Salome, Where She Danced

Okay, so this is a movie with a throw-away script, characters and situations profoundly unlikely, some very inept acting, and even a title which doesn't make sense. So what?

DeCarlo was gorgeous, Albert Dekker was the heavy. They, and everyone else in this movie who should have had an accent, made a valiant -and occasionally effective- attempt to sound foreign.

This is popcorn Saturday afternoon matinée art. It is meant to be a joyride on a merry-go- round. Don't criticize the painted horses because they don't look real. Okay, Yvonne wasn't much of a dancer, but she could dance well enough for grade school kids. The color was pretty good. There were impressive sets, a bit of outdoor action, plenty of extras, and even some how-to-live-life-right by that venerable Asian philosopher, Abner Biberman.

This movie is just plain bad; no story to speak of, hard to follow, no clear direction to the script or continuity. I've seen it, and I'm not sure what happens in it, except a lot of nothing. Yvonne De Carlo had appeared in shorts and small parts before this, and was a good bet to star in a feature owing to her striking beauty and vampish charm. But "Salome Where She Danced" is an embarrassing mediocrity and is certainly not "bad"in the entertaining sense of Ed Wood or others on Hollywood's third-tier. As a Universal Picture, this is actually a thoroughly failed first or second tier production, and all of its slickness and artificiality does not conceal the glaring reality that it has nothing going for it. It is not "colorized;" it's in genuine Technicolor,though even the handling of the color is flat and undynamic -- sand is light brown, and one comes away with the impression that there is an awful lot of sand in the film, and perhaps a tumbleweed or two. De Carlo struggles valiantly with this bottom-drawer material only to achieve the status of being the best thing about a movie that has nothing to offer on its own, and even that distinction is a stretch. She is lucky to have survived this feature, as other potential stars have had their careers sunk by far less than this.

"Salmone, Where She Danced" is Yvonne De Carlo's first movie. Apparently it made her a star...though today you wonder why. The movie isn't particularly good and there isn't much to recommend it.

The story begins in Vienna. Salome (De Carlo) is a bit but war is coming, so she accepts an American's offer to come to the States on tour. Once there, the audiences in the American west go insane for her...much like they did when Lillie Langtree toured the west. And, everywhere she goes, men go mad for her...though she seems particularly taken by a highway man who used to be a Confederate soldier.

The film never seems the least bit real, the men ALL go gaga for her in a way that is simply ridiculous and her singing and dancing are NOT particularly arousing or exciting to watch. I actually had a hard time sticking with this one...and the ending, well, it just seemed pretty tough to believe. All in all, a movie I wish I'd just skipped.

Miss DeCarlo's starring debut has everything the writers could come up with -- from the Franco-Prussian War to the US Civil War, the great American West, San Francisco in its heyday, ballet, opera, vaudeville, stage coach bandits, and a Chinese junk. Just when you thought the plot couldn't get any screwier, it does. It's magnificent, taken tongue in cheek. DeCarlo's character (here called Anna Marie -- NOT Salome, that's the role she dances) is loosely based on the career of the notorious Lola Montez, who was the mistress of the King of Prussia and caused a revolution when he gave her the crown jewels. She did escape to the American west. There is a town in Arizona called "Salome, Where She Danced," based on the historical fact that Lola Montez did dance the role of Salome there. StageCoach Cleve and the Russian nobleman who fall under her charms are not historically accurate, nor I assume is the Chinese wise man with the Scottish accent -- but it is one of my favorite all time camp classics and DeCarlo is breathtakingly beautiful throughout.

I just saw this movie for the first time ever and I liked it. Her dancing was very entertaining. I read somewhere that she got the part in this movie because she knew how to dance. The scenery was great too. Yvonne is such a talented woman and beautiful. WE laughed at the silly kissing scenes, but that is what is great about old movies! I grew up with her on The Munsters and I am enjoying watching her in her earlier movies. They may not all be the best out there but still worth watching to see her act and sing. I am slowly purchasing all her movies and watching them as I receive them. I have a large collection of her memorabilia.