Dalbert Pringle This barely entertaining "whodunnit" Chick Flick, set in the supposedly bawdy world of the New York burlesque scene, certainly could've been (and should've been) a helluva lot more exciting and risqué than it was.Regardless of the rigid censorship that hung over its head back in 1943, this film wimped out, big time.Based on Gypsy Rose Lee's titillating novel, The G-String Murders, Lady Of Burlesque's story concerns the decidedly preposterous backstage murders of 2 strippers who are strangled by the killer with (get this!) their very own g-strings. (Spare me!) Believe me, this film's premise definitely sounds so much more enticing than it really is.Since it takes a whole 45 minutes before the first murder actually occurs, the viewer is, instead, expected to be satisfied by a literal barrage of backstage bickering from a bunch of 2-bit strippers (with a token cat-fight thrown in for good measure) - And even some mediocre "bumps & grinds" done in a slapdash fashion on stage didn't cut the mustard enough to hold my undivided attention for very long.In Lady Of Burlesque, actress Barbara Stanwyck plays Dixie Daisy, a stereotypical stripper (or, is it a hooker with transferable skills) who, though jaded-to-the-core, naturally, has a heart of the purest gold. (ho-hum!) Personally, I don't give a hoot what sort of rave reviews that Barbara Stanwyck has garnered for herself from her die-hard devotees and fans, she certainly isn't my cup of tea as the consummate actress who can, pretty much, play any part thrown at her, even with her eyes closed.Filmed in b&w, thank goodness that this boring backstage bullshit only had a running time of 90 minutes.This picture was directed by William Wellman whose other films include Public Enemy (1931), A Star Is Born (1937), The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) and Blood Alley (1955).

n_r_koch This movie shows how much the director matters in ensemble pieces. Wellman was one of those guys who seemed incapable of making a bad movie, even when stuck with limited resources and censorship, as in this case. This is basically a one-set film and it was shot under more or less double censorship (Code and wartime). But it's highly entertaining, considering what they couldn't show. (If I had been stuck in North Africa or the South Pacific in 1943 I would much sooner have seen this than those dreadful patriotic movies like THOUSANDS CHEER and SO PROUDLY WE HAIL or even CASABLANCA.) It's full of watchable funny girls of the kind that all but vanished (into the kitchen) after Pearl Harbor. The murder-mystery element is played the right way-- completely unseriously. Stanwyck is totally appealing, and Stephanie Bachelor ("Only tramps work in Toledo!") is one bombshell of a funny girl. Iris Adrian, Marion Martin, and Victoria Faust all make a big impression. Pinky Lee gets to do his schtick, including some tricky dancing, and O'Shea is good as the baggy-pants comic who's after Stanwyck. Both the writing (by Gunn) and editing are snappy (and witty: I love that quick cutaway to 'the Princess' reading her fan mail) and nobody just shows up and reads lines. I doubt anyone could have filmed this better in 1943.

Alex da Silva The film is set in a theatre and is a backstage "whodunnit?". After 45 minutes, we start to see a story develop when one of the Burlesque girls is murdered, but by that stage I was fed up with the film. After the murder, the film continues to be annoying despite a second murder. The men are mainly portrayed as jokers and the women swap comments at break-neck speed in that "wise-crack" style, ie, too fast. Its just all rather tiresome - the dialogue isn't that funny and sometimes you can't understand what they are saying. Judging from what we see of the show that the guys & girls put on for audiences (Stanwyck singing a very flat song, some lame comedy sketches and some wooden dancing by Stanwyck), this is a very 3rd-rate group of entertainers. Other irritations include the Princess Nirvena (Stephanie Bachelor) who affects a terrible Russian accent throughout her performance and the constant references to the world of burlesque as being wild and crazy by the police inspectors. We see no evidence of this. The only funny moments come from the girls reactions as a whole in the dressing room.Its one to avoid.

MartinHafer This is a truly amazing film. Considering the adult content of the film, it's amazing that it was made during the era where the Production Code was so rigidly enforced AND it's amazing that some major Hollywood talent associated themselves with such a sleazy and silly film. The movie is directed by the very well respected William Wellman--the same man responsible for such classics as ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. In the starring role is Barbara Stanwyck--an A-list actress in a decidedly B-list film! So why is the film so sleazy? Well, the setting is a burlesque house and the original title for the story was THE G-STRING MURDERS! While people are killed in a variety of ways, one is found with a G-string wrapped around her throat. Additionally, the women in the film all look very cheap and act like tramps--with lots of cat fights and juicy dialog! In many ways, this film looks like a 1930s Pre-Code or Exploitation Film--not the product of a mainstream studio during the rather stuffy 1940s! How this actually got made and was allowed to be released is a mystery--as well as how they got very respected talent to appear in a poorly written and shabby production.Had this movie not starred Stanwyck and been directed by Wellman, I really doubt if it would have been widely released, as the film looks very cheap and suffers from a rather dull script. In fact, I doubt that a poverty row studio like Monogram would have been proud of the product! The bottom line is that this is a salacious film and it's a great curiosity piece. However, once you get past seeing talented people doing their best to ruin their careers, there really isn't much this film has to offer as far as entertainment value goes. It isn't sleazy enough to appeal to adult film fans and it's just crude enough to make it a bit of a guilty pleasure--nothing more. A bizarre and sub-par film.