Go Into Your Dance

"He doesn't even know I am alive...he thinks I am a kid or something" (Ruby Keeler in "Go Into Your Dance", who, incidentally married Jolson in real life when she was 18 and he was well into his 40s)

"Go Into Your Dance" is a highly flawed movie and the main character, Al (Al Jolson), is an oddly written guy--and it makes you wonder WHAT the writer was thinking! After all, he plays a successful Broadway star (what a stretch!) who is a jerk. Again and again, when he has a successful show he gets bored and simply walks away...leaving everyone in a lurch. This makes his character a seriously bad person...leaving backers and actors to be ruined simply because he gets bored! Well, by the time this film starts, he's once again disappeared and is down in Mexico having a good time...and he's burned about every possible bridge. So, when he has an idea about putting on a new show, backers are naturally unexcited about it. And this gets me to the HUGE problem with the film...the audience watching this picture also feels the same way---Al is a jerk and you DON'T want to see him succeed. Why would Jolson agree to make this film as it makes him look awful...just as terrible as the guy Ruby Keeler used to say he was like off stage!?

What you get in this film is pretty much what you'd expect otherwise. Jolson sings a lot and there are a lot of production numbers. And, unfortunately, Al gets the break he simply doesn't deserve. But what does he do with it? See the film.

I noticed that I am one of the few reviewers who thought the movie was fatally flawed. Obviously the other viewers could look past Al's nasty history of ditching shows because he got bored. They also apparently could look past Jolson doing a black-face number-- something he was famous for over the course of his career. As for me, the film was a decent time-passer and no more. It did end well and got better as the film progressed. I also noticed that a lot of the actors yelled their lines--particularly Barton MacLane and Ruby Keeler. Oddly, Patsy Kelly didn't!

Broadway headliner Al Howard (Al Jolson) is known for taking off in the middle of a show and going on a bender, maybe not to return for days or weeks later. He does it one time too often and the Broadway producers get together and agree to never hire him again for causing so much financial loss over time.

His sister. Molly (Glenda Farrell) finds Al in Mexico, sobers him up, and gives him the news. He doesn't take it seriously at first, but then when he can't get another job he sees the direness of the situation. His sister gets him a partner - dancer Dot Wayne (Ruby Keeler) and he is able to get a spot in a revue based on the good reputation of Dot.

But then Al decides he wants to headline once again, so he gets the financial backing for his own Broadway show. Unfortunately, the only place he can get that money is from gangster Duke Hutchinson (Barton McLane). Even more unfortunately, the Duke's wife (Helen Morgan) and Al start playing around under the Duke's nose. Meanwhile, Dot has started to fall for Al, but he thinks of her as a kid. Complications ensue.

This turned out to be better than I at first anticipated, with lots of good numbers by Jolson with the standout being "A Quarter To Nine" and subplots that include a gangster angle and even a murder mystery involving someone who is wrongfully accused. There's also a short number that may have inspired Buster Keaton a year later. In it, Al is testing Dot's assertion that she can dance to any music. He plays a highland fling, a Russian song, and other international tunes in rapid succession as she tries to keep up. Keaton did something similar in one of his best sound shorts "Grand Slam Opera" in 1936.

With Patsy Kelly as a vaudevillian who keeps popping up and who badly wants to team with Al, and with baddy Barton McLane and Glenda Farrell in their first film together but not interacting at all, this is worth your time if you appreciate the Warner musicals of the 30s. And it's not even hampered that much by the onset of the production code.

This is one of the underrated musicals of the 1930s. But it has a lot going for it, most notably the electric performance of one of the greatest entertainers before microphones, Al Jolson. Jolson demonstrates in this film why he could have audiences in the palm of his hand---the power of his voice and the awesome reach of his personality come across on the screen as they must have in a vaudeville house or on the musical comedy stage. Ruby Keeler is also fine as the femme fatale, dancing with great style (though the film could have profited from the talents of a master choreographer like Busby Berkeley!). And Barton MacLane is grand as the heavy. The songs by Harry Warren and Al Dubin are charming and winning, especially such jewels as "She's a Latin From Manhattan," "About a Quarter To Nine," and the title song. In all, a winning little film.

I watched this last evening. Honestly, I believe that other reviewers are overrating this one, as compared with some of the great Warners backstage musicals; however, it is a pleasant hour-plus entertainment; and Jolson gives one of his few (somewhat)underplayed performances. (This probably ranks after Hallelujah, I'm a Bum; though his supporting roles In Swanee River and Rose of Washington Square show him off to good advantage, largely because he doesn't dominate the film.) As noted by others, it's a typical Jolson plot, less maudlin than most others, except at the close when Ruby Keeler does a near-death scene. (Well, at least she was a first-rate tap dancer.) I couldn't help noticing that in this film, Jolson's character is called "the world's greatest entertainer". Ruby Keeler, his wife for seven or eight years, is said to have remarked: "I know he was the world's greatest entertainer; he told me so every day." Incidentally, in my film history course, I always included the Jolson night club number from The Jazz Singer. Even the younger generation was impressed by the way his dynamic personality almost jumps off the screen; perhaps that was the screen appearance that showed him off to best advantage at the peak of his Broadway career.

"Go Into Your Dance" was a terrific movie in the sense of movie historical value. Jolson and Keeler were not really known as good actors. Jolson and Keeler were at their best as entertainers. Jolson's singing and Keeler's dancing. The greatest part of this film is are the musical numbers. And historically, the fact that it was the only film in which husband and wife Jolson and Keeler ever appeared together. Many of the songs in which Keeler was in were way before my time. Yet I remember them from watching the old Warner Brothers cartoons when I was a kid. It was great finally seeing where they actually came from. I only wish that "Go Into Your Dance" was available on DVD.