Movie: "Dancing Lady" (1933)

Filmed just a few years after "Broadway Melody Of 1929" this movie is a welcome improvement in the genre - I liked "Broadway Melody" but this is much better and not as wooden. Joan Crawford is actually very good in this movie - she plays a dancer who uses her charm and looks to get by in the business and there is something very appealing in her acting,I perfectly understand why she was so popular in her time because there is a humanity in her acting,vulnerability underneath the steel and survival facade. She is teamed with very classy and elegant Franchot Tone (her future husband) and Clark Gable (her lover at the time) and as this was not enough there is a bald skinny guy in his first movie role called Fred Astaire - surprisingly enough,Crawford more than holds her own in her dancing scenes with Astaire and she is actually not bad at all - she could act,dance,flirt,looks great on the screen and definitely had charisma.

In previous post I mentioned Benito Mussolini remembered as embodiment of evil (but he was writing love letters to a movie star he never met) and here we have Joan Crawford remembered today mostly as "Mommie dearest" but if you look at her movies,she was a very good actress indeed.