“The most prominent female director in classic Hollywood, Dorothy Arzner, made this musical drama about the depredations of the male gaze, decades before the term was coined (by Laura Mulvey). It stars Maureen O’Hara as a serious but poor ballet student named Judy, who, to make a living, joins a bump-and-grind burlesque show. The troupe’s brassy longtime hoofer, Bubbles (Lucille Ball), steals a job from Judy and plays a cruel trick to make her the butt of the slobbering male audience’s ridicule. The drama involves the sexual freedom flaunted by Bubbles and the sexual harassment endured by Judy. Arzner also looks candidly at the indignities endured by women during their burlesque performances—and turns a remarkably frank and disgusted spotlight onto the male spectators who ravenously stare at female flesh to feed their fantasies. The film also features plenty of dance itself—centered on the discipline and exaltation of ballet and the ennobling delights of inspired choreography—which Arzner films, lovingly and probingly, with a connoisseur’s eye.” - Richard Brody, The New Yorker
Released: 1940
Run time: 90 min.
View DANCE, GIRL, DANCE Trailer
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