MartinHafer Back in the early days of sound movies, Hollywood was in love with musical spectaculars. The problem is that with the earliest ones, the quality of the sound and dancing is pretty awful. This is painfully obvious in "The Dance of Life". I don't entirely blame the films. After all, sound technology was primitive and quality choreography was something you wouldn't see until the early 30s. The Busby Berkeley-style song and dance numbers were very crisp and professional--the stuff in the earlier films just looks rough...very rough.This film is about two stage performers--Skid (Hal Skelly), a comedian, and Bonny (Nancy Carroll). When the film begins, both are out of work and struggling. Together, they seem to do much better and come to be friends and eventually marry. However, over time, Skid hits the big time and Bonny is left behind--putting a big strain on their relationship. Eventually, she takes up with a millionaire and Skid, unexpectedly, hits the skids. What's next for the duo?This film is very dated. As I mentioned, the dancing is pretty bad. Additionally, similar material is handled better in other films. Mostly of interest to devoted fans of the real oldies.By the way, sadly only a few years after doing this film, Hal Skelly was killed when he was a passenger in a car that got hit by a train! So, if you ever wanted to see this vaudevillian, this film is one of the few chances.

cstotlar-1 This was certainly not what I expected. I was delightfully surprised in just about every way. This film shows clearer than any I've seen the Vaudeville life and the acts in the last years. The sound was handled beautifully and the ending quite touching. Since I caught this where I could find it on You Tube, there were no sequences in color, alas, but everything else was precious, particularly the leads. It paved the way for so many subsequent "show must go on" movies and the phrase itself finally became cliché but this is pristine, sensitive and ultimately quite moving. I was also thankful that so many of the acts were filmed in their entirety, for historical as well as artistic reasons. The balance was perfect!Curtis Stotlar

eschetic-2 The famous play, BURLESQUE, came to Hollywood following a successful Broadway run (372 performances at the Plymouth Theatre from Sept. 1, 1927 through July of the following year made it one of the biggest hits of the year) just at the cusp of when burlesque - which George Jessel had described as "the most family friendly" theatre form as straight vaudeville declined - was itself declining from the fine mix of sketch comedy and music into the girlie shows that would be banned by Mayor LaGuardia in the 1940's. Paramount apparently felt that decline as well as the universal quality of the story merited the name change to THE DANCE OF LIFE for their August 16, 1929 film release, but they also knew well how famous the original play had become as it toured around the nation, so the original name was prominently featured in all the advertising.Protecting their investment further, four members of the original Broadway cast were recruited for the film version (the lead, Hal Skelly as "Skid", Ralph Theodore as Harvey, Charles D. Brown as Lefty and the great Oscar Levant in his first film role as Jerry the composer/pianist). Only the Broadway leading lady, Barbara Stanwyck as Bonny, Skid's lady love, was passed over for look-alike Nancy Carroll (rumor hath that Stanwyck's real life leading man declined to let her take the role unless he was hired too). Carroll was entirely fine in the role and Stanwyck followed to Hollywood shortly after.The result for THE DANCE OF LIFE was one of the year's best films and the script, direction and cinematography hold up remarkably well after a little over 80 years, much better than some of the early full fledged "musicals" filmed at the time. This was not a traditional "musical" by Broadway or Hollywood standards, but a play in which a lot of music was intrinsic to the plot, and the musical numbers are as good a snapshot of what real live touring musical theatre looked like in 1929 as many an actual filmed musical show (like the Marx Brothers' COCOANUTS which was filmed at the end of its "subway circuit" tour out at the Astoria Studios in Astoria, Queens, New York). The borderline "beef trust" chorus girls marching in unison are a far cry from modern "choreography," but they breathe with the life of the world portrayed.As good as the film is - and it is very good indeed, despite the often copied plot, remarkably faithful to the Broadway original, of the loyal girl protecting her talented but weak partner - no small credit is due to the superior cast. An Oscar Levant younger than most people today know him from his film roles of ten to twenty years later (THE BAND WAGON, opposite Nanette Fabray passing for a composer/lyricist team patterned after Betty Comden and Adolph Green is a classic), gives every indication of the indelible comic curmudgeon he would become, and Hal Skelly's Skid is a leading character actor for the ages. "Skid" would be a great performance in any age.I haven't seen a naturalistic performance jump out of the more declamatory style performances around it with this much vivacity since Helen Hayes opposite Gary Cooper (three years later) in A FAREWELL TO ARMS. Hayes, of course, would go on to a brilliant career on stage and screen for another 50 years. Skelly might have, but after only a few more films and Broadway shows, while back East producing and starring in one of them (the ironically titled COME WHAT MAY) he lost his life when a car he was riding in was hit by a freight train in Connecticut. It was a greater loss to the stage and screen than those who have never seen his performance in this film (BURLESQUE was, with good reason, his greatest hit) can ever fathom.I've never been able to find a copy of the brief VHS release noted elsewhere of the Paramount Picture, but until some wise soul finds a way to pry a pristine copy from the Paramount archives (one suspects the film may now be in the public domain if ANY copy could be found) to make it available to a new generation of film and theatre students who need to see the craft and passion involved, at least a decent copy can be viewed at Archive.org. It is essential viewing for any true student of the theatre or film. I'll be first in line to buy a copy when a DVD is available. Let's hope it's soon.

calvinnme This is one of the very good early talking films of 1929, although the plot itself seems very typical. The difference in this backstage musical is in the use of the camera and the delivery of the performances by the cast. It is quite technically advanced and this allows the viewer to appreciate the heart behind the film rather than noticing how primitive everything seems. There might be what constitutes spoilers ahead, so be warned.Nancy Carroll was a big star at Paramount at this time, and here she plays a dancer, Bonny, who has come a long way to audition as a dancer in a revue. Hal Skelly plays Skid Johnson, an eccentric dancer with the troupe. He rebukes the manager of the troupe for not giving Bonny his attention when she auditions, and Skid is now out of a job too. While waiting in the train station, the two wire a burlesque troupe that is advertising for dancers and they both get hired. From that point forward Bonny and Skid are fast friends, and ultimately consider themselves partners since they mostly dance together. Skid is a big plain looking fellow, but he has a heart of gold. The problem is, after the show he drinks like a fish. He's not a mean drunk, just a drunk.The revue falls on tough times and the manager is telling Skid he will have to let Bonny go. Skid tells him to keep Bonny on and just take her salary out of his. When Bonny refuses this as charity, Skid uses this as an opportunity for a rather sideways but sweet proposal. The two get married that very night, but there are constant arguments from that point forward over Skid's drinking and general irresponsibility. Ultimately, Skid gets an opportunity to headline in a Zeigfeld show. Bonny tells him to take the job and leave her behind. Skid does so, but without someone to watch over him he drinks even more heavily and begins womanizing. Skid eventually hits the skids and drinks himself right of his job and his marriage.The manager of the old troupe decides to give Skid another chance. However, without Bonny, Skid has no real motivation to sober up. The night of the opening performance he shows up drunk. Bonny does get him straightened out in time, but the closing scene leaves matters open on whether the two will reconcile. What is clear is that the two do love each other and always have. Sometimes however, love and the will to make it work are not enough. Both people need to have some strength of character, and in this case one party doesn't, and furthermore, he knows and admits he doesn't.Hal Skelly was killed in a car when it collided with a train in 1934, so his life was tragically cut short at age 43. He gave such a great performance here I'm surprised he didn't at least get an Oscar nomination for his acting.One other commenter mentioned that this film is on home video, but I have never been able to find it commercially available. The DVD copy I have was duped from a VHS tape that was apparently on its last legs. At one point I thought that I was watching a scene in two strip Technicolor when I realized that the outfits of the chorus girls appeared yellow because of a rotten spot on the original tape that had copied onto the DVD. Even if you have a bad copy though, this film is well worth your time. Paramount made some of the finest films in that first talkie year of 1929 - this film, The Virginian, Chinatown Nights, The Love Parade, and Glorifying the American Girl, for example. It's too bad that we'll probably never see any of these in their restored state on an official DVD release.