Dancing in the Dark

I adore William Powell, and while this movie is not one of his best he does a fair job of portraying an unlikeable, self-centered has-been. Unfortunately, Betsy Drake fails to rise to his level, even if it isn't one of the highest of his career. It's difficult to imagine that Powell's character would look twice at someone as non-descript as Ms. Drake, with a personality akin to lukewarm oatmeal. This part would have benefitted enormously from a Barbara Stanwyck, or another actress with strength. As it is, there is no sizzle, no logical motivation for the course of action, and no empathy between leads. I hate to admit it, but I could only hang in there for 1/2 of the film, and if I couldn't watch Mr. Powell for the full length of time, I highly doubt that any but a truly crazed fan could. Give it a miss.

This is basically a ninety minute piece of shameful self promotion by 20th Century Fox.

Emery Slade (William Powell) was a great star in films but is now getting on in years and down and out. Nobody wants to work with him because he was always such a self involved jerk and a budget buster when he was on top. Jean Hersholt (as himself) sees Slade on the street one day, and in spite of his bravado, Hersholt sees through it all and can tell he is broke. He brings Slade up to the Actor's Aid society he heads, and this leads to Slade being hired by 20th Century Fox to go to New York and talk the daughter of an old vaudeville partner into coming to work for the studio in their new musical "Bandwagon" (no not THAT Bandwagon). Complications ensue.

The question is - Why is this film here? Fox certainly knew how to make musicals. They made great ones before this and after this movie. This was just not one of them. There is the very odd casting of Betsy Drake as the fabulous new singing sensation. Drake was an OK actress, but she never had much screen presence and was definitely not believable as a musical star. The one musical number is a boring waltz/tableau bit with Betsy Drake's voice obviously dubbed.

What's good about it? Adolphe Menjou as a frustrated Fox producer, Jean Hersholt as himself, and, of course, William Powell in the lead. Powell makes this film with his authentic portrayal of an urbane proud has-been actor whose picture should be next to the word "insufferable" in the dictionary, yet finds himself dropped into the role of righting a past wrong and actually becoming enthusiastic about it.

I have to believe that this was made just to remind the growing TV audience at the time that 20th Century Fox was still out there. You see such rather experimental films at the end of the 1940s that are as ponderous as some of the early sound films were at the end of the 1920s.

I'd recommend this to the William Powell completists out there as his performance was excellent as always.

To the person, I think her name was Blanche, who complained in her first sentence posted here that "Dancing in the Dark" was shot in black and white, I think she might want to get her television checked--the version broadcast on the Fox Movie Channel was in Technicolor. Also, I did not think Betsy Drake was that bad. Neither did Cary Grant. He was married to her at the time--and for the ten years after the movie was released. Ms. Drake's singing, on the other hand, was not so good. She was dubbed with someone else's voice, and it looked like they used a double for her in the dancing scenes as well. Betsy Drake is still among the living, by the way. She is now in London having given up acting to become a writer and a psychologist. Cary Grant left Ms. Drake for Sophia Loren, who, as it happened, would not marry him. She preferred Carlo Ponti.

This is a good film for fans of William Powell, Betsy Drake, Jean Hersholt, and/or films about Hollywood or the road to success. Inspirational in that "we're gonna make it" way, however corny that can be. The plot twists are good, if melodramatic, the "schemes" hatched by the characters to achieve their objectives are clever, and there are some good musical numbers, although these are far fewer than in the musical, "Bandwagon," which is based on the same source. I found it a very pleasant evening's entertainment.

William Powell became exceedingly picky about roles late in his career, so it's a mystery why he chose this one. The guise of a conceited, self-centered has-been movie star gives him no chance to show off his finely honed light comedy style, and his character's conversion to a good sport taxes the talents of even this actor. One of several Hollywood-looks-at-Hollywood mid-budget musicals of the year, it's hampered by 20th Century Fox's relentless self-promotion and too few musical numbers. Even the ones that are there are exceedingly modest, perhaps because Betsy Drake is obviously dubbed and no great shakes as a dancer, either. The feeble screenplay presents her as the answer to the Hollywood musical's prayers, but she comes across as a nice kid who probably shouldn't be in movies. A great Schwartz-Dietz stage score gets trammeled; most of these songs were presented to far better effect a few years hence, in MGM's "The Band Wagon."