Dancin' Thru The Dark This is based on Willy Russell's play "Stags and Hens".
Linda is an intelligent girl who is getting married the following day. She and her friends go on a hen night, while at the same time her simpleton of a fiancé is having his stag night. They all end up at a club where there is a rock band from London playing. The rock band is fronted by Linda's ex-boyfriend...
For those of us who come from humble origins and have escaped to loftier heights, we notice that there are really no powers from on high that press the lower classes to keep them in their place. There is no need for that: the lower classes keep themselves in place. Willy Russell has observed what I have observed. Anyone who tries to break the class barrier is held back by an intense amount of peer group pressure. And we see it in action in this film - in all its sordid detail. Willy Russell returns to this theme again and again in his works, and it is also the linchpin of his better-known "Educating Rita." There are a few scenes - such as the stags and hens pairing off far too quickly - which are a little unreal, which is why I have given it 9 instead of 10. Otherwise this film captures the social scenes it portrays exceedingly well.
Willy Russell himself appears as a bitter piece of work who challenges the rock band's guitarist and bass player to play some "real music," and gets a beer inside his trousers for his pains.
I have seen many stage plays mutilated by film makers. If anything, in this case. the original stage play is enhanced as a photoplay, but perhaps not enhanced enough: it still has the claustrophobia of the stage in places; and I doubt it was left like that to display the claustrophobia of a lower class existence.
