WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Stephan Hammond It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Lee Eisenberg Warner Bros. spent much of the 1930s as the studio that turned out gangster-themed movies (and launched the Looney Tunes later in the decade). It was a surprise to learn that the studio known for Humphrey Bogart and Bugs Bunny also made "Dames", the sort of musical for which MGM was usually known.What I like about this movie is that it shows puritanical people as regressive lunatics (they really are). I just wish that they had done so without all the musical numbers. Seriously, the whole thing is a happy-go-lucky ego trip. If you ask me, the best kind of musicals - aside from the Beatles' movies - are satirical ones: the musical versions of "Reefer Madness" and "The Evil Dead".As for this one, I took the time to look for strings holding up the clothes during the "Girl at the Ironing Board" sequence (and I could make out a few of them).Basically, it's not the sort of movie that I recommend.

dimplet Sid Caesar was 12 when Dames came out in 1934. I wonder if he saw it? There is a remarkable similarity between Hugh Herbert and Caesar, both in their facial expressions, especially the eyebrows, and their rapid fire, staccato delivery. Was Herbert a model for Caesar?While Dames is an obvious knock off of 42nd Street in cast and in basic plot elements, Dames is a surreal comedy, in the vein of some W.C. Fields movies of the era, while 42nd is a noir realist drama. The third in this triptych of theme, cast and musical theme and variations is Gold Diggers of 1935. And they are all Busby Berkley musicals from the rebel studio Warner Brothers, a few years before MGM established its franchise for classy but wholesome musicals with The Great Ziegfeld in 1936. It is safe to say Robert Z. Leonard out Busby'd Berkley with incredible spectacles like A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody. But this was based on an actual Flo Ziegfeld stage production, though with more space and money. So presumably Berkley's productions were a sort of adaption of Ziegfeld's Broadway spectacles to the screen. There seems to be a circle of inspiration and iration here between Berkley and Ziegfeld, Warner Brothers and MGM. I say surreal because how else would you describe breaking into song on the Staten Island ferry and then a string ensemble appearing on deck to accompany him? Several of the musical numbers morph between the stage, "actual" street and subway scenes, and back to the stage, all while the real audience is in the movie theater, of course. Compare this to W.C. Field's International House (with a crazed Cab Calloway directing Reefer Man), and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, which bend reality into a pretzel. You might add Herbert's Hellzapoppin', which is to reality what Easy Rider is to the AAA. There were some rather odd movies made back then.Dames is not a great movie, but it does have a place in the evolution of musicals. At first, directors felt they needed some excuse in the plot to get the actors onto the stage to sing, or at least have them play professional actors/singers. But once you move the musical away from stark reality, bursting into song, as on the ferry, no longer seems to odd. Watch Dames before 42nd Street and it will make 42nd look better. The weakness in both is the stylized early 30s acting. Compared to good modern acting 42nd looks weak, but compared to Dames, it looks fine.When I think of musicals, I naturally think of MGM. And when I think Warner, I think of James Cagney type crime dramas. Yet, if you look at the record, Warner did some of the best musicals, like The Wizard of Oz, Yankee Doodle Dandy (with a wonderful singing-dancing Cagney), Show Boat, Singin' in the Rain, The Music Man and Caberet, musicals that stand the test of time, artistically, as well or better than MGM's. As a footnote, Caesar lives in a little town just outside NYC that Ziegfeld and Fields and Fitzgerald once called home.

zardoz-13 "Dames" is another vintage Warner Brothers' Broadway dance musical about the show that must go on in spite of the circumstances. Several show-stopping musical numbers occur during the last half-hour with Busby Berkeley orchestrating them with his own distinctive trademark movements. Director Ray Enright keeps the action moving at a snappy pace. Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler are the couple here to watch while Joan Blondell has a field day as a sexy theater girl who isn't beneath blackmail. Guy Kibbee is the sympathetic schmuck caught between Blondell's conniving blonde and Hugh Herbert's moral stalwart. The theme of censorship runs throughout Delmar Daves's predictable but interesting screenplay. Of course, you want to see Dick Powell succeed, but you feel sorry for poor Guy Kiddee. Happily, "Dames" serves up a happily-ever-after ending. You also get the feeling that something isn't right with the upstanding moral stalwart who wants to demolish dens of depravity. Once you see what he guzzles to rid himself of the hiccups, you'll laugh. As the primary villain, screwball multi-millionaire Erza Ounce emerges as a figure of derision. You'll get a hint of this while he is traveling by train and tries to walk past a fat woman and accidentally—or so he contends—trips on her and sits on her lap momentarily.When he isn't fighting an uphill battle to land a role in a Broadway musical, singer Jimmy Higgens (Dick Powell) romances Barbara Hemingway (Ruby Keller of "42nd Street") who turns out to be his thirteenth cousin. The dramatic conflict grows out of the clash between prudish tycoon Ezra Ounce (Hugh Herbert) who abhors the stage and Higgens who has labeled him the black sheep of the family. Nevertheless, Jimmy is desperate to break into Broadway, even if he has to come up with his own book. Uncle Ezra has decided to divide up his $35 million fortune. He plans to give $10-million to Horace Hemingway (Guy Kibbee of "Captain Blood"), but Horace must measure up to Ezra's high moral standards.Meanwhile, Horace is married to Mathilda (Zasu Pitts of "Mr. Skitch"), and they sleep in separate bedrooms as was the standard in Hollywood during the 1930s. Ezra is such a prude that he doesn't trust women and refuses to let them enter his bedroom. He resides in Buffalo, New York, and presides over three major businesses: The Buffalo Security Bank, St. Lawrence Waterways, Ltd., and the Empire Insurance Company of Buffalo. Horace visits Ezra in Buffalo and they take the train to New York. During the train ride, a career oriented hoofer, Mabel Anderson (Joan Blondell of "The Public Enemy"), sneaks into Horace's sleeping compartment. How Mabel gained access to Horace's compartment is never explained. This is just a complication to add another character to the story. Actually, it constitutes a flaw in the otherwise flawless plotting. Naturally, Horace is mortified and doubly so because Ezra will disown him when he discovers his adulterous behavior. Horace manages to bribe Mabel with a hundred dollar bill.Meanwhile, Jimmy and his collaborators, songwriters Jonathan Harris (Phil Regan) and Buttercup Balmer (Sammy Fain), give Broadway producer Harold Ellsworthy Todd (Berton Churchill of "Stagecoach") a rendition of their music. Todd raves about the music and their youth. He hands Jimmy a check for $5000 at about the same time that Mabel saunters into the office. Mabel reviles Todd for the cheapskate pr0oducer that he is and he flees. Mabel wants to know more about Jimmy's song and dance musical, much to the chagrin of Barbara. Jimmy runs Barbara, Jonathan, and Balmer out of the office and plays her a number. Mabel decides to revisit poor Horace. As Horace, his wife, and Ezra are about to retire for the evening, Horace enters his bedroom and finds Mabel tucked into bed awaiting his arrival. She threatens to scream if he doesn't fork over $20-thousand. Ezra and Matilda hear a fragment of the scream and Horace tells them that it was his water pipes singing. Ultimately, despite all his bickering with Mabel, Horace winds up giving her $25-thousand. Imagine Horace's surprise when he learns later that Barbara will appear in the show.As it turns out, Ezra suffers from a bad case of the hiccups. He has everybody scrambling around New York trying to find him Dr. Silver's Golden Elixir that will cure him. The first bottle contains a hefty percentage of alcohol and later bottles contain even more alcohol. When Jimmy's show opens, Barbara cannot make it in time to perform the musical numbers so Mabel steps into her place. The number with Mabel singing to clothing hanging on a clothesline outdoors is amusing and innovative. Meantime, Ezra brings an army of well-dressed henchmen to the play to break it up when he finds it intolerable. The signal for them to rush the stage is when Ezra waves a handkerchief. Bulger, Erza's bodyguard, brings more bottles of Dr. Silver's magical elixir, and Ezra gets so stinking that he forgets his own plan. At one point, Mabel waves her scarf at him from the stage and Ezra responds with his handkerchief and his henchmen disrupt the play. Everybody but Jimmy and Barbara wind up behind bars, but Ezra has changed his mind and doesn't want to reform society."Dames" is an above-average, but predictable dance comedy.

writers_reign This was the fifth musical in two years since Warners revitalized the genre with 42nd Street and the fact is that whatever your preference the chances are this will probably satisfy it; for example if you're a fan of songwriters then you have not only the highly successful team of Harry Warren and Al Dubin but also an arguably less successful team in Sammy Fain and Irving Kahal (although we shouldn't forget that they came up with two smash hits, I'll Be Seeing You and I Can Dream, Can't I) in one show (Right This Way, 1938) and for good measure old timer Mort Dixon weighs in with a number. If, on the other hand you're an aficionado of character actors look no further because here you'll find F. Hugh Herbert, Guy Kibbee and Zazu Pitts strutting their stuff and as if that weren't enough you have the great Joan Blondell wisecracking her way through the script and unleashing a production number to boot. On the other hand you will have to endure the Singing Sweat Gland, Dick Powell, to say nothing of the clod-hopping Ruby Keeler. Ah well, you win some, you lose some.