La danseuse de corde

There are only so many stories, especially stories of love.

This is rather ordinary. It consists of three threads.

The first is of a relatively plain girl who loves a star, but he loves another, a vamp who doesn't care for him but manipulates him. But our gal sticks with it, even though the guy is an unfaithful, lying drunk. Eventually she does something heroic and saves his reputation. Impressed, he falls in love with her. Ho hum. That someone once related to this is mildly interesting.

And then there's the spectacle of the circus. In 1929, this would have still thrilled, what with the risks and spectacular falls.

But the reason to watch this today is because the "plain" girl is played by Clara Bow! Only a couple years before, this was the sexiest woman in the world, our first redheaded film sex symbol. She, the IT girl. Here, she is absolutely the least attractive girl in a skimpy costume. Here, she lacks all the poised seduction she had mastered before. Its because she speaks, I think.

The stories are well known, how she froze with insecurity. How audiences abandoned her instantly when hearing her low class, Yiddish-tinged Brooklyn squeak. This, the sexiest woman in the entire world of media.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

This isn't the first time that I have observed that the Male actors in this transition period had been too off the mark to be anything less that an eye-sore. It is always left to the poor women to carry the movie on their shoulders. In this movie too, not only Clara and Kay, but other women, the two uncredited co-showgirls and May Boley (the mother figure) too were good, especially Roy Barnes (the Pa against the Ma) and Charles Brown (the Assistant to Pa?). Newell was still OK, but the real failure in execution was Arlen.

Clara played the role of a teenage show girl - and I was surprised to see she did look mid-teen, even at the mid twenties, some of the activities, I don't know directed, or naturally, like scratching her legs while talking to Arlen, showed the 'girlish' mind. She looked quite lovely. may be a bit overacting by today's standard, but I would rather say it was quite good, considering that this was one of the transition era movies, when talkies were not even infant, may be almost in pre-natal ward.

Kay has played a bit of complicated role, of being in love with the lesser of the group, but ready to flirt with the star, so that the bacon is ensured at home, even going to the extent of hiding her marriage, so that the allure on the star isn't lost. Well, one could call that manipulative/ heartless, but it might as well be survival instinct. After walking out, the couple had miserably failed, and were on almost dole, till the Star brought them, or her, back.

One probably weakness I could find - sacking of the girl - the owner, and his wife behaved almost like parents of the girls, and this looked to be the favorite 'daughter'. Sacking was really unexpected, but may be he said that at the heat of the moment, and the girl took it seriously. Unless she was thrown on street, there won't have been the drama.

Why are some reviewers saying Clara Bow's acting in this is amazing and fantastic? It's not - she's OK at best. Just before this, she was in Dorothy Arzner's superb WILD PARTY. In that she was amazing but Mr Mendes didn't have Miss Arzner's directing talent.

When people say how great she is in this, it belittles how surprisingly great and natural she was in her first talkie. Maybe great is an exaggeration because WILD PARTY was such a well made picture, her short comings were somewhat shielded. What grouping all Clara Bow films together does is belittle how competent an actress she eventually became by the time she stared in her best work: CALL HER SAVAGE. Now that was good! Yes, in a couple of years she'd be a decent actress - in 1929 she wasn't.

This film is a massive disappointment after her first talkie - Paramount's first talkie - that was clever, mature and beautifully written. This is a trashy story rushed out simply as a mindless excuse to put Clara Bow on the screen to bring in, as they used to say, 'serious coin.' It's not however as unimaginably awful as her next film: SATURDAY NIGHT KID. Why was her agent trying to destroy her career?

Miss Bow is certainly not the worst actor in this. Neither is it Richard Arlen who is pitiful but those two are like Olivier and Leigh compared with that unfeasibly untalented acting phenomenon known as Kay Francis! Special shriek with horror award goes to her hair....of lack of. Oh my God, was that look considered sexy back then? She looks like a little boy with a big fat face! And that "acting!" If ever there was a case against the old practice of young actresses getting parts based on their performance on the casting couch, Kay Francis was it! She's absolutely terrible - but she must have been amazing elsewhere!!

Silent film superstar Clara Bow made three talkies in 1929. This is her second talkie (The Wild Party and The Saturday Night Kid were the other two). In this circus picture Bow plays a 2nd-rate bareback horse rider with an eye for Larry Lee (Richard Arlen) billed as the world's greatest high wire walker. He's nuts for his co-star Zara (Kay Francis) but she's two-timing him.

Bow discovers that Francis is seeing this other guy and spills it to Arlen. That night on the high wire he catches Francis kissing the other guy and goes nuts and falls to the ground. Out of the hospital he quits the big top but Bow tracks him down and talks him into returning in a new act with her as co-star. Everything goes well until Francis returns (she's been dumped).

Solid film with good atmosphere and zippy dialog. The acting is a little rough (it's 1929 after all) since the stars are still learning to "talk." Interesting to see Clara Bow as the "good girl." May Boley, Stu Erwin, Joyce Compton, T. Roy Barnes, Charles Brown, Anders Randolph co-star.

Dangerous Curves (1929) is Clara's second talkie and she really carries the movie. The male lead isn't very strong or very likeable but Miss Bow makes up for any shortcomings with her charm and likeable vulnerability. Dangerous Curves is a must own for any Clara Bow fan.Pretty rare on dvd,never getting a official DVD release,but worth getting a hold of if you love the IT girl like I do.