns to chapter two, or, How will the spoiled kids survive? –Well, the brother finds work with a bootlegging mob, and Joan gets a job as a cub reporter. (Influential friend of the family helps her out, apparently...no, she's not remotely qualified, but shows a knack for the work right away!) Rather quickly, the brother finds himself over his head in the sordid business of bootlegging...and Joan, eager for a real story instead of the tea parties she's initially assigned to, takes on....you guessed it, the mob.

There's more to it than that, including Joan's sometime boyfriend (Lester Vail), who half-heartedly offers to marry her when her fortune goes kaput and hangs around when she sets off to make her own success; and Cliff Edwards as the veteran reporter who mentors Joan at the paper but hears too much for his own good at a speakeasy.

Clark Gable is riveting as boss gangster Jake Luva; pre-mustache, the swagger is already there. His first scene features a cigarette-lighting routine with girlfriend Natalie Moorhead (excellent in a tiny role as the soon-to-be discarded moll): he blows smoke in her face, she blows out his lighter, and they hold a stare for a lingering shot that speaks more about their characters' relationship than any of their dialog even attempts.

Midway through the story you have a pretty clear idea of where the plot is going to go….but the second half of the picture is still livelier than the first: at least the characters have some purpose in the second half. Crawford is especially good: she is always at the center as the picture revolves through her relationships with the various men in her life—lover, brother, mentor, gangster.

Joan also gets in one good dance—undercover as a chorus girl, she sees her former rich kid friends in the audience and really puts on a number.

No classic as far as plot goes, or dialog…but worth seeing for Crawford's performance.

Research question: How would a 1931 movie audience have been impressed by spoiled rich girl Crawford flashing an electric hair dryer?

A safe trip in a Time Machine to somewhere particularly unsafe

[1930s_Time_Machine · 6/10 · 5 December 2022]

OK, this is far-fetched fiction but it's still frightening to think that this reflected the way things actually were. It's a crazily convoluted story but you can't help but thinking that such choices wouldn't be put into fiction if they weren't even slightly possible. When The Crash came destroying lives, what did people with no training and no work experience do? Organised crime was one easy option: it paid the bills, it kept you from starving, it kept you alive....for a while anyway.

The other option for employment seemingly was to become a journalist - perhaps not such an easy option but unlike her brother's unwise career plan, that's what Joan Crawford's Bonnie does when they become broke. Incidentally, women journalists and women writers, especially in Hollywood, although the exception were not that uncommon. Indeed the writer of this film, Aurania Rouverol, was a noted female playwright.

As a work of fiction, this is perhaps Miss Rouverl's greatest achievement. The plot is quite nonsensical but in the magical hands of Irving Thalberg's team at MGM, you're swept along with this stupid story, accepting it all as perfectly normal.

MGM was the last of the studios to make the switch from silents to sound and as such talking pictures were still a novelty to the studio when this was made. This is very much evident with this. The most sophisticated and classiest silent films were often from MGM and they couldn't abandon that style they'd built up over all those years so easily. Like in the 20s, in this film, faces and expressions are used to tell the story and nobody was better at that than Joan Crawford. The story allows her to really develop her character and her experience one of the leading silent stars ensures first rate acting.

Clark Gable, in one of his very first roles is only swaggering around for about twenty minutes but he makes quite an impact. Although he is a one-dimensional nasty piece of work, he has an electrifying presence. His on-screen (and subsequent off-screen) romance with Miss Crawford also gives this film an authentic undercurrent of sexual tension. This and the overall high standard of acting (much better than in some other offerings from 1931) again helps to keep this crazy plot seem real. Even so, as a motion picture, it doesn't quite hit the mark but is nevertheless still entertaining.

Dancing, fighting, undies, what more could you want?

[timmauk · 16 August 2001]

This is the third Crawford film that I have seen, the others were "Whatever happened to Baby Jane" and "Mildred Pierce". What a beauty she was back then and what a personality too. Much different than the one she would show later in her film career. This movie was a joy to watch.

This is a story about a girl who's wealthy father dies leaving her and brother penniless. She finds a job as a reporter and her brother a job as a bootlegger with the mob. Newcomer Clark Gable plays the head of the mob. Trouble happens and kid brother talks then sister comes running to help, though she has to deal with Gable first. This is the movie that put Gable on the map. It would be the first of nine films they would star together at M-G-M.

The storyline is typical but Crawford and Gable made it good. The supporting cast is good as well. This was Lester Vail's first film(though he only made four more). William Bakewell, playing the brother, was funny when he was telling Bonnie to become a runway model and did that strike a pose! Hello!!

I would recommend this film to anyone who wants a glimpse into Crawford's early work.

Sparks fly when Joan Crawford is briefly being kissed for the first time by Clark Gable in Dance, Fools, Dance

[tavm · 6/10 · 4 January 2013]

Joan Crawford is Bonnie Jordan, an ex-society girl working as a reporter investigating the murder of a fellow worker named Bert Scranton played by future Jiminy Cricket, Cliff Edwards. She goes undercover as a dance hall girl at gangster Jake Luva's joint. Luva is played by Clark Gable, at the time just a working actor but possibly due to his brief kiss with Ms. Crawford, about to become a superstar. In fact, the king of the box office for much of the 30s. The way the camera is stationed as well as the lack of music score reveals the picture's early talkie roots but the expressions of the actors are enough to carry it to still-interesting heights. In summary, Dance, Fools, Dance is still well worth a look for the historical first teaming of Crawford and Gable.

okay early Crawford/Gable gangsta flick

[ksf-2 · 6/10 · 3 April 2008]

Lots of familiar faces in this one - Joan Crawford stars as Bonnie Jordan, with Clark Gable as the gangster Jake Luva. Cliff Edwards is Bert, and a 20 year old Ann Dvorak is still playing chorus-girl parts at this point. Bonnie's brother "Rodney" is played by William Bakewell, much less-well known, but had made 166 films and TV shows, starting in the silents. Even Sam McDaniel, Hattie's brother, plays the butler in this one. You can tell it's pre-code, since they are buying illegal liquor, and having naughty conversations here and there. Dad goes broke in the stock market crash, and the mooching "kids", now adults, must go to work. Their choices of professions give them separate dilemmas, and they both have decisions to make. Joanie does a dance number in Jake's club in this one, to be able to cozy up to him, shocking all her old high-society "friends". Plain and simple story, no real surprises, but a likely-enough gangster plot, I guess. Everyone was heavy on the makeup, and Joan Crawford does her big, obvious facial expressions which had been so necessary in her earlier silent films, but now seem overdone. I didn't see her slap anyone in this film, but I guess she hadn't started that trend yet in 1931. Entertaining film. Crawford and Gable had come a long way since they were both extras in "Merry Widow" 1925.

Terrific Early Crawford Vehicle

[marclay · 8/10 · 27 March 2004]

I disagree strongly with anyone who might dismiss this film as "just" entertainment. Set right after the carefree, roaring 20s, during the early days of the Great Depression, Dance, Fools, Dance is at its heart an earnest cautionary tale, with a clear message about how best to endure these hard times. Yet this fast-paced and tightly-plotted film is far from being a dreary morality tale.

In the 30s, Hollywood had a knack for churning out one entertaining *and* enlightening audience-pleaser after another, all without wasting a frame of film. Dance, Fools, Dance -- one of *four* films that Harry Beaumont directed in 1931 -- is barely 80 minutes long, yet its characters are well developed, its story never seems rushed, and despite its many twists in plot, the audience is never left behind.

With the lone exception of Lester Vail as flaccid love interest Bob Townsend, the supporting cast is uniformly strong. Worthy of note are William Bakewell as Crawford's brother, Cliff Edwards (best known as the voice of Jiminy Cricket) as reporter Bert Scranton, and Clark Gable in an early supporting role as gangster Jake Luva.

But this is Joan Crawford's film, and she absolutely shines in it. Made when she was just 27, this lesser-known version of Crawford will probably be unrecognizable to those more familiar with her later work. However, here is proof that long before she took home an Oscar for Mildred Pierce, Crawford was a star in the true sense of the word, a terrific actress with the charisma to carry a picture all by herself.

Score: EIGHT out of TEN

Love the feminism in this one

[gbill-74877 · 7/10 · 14 February 2020]

The story is simple, but Joan Crawford is one of those empowering roles that are such a feature of the pre-Code era, and you get Clark Gable in just his 3rd film as well. The setup is that a rich family living it up in the roaring 20's go bust with the stock market crash. Not only do they lose everything but the father dies on the exchange floor, leaving behind two kids (Joan Crawford and William Bakewell) who have never held jobs or gotten an education. While the son can't fathom working and would prefer to sit around getting drunk (a nice little critique of the spoiled rich), he eventually gets involved with bootleggers. The daughter, on the other hand, is a plucky young woman who turns down a marriage proposal that would have made her rich, and goes out and becomes a newspaper reporter instead.

You can probably guess what I love about Crawford's character. She's a modern woman who looks great out on the dance floor, believes in "trying love out on approval" (a scene which clearly signals pre-marital sex), and would rather work and be independent than settle for the traditional role of wife. Her brother is incredulous, leading to this exchange:

Bonnie (Crawford): "I'm not going to do any of those stupid, silly, conventional things. You'd be surprised what a girl can earn when she sets her mind to it. I'm no dud." Rodney (Bakewell): "You've got the looks, kid. Trade on 'em. Open up a beauty parlor. ..." Bonnie: "That's your idea of me, huh? Beautiful but dumb. All right, I'll show you. I'm going out to get a man-sized job."

That second dance she does when she's working undercover in the gangster's nightclub to get a story is delightful and evokes the flapper era, but to me the feminism in the film is what makes it a solid film, despite its basic plot. Crawford is not known for her on-screen charm, but she summons it here, and does well in the various aspects of her role - society woman, flapper, newspaper reporter, and love interest (hey, the complete woman). Gable is suitably tough as the gang leader, and he and Crawford have great chemistry together. I didn't care for the contrived confrontation which occurs and how the film ends though, which was really unfortunate, and kept it from a higher rating.

Another quote, from Gable to Crawford after her dance: "You got me going, sister." "Can I depend on it?" "In a big way."

Another 'One Goes Good, One Goes Bad' Story

[ccthemovieman-1 · 5/10 · 25 September 2007]

In one respect, this film was ahead of its time and in another respect a typical story from the classic film era.

It was about 35 years ahead of its time in some of the immoral characters and general sleazy atmosphere - early sleaze, if you will, and it's not bad. It's not great, either, by any stretch of the imagination. A lot of pictures were similar back in the early '30s, right before the Code was instituted. It features many unlikeable characters, low morals and two stars that were, at least to me, unappealing: a young Joan Crawford and a young Clark Gable. Both, for some reason, thought they were big sex symbols back then. Well, Gable made it to that status eight years later as one but Crawford, who always thought she was no matter what age, was never one.

Before he became a star at the end of the decade with "Gone With The Wind," Gable played a lot of sleazy roles himself early in the '30s. This is another, where he's a gangster ("Jake Luva"). He's modeled in here after "Jake Lingle," a real-life gangster from the period who was involved in the famous "St. Valentine's Day Massacre."

Anyway, he and his sister "Bonnie," played by Crawford, go from prosperous to penniless when the stock market crashes in 1929 and their dad is ruined. (He had been financing them.)

Jake then goes the crooked way, and Bonnie goes straight as a reporter. This is was very cliché-ridden and the story was used in similar situations throughout films of the 30s and '40s, often with childhood pals going in opposite directions.

If you are a classic-era film buff, this movie will interest you. Younger audiences will find this film way too dated to be enjoyed. I found myself somewhere in the middle, intrigued at watching these stars when they were young but not enamored with the story.

Mad, silly fun from the Jazz Age!

[David-240 · 10/10 · 1 February 2000]

Don't listen to fuddy-duddy critics on this one, this is a gem! Young rich Joan and her brother find themselves penniless after their father dies - and now they have to work for a living! She, naturally, becomes a reporter, and he, just as naturally, a driver for the mob! By wild co-incidences their careers meet head on, thanks to gangster Clark Gable. In the meantime there is the chance for a moonlight underwear swim for a bunch of pretty young things and for Joan to do a couple of risque dance numbers (with all the grace of a steam-shovel).

But none of this is supposed to be taken seriously - it's all good fun from those wonderful pre-code days, when Hollywood was really naughty. Joan looks great, and displays much of the emotional range that would give her career such longevity (thank God she stopped the dancing!). Gable is remarkable as a slimy gangster - he wasn't a star yet and so didn't have to be the hero. Great to see him playing something different. And William Bakewell is excellent as the poor confused brother. And there are some great montages and tracking shots courtesy of director Harry Beaumont, who moves the piece on with a cracking pace - and an occasional wink to the audience! Great fun!

1931 Pairing of Crawford and Gable Was Good

[tr-83495 · 7/10 · 12 April 2019]

The first pairing of Crawford and Gable is Good.

Both would go on to improve as the talkies continued to get better technically. The film I viewed had an excessive amount of scratches, although it was probably the best print available.

The basic plot of the film needs work. It can't seem to stick to one theme and execute it before moving on to something else.

The hysterical theatrics involved in the film do not necessarily reflect the times as this kind of reaction was only seen in the movies -- as we see here.

Nevertheless, it's good enough to watch, and it's a movie you like despite the ridiculous ending. I guess they had to do it because high society girls had to be saved from the grind of the work day world. The world that all the rest of us inhabit.

Early Joan dancing

[HotToastyRag · 3/10 · 5 June 2019]

If you want to see Joan Crawford when she's young and darling, and you don't want to sit through a silent movie, your best options are Dancing Lady and Dance, Fools, Dance. In both movies, she's paired with Clark Gable, and in both movies she gets to show off her dancing talents in cute tap-dancing numbers in skimpy costumes.

While in Dancing Lady, Joan is a chorus girl who gratefully giggles, "Thank you!" after Clark smacks her bottom, in Dance, Fools, Dance, she detests Clark. She's a newspaper worker under cover to expose the criminal dealings of his bootlegging organization. Clark plays a bad guy in this movie, and you'll even get to see a rare performance without his mustache. He hams it up as a stereotypical gangster, but keep in mind that this is a very early talkie.

Joan dances to the popular tunes "Little White Lies" and "Free and Easy," and gets to play a variety of emotions throughout her role, from society lady to destitute to chorus girl to reporter to ganger's moll. This movie isn't very well known, and it's not as cute as Dancing Lady, but if you're in the mood for a drama, give it a chance.

DLM Warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, like my mom does, this movie might not be your friend. About an hour in, right after Joan Crawford decides to go under cover, there's a scene change that involves a warped image, and the motion will make you sick. In other words, "Don't Look, Mom!"

Not what I expected

[xan-the-crawford-fan · 25 July 2021]

I wasn't sure how to rate this film, so I didn't put a star rating.

At first, I wanted to give it a ten, because I felt that it should be rated higher than it is (worse Crawford films like Mannequin and Johnny Guitar have higher ratings), but it's not a ten film, and even though I AM a fan (admittedly quite an obsessive one), I don't tend to give pity stars (even to Joan Crawford). It's not a bad film, however, and rates higher than Laughing Sinners (which gets a solid 6 from me and was made this same year).

Basically, Joan Crawford's character is rich, and she has a brother, and they are carefree youth who love to party (actually, most silent and Pre-Code Joan Crawford films feature her as a carefree youth who likes to party, but Metero-Goldwyn-Mayer realized she could act and responded to that by typecasting her as a shopgirl). The stock market crashes, and they lose all their money. Then, their father dies and they must get jobs.

A fairly popular theme in 1930s and 1940s films was the "Women can be newspaper people too!" female journalist character in a roomful of ever so slightly sexist men (think Front Page Woman with Bette Davis or His Girl Friday), and that is what Bonnie (Joan Crawford) becomes. Her brother gets into the shady business of selling alcohol during prohibition and becomes part of a gang (by accident). But, oh, Joan shows them she's every bit as good a journalist as any man. She also dances almost the exact same dance she was given to do in Laughing Sinners and Dancing Lady (M-G-M really liked to stick her in ruts, didn't they?), but it works for the part, and Clark Gable notices her. My goodness, Gable is slimy in this film. He was basically stuck in awkward roles (usually slimy gangsters) until he had developed his on-screen persona.

So, after Gable the gangster notices her, she attempts to seduce him to get a lead on her story. She runs into her brother, who is in a lot of trouble by this point, and she gets exposed. Gable and another guy threaten to kill them both, and then there is a three-way shoot-off. If this were a later Gable-Crawford film, Crawford would run to Gable in despair, but seeing as this was their first film together and he wasn't her romantic lead, she rushes to her brother. They all die, but Crawford gets her story and she is hailed as a hero. Of course, this wouldn't be a 1930s film without a stupid happy-sappy ending, and Crawford quits her journalism to go off with the jerky guy she was supposed to be in love with (he was a jerk, they had no chemistry, and Crawford was a rather good, if slightly unethical, journalist).

The nighttime swim isn't honestly that saucy, or risqué, but I'm looking at it through 2021 eyes. And, for the record, I do not find this film as dated as other films I've seen from 1931- and I was born in this century. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned.

All in all, I liked this film, even if Gable was underused. It's good if you want to see young Joan. And no, there is no slapping, I think that became a Crawford trademark in the mid '30s. With the advent of the production code- she slapped Robert Montgomery in No More Ladies (1935).

Gable the Gangster

[view_and_review · 6/10 · 31 August 2022]

Clark Gable was active in 1931. He didn't always have a big part, but he was working. I count thirteen projects he was a part of, of which I've seen seven including this film. He plays Jake Luva in this joint, a bootlegger and a gangster, but he doesn't figure into the picture until about half way through.

The main character is Bonnie Jordan (Joan Crawford). She's a high society girl who's the hit of the party everywhere she goes and is loved or envied by all. She and her brother, Rodney (William Bakewell), hit rock bottom when the stock market crashed and their father died of a heart attack as a result. Bonnie's society friends ditched her fast and feasted on her estate that was put up for auction. After rejecting a proposal from her beau, Robert Townsend (Lester Vail), she used her name to get a job as a reporter for a local paper there in Chicago. She was awful, but she was pretty, so that will always give a girl a chance.

Jake (Gable) entered the picture when Rodney began working for him. Rodney was ex-society and had contacts to sell Jake Luva's booze to. Rodney was doing fine until he had to do more than just sell booze. He got a real wake up call about what working for a gangster meant.

"Dance, Fools, Dance" was a pretty good movie that ended weakly. When I say weakly I mean improbably.

I watched the movie for Gable and had to sift through a lot of Joan Crawford. Joan was an overactor to me. I'd seen her in a few films before this one so I knew what I was getting into. I think too much white of her eyes show which is never a good look. And when she acts distraught it is unbearable. She gets a wild look and starts rubbing her head like she's shampooing. It is so over the top and cartoonish I can't take her seriously. I still sort of liked the movie, so I guess that's something.

2.99 on Amazon Prime.

Crawford And Gable Shine Like Stars

[atlasmb · 6/10 · 10 May 2017]

The first film to pair Joan Crawford and Clark Gable, "Dance, Fools, Dance" is a pre-Code morality tale that is mostly forgettable, but it does contain some noteworthy moments.

Chief among these are the scenes of Crawford where she shows the beauty and fire of her youth. When Gable, playing a bootlegger, is attracted to her raw sexuality, it is believable (by any standards, but especially by the standards of the early thirties; she appears wanton).

Crawford is playing a lady of privilege who, due to the Great Crash, must now make it on her own. But she is not a mere cabaret dancer like Gable thinks.

Crawford's character is, above everything else, proud. She is an individualist and someone who will not marry for other than love, no matter her circumstances. It's the portrait of a character worth watching, but the script undermines this portrayal with its formulaic resolution.

Special kudos to Adrian, the designer who dressed Crawford and so many other MGM actresses in strikingly beautiful creations.

Lots of fun and precode, too

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 14 May 2008]

"Dance, Fools, Dance" is an early Crawford-Gable vehicle from 1931. Crawford plays a Bonnie Jordan, a wealthy young woman whose life consists of parties, booze, and stripping off her clothes to jump from a yacht and go swimming. This all ends when her father dies and leaves her and her brother (William Blakewell) penniless. Bonnie gets a job on a newspaper using the name Mary Smith; her brother goes to work for bootleggers. The head man is Jake Luva - portrayed by Clark Gable as he plays yet another crook. Later, of course, he would turn into a romantic hero, but in the early '30s, MGM used him as a bad guy. Not realizing that her brother is involved in illegal activity, Bonnie cozies up to Luva.

Gable and Crawford made a great team. Her facial expressions are a little on the wild side, but that, along with her dancing, is one of the things that makes the movie fun. Look for Cliff Edwards, the voice of Jiminy Cricket, as Bert.

It's always interesting to see the precode movies, and "Dance, Fools, Dance" is no exception.

Good prohibition drama, utilizing historical facts in a fictional setting.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 25 January 2012]

Joan Crawford and William Bakewell are the spoiled, yet uneducated children of wealthy William Holden (Not the popular matinée idol of the 40's and '50's) who must find other means of supporting themselves when he looses all of his money. Crawford becomes a cub reporter on a big city newspaper while drunkard Bakewell gets involved in bootlegger Clark Gable's racket, seemingly to set him up with wealthy new clients. When Crawford's reporter pal (Cliff Edwards) is spotted investigating a St. Valentine's Day Massacre type assassination on members of a rival gang, Gable forces Bakewell to kill him. Crawford goes undercover to unmask those responsible, wins Gable's confidence, and is horrified by what she discovers.

This quick-moving and entertaining melodrama was MGM's answer to "Little Caesar", "The Public Enemy" and "Scarface", with a woman's angle added to make things a little different. As she did in many of her earlier films (both silent and sound), Crawford dances up a storm, proving herself as one of the best "Jazz Babies" of the late 20's and early 30's. Star-to-be Clark Gable is billed way down in the credits, playing a brutish role that made him extremely unlikable, although his sexiness does show in his scenes with Crawford and the feisty Natalie Moorehead as his moll. In all of his future movies with the future "Mommy Dearest", Gable softened his image and was more the lover rather than the brute man, even though he was still all man. Bakewell, who was a major player in the early 30's (usually cast as insensitive and selfish young men who cause their families a lot of heartache), was never really likable on screen, and in bit parts of the late 30's and 40's, this trait continued as well.

Well-written and excellently photographed, this is one of the films that assured Crawford stardom, making her a major threat to Norma Shearer. (Garbo would be in a category all her own.) There's a lot of pre-code innuendo, some great montages, and a memorable exchange between Natalie Moorehead and Gable involving a lit match.

Crawford and Gable sizzle!

[modern_maiden · 9/10 · 13 March 2003]

This is one of Joan Crawford's best Talkies. It was the first Gable-Crawford pairing, and made it evident to MGM and to audiences that they were a sizzling team, leading the studio to make seven more films with them as co-stars.

The film convincingly depicts the downward slide of a brother and sister who, after their father loses everything in the stock market crash, must fend for themselves and work for a living. Life is hard in the Depression, and soon even their attempts at finding legitimate work prove futile, and they resort to underworld activity.

Joan Crawford is excellent as the socialite-turned-moll. She's smart, complex, and believable. She even tempers the theatrical stiffness of the other actors' early Talkie acting style. Clark Gable is a diamond-in-the rough, masculine and gruff as the no-nonsense gangster who becomes involved with Crawford's character. The same year he would play a similar and even more successful role opposite Norma Shearer in "A Free Soul", securing his position as top male sex symbol at MGM.

If you like Crawford in this type of role, don't miss "Paid", which she did a year earlier, which is also among her best early Talkie performances.

I Pity the Dancing Fool

[mmallon4 · 7/10 · 8 October 2017]

Dance, Fools, Dance begins with a party onboard on yacht in which the younglings jump off the boat for a late night swim in their underwear while the older men are ignorant of a possible fall in stocks and the idea of forthcoming great depression; the last days of the carefree, roaring twenties seen through the lens of 1931.

Bonnie Jordan (Joan Crawford) and her brother Rodney (William Bakewell) are young, glamorous people who never worked a day in their life and show no resentment for it either, from a father who doesn't want his children to have the hard time he had. They don't exactly mourn over the death of their father but the loss of their fortune following the stock market crash is the tragedy which gets a reaction out of them. Regardless Bonnie deals with the loss of their fortune surprisingly well and accepts the fault of being left nothing from their father because she and her brother didn't finish school. This is the crux of the character and what makes her interesting. She doesn't choose the easy way out of getting married to a wealthy man even though the opportunity comes to her but rather desires the thrill to make it on her own as she herself later puts it.

I don't believe many people are aware of just how endearing Crawford was in her younger, pre-shoulder pad days. In Dance, Fools, Dance she exemplifies a working-class heroine with an aura of refreshingly simple, straightforward bravery which really makes you route for her character; plus there is the joy of watching her flex her dancing talents.

Clark Gable is a mere 5th on the cast list, even William Holden (no, not that one) is higher than him but his introductory scene is hard to forget. The downbeat piano music as one of his servants puts a blazer on him as he then blows smoke in a woman's face; tells you everything you need to know without a spoken word. Likewise, Bonnie's brother Rodney is a memorable character himself as someone who is shocked by the criminal underworld where his alcohol came from before the depression after taking his supply of booze for granted for so long. Likewise, the other great cast member is Cliff Edwards as Bert Scranton who makes for an endearing comic sidekick and mentor to Bonnie.

Dance, Fools Dance isn't quite a great film, its concept could be fleshed out and explored to a greater degree and would have been ripe for a remake (and maybe a title that wouldn't sound like something a James Bond villain would say). Although even at that despite the film being imperfect it would still be hard to top with that endearingly creaky, early 30's, pre-code charm.

One of Crawford's better films.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 8 December 2019]

When the story begins, life is great for Bonnie (Joan Crawford) and Rodney Jordan. Their father is rich and they epitomize the Flapper generation....with wild parties and a lifestyle that says there is no tomorrow. However, there is a tomorrow....the Great Depression...and soon the Jordan family is wiped out financially. Fortunately, Bonnie has more strength than you'd expect and she obtains a job working for a newpaper. As for Rodney, he's a weak, spineless young man...and soon falls in with the wrong crowd...led by the criminal, Jake Luva (Clark Gable). And, now the paths of the siblings will once again cross as Bonnie goes undercover to infiltrate the Luva gang.

While the film may not be the most believable plot, it is highly entertaining. There are enough interesting plot twists to keep you awake and interested, as well as some raunchy Pre-Code dialog that might surprise a few folks today. Well worth seeing and exciting.

Get a job?!

[AAdaSC · 7/10 · 22 June 2019]

Joan Crawford (Bonnie) and William Bakewell (Rodney) are rich kids who like to party. They light up infront of their father at breakfast. They are cool. However, daddy William Holden dies and leaves them with nothing. This means they encounter the worst situation that can possibly happen, namely, the realization that they have to get a job. What a disaster. I really sympathized with them at this point. What a way to waste your life.

So, Crawford uses her connections to get a job with a newspaper where she forms a close working alliance with fellow journalist Cliff Edwards (Bert). Brother Bakewell thrives by using his connections to sell illegal booze. Good for those connections. It's good to see that a lifetime of partying can pay off. Bakewell heads into the dangerous gangland territory headed by Clark Gable (Jake) and this leads to brother and sister crossing paths once more, only this time they are not in swimsuits. It's an entertaining story and film.

The cast are good although Crawford is given a boyfriend who outstays his welcome in the film. She also gets to show us some dance moves - didn't expect that feather to her bow.

I guess the moral of the story is don't get a job.

Slap him again, Clark!!

[SkippyDevereaux · 24 February 2001]

A very good film by MGM back in 1930--this one is non-stop viewing. It was nice to see Clark Gable in a non-hero role and once again, great acting by Gable and Joan Crawford. One scene that stands out for me, is where Clark Gable slaps William Bakewell in the face. Now, I don't know if Bakewell actually got hit in the kisser, but his facial expression sure looked like he did!! This film is not dated at all--it is that good of a film. Very good movie all around.

Or Go To Work

[boblipton · 7/10 · 8 December 2019]

William Holden -- the other one -- collapses on the floor of the Stock Exchange on Black Thursday, wiped out. His spoiled children, Joan Crawford and William Bakewell, watch as the house gets auctioned off. Joan squares her unpadded shoulders, gets a job on a newspaper, and works her way up from covering poultry shows to crime with the help of Cliff Edwards. William gets a job with gangster Clark Gable, selling booze to his society friends. Then comes the St. Valentine's Day Massacre -- this is out of order, and fictionalized. Edwards goes snooping for a story, worms one out of Bakewell, and is rubbed out for his troubles.

It's a handsomely shot pre-code movie, with sexuality freely on display, if symbolically indicated: Natalie Moorhead blowing out Gable's lit match, for example, the way some of the shots of Miss Crawford dancing are entirely below the waist. Under-rated director Harry Beaumont applies his magic, building up Miss Crawford's star, and she's about 80% of the movie, shot so she looks big, even though her 63 inches are small among the six-footers. The movie indicates the coming changes in her star personna, wild society deb, good working girl and works very well throughout.