Go Into Your Dance

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.

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.

Taking a look at the screen credits of Ruby Keeler and you'll find that Go Into Your Dance is not only the only film she did with her husband Al Jolson, but after five films, her first away from Dick Powell. She did two more subsequent to Go Into Your Dance with Powell, but after only one more film at Warner Brothers, she only made three more prior to retiring from the screen and settling down as wife and mother. Of course Keeler did make a comeback in the Sixties and I well remember seeing her and Patsy Kelly in that Broadway revival of No No Nanette.

What Go Into Your Dance really was meant to do is try to save the Jolsons marriage which was in free fall by then. Al's egomania didn't make him the easiest person to live with and within a few years Keeler called it quits. For the rest of her life she would never answer one question about life with Jolson.

Warner Brothers did assemble a good cast for them. Al plays an irresponsible, egomaniacal entertainer, no stretch in the casting department. He's walked out on too many a show as his sister Glenda Farrell tells him, no producer will hire him. Never mind says Jolie, he'll produce his own with a new dancer he's discovered, Ruby Keeler.

Producing costs money and that means going to gangster Barton MacLane whose trampy wife wants to resume her show business career. Jolie gets the money and the wife played by Helen Morgan. But his problems are only beginning.

Bobby Connolly did the dance direction and I have to say pinch hit admirably for Busby Berkeley. The big hit song of the film was Jolson singing and Keeler dancing to About a Quarter to Nine. It was nicely staged and worthy of Berkeley in every sense of the word as Berkeley gave Jolson that awful Going' to Heaven on a Mule in Wonder Bar. In this film the chorus of male dancers and Jolson all turn to blackface for a minute. Jolson also does the finale title song in blackface as well.

Unfortunately not only does Jolson do blackface, but in this film, not once, but twice he rubs the head of black actor Fred "Snowflake" Toone for good luck. That particular bit of tastelessness kept Go Into Your Dance off the television screens for decades. I remember seeing it on WOR TV's million dollar movie as a lad in the Fifties, but never again until recently.

The real pity is that we were also deprived of seeing Helen Morgan sing as well. Her alcoholism had gotten pretty bad at this point, but she was one of Broadway brightest stars. She sings The Little Things You Used to Do in her typical poignant fashion. It would have really been great to see her co-star with Jolson in a film, but that was not to be.

Go Into Your Dance is quite a museum piece of a film and if you're not into Jolson, I would urge you to see it for Helen Morgan.

Why GO INTO YOUR DANCE is not as well known or appreciated or even screened as often as other Warners musicals of the 30s is a mystery to me because this film works well - with excellent and quite spectacular dance numbers. Four songs in particular "An Old Fashioned Custom" "She's a Latin From Manhattan" "A Quarter To Nine" and "Go Into Your Dance" are as catchy as any in the Berkeley films and the staging of the main nightclub scenes are right up there with what RKO was providing for Astaire and Rogers. This effervescent musical film even survives the clobbering behavior of Al Jolson romping about bellowing and squeezing everyone in between belting out songs. He is so obnoxious! I know he is legend but so leery and abrasive...yecch. Ruby Keeler in her last film is as delicious and normal as ever and looks great in taps on bare wood or in the glamor-puss scenes in full ballroom dress. Not seen on TV here in Oz for over 20 years, I occasionally run the tape (with terrible 80s ads) just to see how it is holding up. GO INTO YOUR DANCE never fails to entertain. I would love a DVD. This film much deserves to be discovered and shown as much as any of the other well loved 30s musicals from any studio.

'Go Into Your Dance' is interesting for seeing husband and wife team Al Jolson and Ruby Keeler together. It is a very watchable film and musical, faring better as a musical than as a drama.

What hurts 'Go Into Your Dance' the most is the story, which is flimsy and contrived, as well as trying to combine backstage musical and gangster drama. The backstage musical stuff has been done so many times before and since, and much better, here it doesn't always have much spark, while the gangster drama stuff doesn't gel with the rest of the film.

Jolson sounds great, but is a little stiff as an actor at times and fails to make his character rootable. Despite being married to Keeler, to me Keeler had a sweeter and more natural chemistry with Dick Powell. Fred Toones is also obnoxious, and the film has a point around the half-way mark where it drags to just before the final production number.

However, 'Go Into Your Dance' is a good-looking film and nicely directed. The songs are very tuneful and at their best great, the highlight being "About a Quarter to Nine" with "She's a Latin in Manhattan" close behind. Surprisingly good are the choreography and dancing, have often been indifferent to Bobby Conolly, but he does a great job here with the final production number being particularly imaginative and energetic.

Keeler is very charming and likable, even if her dancing is not always great. Helen Morgan knocks it out the park with her powerful rendition of "The Little Things You Used to Do", and Patsy Kelly is a lot of fun. There is often a good natured feel to the film as well.

Overall, fun if flawed film. 6/10 Bethany Cox