Dancing Sweeties is a charming film from the very beginning of the talkie era: a drama, a comedy and a musical. Bill Cleaver (Grant Withers) ditches his partner to dance with Needles Thompson's (Eddie Phillips) girl Molly O'Neil (Sue Carol) and they win the dance competition cup, dancing to and singing with "The Kiss Waltz" at Hoffman's Parisian Dance Palace. While Bill and Molly are drinking their cokes the manager is forced to find another couple who want to get married in the dance palace, the original bride having bolted when she finds out the groom is an undertaker. Bill and Molly agree to marry on the spot, mainly because they are stuck at home with tyrannical parents and the married couple will get their own furnished flat.
For a while things go okay, until Bill (who works at a soda fountain) wants to return to dancing and sneaks out to do so; they are headed for a divorce until they see each other with different partners at the dance palace and reconcile. The last shot of the film is of Bill and Molly walking in the park with their babies, twins. The film is full of dancing, jazz and slangy conversation ("he's got such a swelled head he has to put his hat on with a shoehorn") but symbolizes the end of the twenties, as Bill and Molly realize that leaving their parents means it is time to grow up and be responsible. This sixty-two minute film is efficently directed by journeyman Ray Enright and shot by cinematographer Robert Kirrle, who both had long careers in mostly B films.
No comments:
Post a Comment