Dix sous la danse

Back in the day when couples actually held each other while dancing the kind of place Barbara Stanwyck works in Ten Cents A Dance was fairly popular. Ten cents went a lot farther in those days. Today even given inflation you would pay a whole lot more and the dance would be on your lap.

One of Barbara's special customers is Ricardo Cortez, a man who's kept his business during the Depression and successfully, no easy task. She asks him to give one of her fellow boarders at her rooming house, Monroe Owsley a job in the firm. It seems to work out all around and she and Owsley get married.

But Owsley is a weak character and a poor gambler, losing money in penny ante card games and of all things playing the market in 1931, not a very sound idea. He embezzles $5000.00 from Cortez's firm. This is where Barbara has to make some critical choices, separate the men from the boys so to speak.

Lionel Barrymore who did some directing before the Oscar he won for A Free Soul brought him a contract with MGM to exclusively act directed this pre-Code potboiler. He does get good performances out of the three principal players. Another you won't forget is Sally Blane as the underage dime a dance girl and Blanche Frederici as the morals custodian of the dime a dance girls in her establishment.

Owsley who made a specialty of playing bad or weak characters died much too young. As for Barbara the role was definitely a boost for her young career at the time.

Barbara Stanwyck's character isn't that usual confident and sexually charged young woman she had perfected back in the early 30s. In this she is more fragile but as you'd expect from her, she pulls this role off perfectly. In this life her job is being a brassy dance hall hostess selling herself to sex hungry men but trying hard not to let this seedy occupation encroach on her actual life. In that life she is an optimist, an innocent girl waiting for Mr Right to sweep her off her feet - but she's a realist too and when she's given the option of a young handsome millionaire who seems too good to be true or a guy, down on his luck from her own apartment block she picks whom she considers the sensible choice. Wrong!

Unlike in most pictures, this millionaire is actually as good as he seems (if not better). Barbara's guy from the apartment turns out to be a monster. Not an over the top movie monster but a believable vulnerable young man with his own issues. His insidious nastiness fuelled by his own insecurities and self loathing quickly bubbles up to the surface making him a cruel bully coercively controlling his doting vulnerable wife. We the audience can see this happening long before his devoted , loyal wife and we're shouting at her to wake up and see the truth but she muddles on in her own rose coloured fantasy world towards disaster. You can see similar stories being played out today both on tv and in sadly in the real world. This isn't the best portrayal of such 'toxic relationships' but it's interesting to see a 1931 take on this.

Despite the naturalistic acting, a bit part for Loretta Young's sister, the wonderful way this brilliantly captures the feel of 1931 (as a piece of time travel, this picture's fabulous) it's not "a great film." Lionel Barrymore, for a change is not acting but directing and he does a reasonable job (although I can't see anything which particularly demonstrating any individuality or style). It does however succeed absolutely in the goal of any motion picture - it affects you emotionally. The Barbara character is a bit wet but you definitely empathise with her. You will also definitely hate that pig she ends up with.

This movie begins in a night club called the "Palais de Dance" with a woman named "Barbara O'Neill" (Barbara Stanwyck) getting paid to dance with customers. As it turns out, her mind isn't in her work lately because she has just developed a crush on a man named "Eddie Miller" (Monroe Owsley) who resides in the same apartment complex as her. Unfortunately, Eddie is rather down on his luck and without steady employment plans to skip town soon. As luck would have it, however, a rich young man named "Bradley Carlton" (Ricardo Cortez) becomes quite inebriated and proceeds to give Barbara a large tip of $100--which she then passes along to Eddie to pay his bills. Not only that, but a day or two later she also convinces Bradley to hire Eddie at his firm as an accountant. In any case, one thing leads to another and eventually Eddie and Barbara get married which prompts Barbara to quit her job. Unfortunately, although they love each other Eddie gets discouraged about his work and tends to squander money in the stock market and cards. Unable to pay the bills, Barbara returns to the night club in secret to make a few bucks to make ends meet but it isn't nearly enough to pay off the substantial debts Eddie owes. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a surprisingly pleasant film which still retains its charm after more than 85 years. I especially liked the acting of Barbara Stanwyck who really seemed well suited for this particular role. Admittedly, being an older film, this picture might not appeal to all viewers but regardless of that fact I enjoyed it and have rated it accordingly. Above average.

Ten Cents a Dance (1931)

*** (out of 4)

Criminally underrated drama about a woman (Barbara Stanwyck) working at a dance hall who agrees to marry a poor man (Monroe Owsley) even though she could have had a rich man (Ricardo Cortez) who was in love with her. Soon after the marriage the woman learns that her husband is a womanizer and a thief but she's forced to ask the rich man for money when her husband falls into some major trouble. I had read so many negative reviews about this thing (including one in Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide) that it really took me by surprised and I'd probably go as far as to call it one of the most underrated and un-appreciated films from this era. I'm not going to say this is a lost masterpiece or some important piece of film history but it's certainly a highly entertaining gem that deserves to be re-discovered. What really caught me off guard was the performance of Stanwyck who is quite remarkable. She made a career out of playing tough women who wouldn't take any crap from anyone but here she's the complete opposite as her character is so weak and fragile that it really shocked me at how terrific the actress played it. Just take a look at the first ten minutes when she's forced to be tough inside the dance hall but then the next scene she's falling for the sad story being told to her by Owsley. The compassion Stanwyck expresses in this scene is something I've never seen from her and the eventual weakness of her character is something else I've never seen her do. She handles all of this extremely well and it really made me wish we had gotten to see more roles like this. Sure, she's a legend playing the tough girl but she really was remarkable here and sold every inch of her character. Owsley is also terrific as he too has different sides of his character and he does both of them with ease. I thought he was terrific as the sweet, friendly guy that Stanwyck marries and that sleazy side comes across without any issues. Cortez is another major plus getting to play a soft-hearted guy. Barrymore's direction is pretty straight-forward as he doesn't go for much style but instead lets the performance lead the film. I thought he did a very good job at keeping the drama going and it's a shame this turned out to be his last directorial job. The film is based on a popular song of the day and when I saw this on the credits I thought we were going to be in for a long and boring film but it was the complete opposite. This Columbia film has pretty much been forgotten, which is a real shame but hopefully more people will give it a shot. Film buffs will also notice a line that would become legendary in CASABLANCA but here it is over a decade earlier.

Between the tacky title and the pre-Code year (1931), I was expecting a carload of cheap thrills. Happily, the first ten minutes does deliver. There's the tawdry lineup of taxi dancers waiting to get mauled; the over-loud bouncy band; and the tacky guys eager for ten cents of hard-boiled maybe's. Then there's the dressing room where the girls get to trade war stories and smooth out their nylons. No, it's not exactly the uptown social register, but it is colorful as heck. Plus, the slinky, gum-popping Stanwyck couldn't be more at home.

But then the story goes all soap-opera, as Barbara (Stanwyck) tries to hang onto her philandering husband, a very un-charismatic Eddie (Owsley), who also happens to steal from his employer (Cortez) who also happens to be an uptown socialite who also happens to have a yen for Barbara, of all people. Yes, it does get a little confusing. But hang on anyway, since our suddenly very faithful ex-taxi dancer has to suffer big time in order to deserve her eventual reward. I expect there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

No, I didn't get the cheap thrill carload I was hoping for. But Stanwyck does compensate for a lot. Plus I really liked the camaraderie amongst the girls, sort of like what you find among men in combat. But then I guess that fits. Anyhow, if you have a preference for weepies and gum-popping dames, this stone age talky fills the bill.