Ten Cents a Dance

Fans of pre-Code films will forgive this 1931 Columbia Pictures feature directed by Lionel Barrymore (his last directorial effort) if only because it stars Barbara Stanwyck in an early role. As is the case with all stars, she is even then true in every moment, entirely believable, and far surpasses the wooden script and the rest of the cast. Most embarrassing is Monroe Owsley as her no-good husband; he is particularly bad, totally false, overacting. Ricardo Cortez has a thankless role and does his best. This is a perfect example of how a star can make something out of nothing by the sheer power of her personality.

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.

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 relic from before the days of the Production Code and the Hays Office is good fun, not great but entertaining.

Based on a song by Rogers & Hart that was an enormous hit at the time, the story revolves around dance hall girl Barbara Stanwyck who is romanced by wealthy businessman Ricardo Cortez (who was indecently handsome), but whose heart belongs to her bookish neighbor Monroe Owsley. She and Owsley marry, but keep it a secret, while she dismisses Cortez, who still holds out hope. She helps hubby get a job in Cortez's company, but married bliss quickly turns sour as Owsley develops a taste for the high life and steps out with a college sweetheart and gambles in high-stakes bridge (Yup! I know, it's pretty funny....). Finally he embezzles $5,000 from Cortez, and is about to go on the lam, when his devoted wife goes to Cortez....and I won't reveal anything else, although the ending was certainly a surprise.

Stanwyck is the best thing about this movie; in one of her earliest roles she's quite accomplished. Owsley is the weak point; he's unattractive and sniveling, while Cortez is amazingly suave and sexy, while his performance is earnest but unremarkable.

While ostensibly a drama, it's filled with laughs, many inadvertant as some elements of this movie have aged very poorly. But there are a lot of good witty lines; at one point Stanwyck says to Cortez, "My brains are in my feet, while yours are in...." That's pretty darn suggestive for 1931! There's a lot of bawdy and suggestive stuff in this flick, in the last days before the Code clamped down and whitewashed everything. An amusing antique, a good reminder of how far we haven't come in 70 years....this story could very easily be changed to fit 2003 but could keep the basic plot, with the original ending, in place.

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.