Lady, Let's Dance

When the lady half of a dancing partnership fails to show up at the hotel, entertainment manager James Ellison recruits chambermaid Belita, a European dancer who was training for the ice-dancing in the Olympics when the Nazis invaded. They quickly fall in love but do nothing about it, since he's busy getting her a job at a major Chicago show. They lose contact, he loses his edge, and she rises to become a major star while he goes off to fight the war.

All of which is a brief sketch of the plot, which takes up a very small part of the movie. Mostly we are treated to Belita dancing and skating, which gave me a lot of opportunity to look at this would-be competitor to Sonja Heinie. And I was disappointed. Under the choreography of Dave Gould, E. R. Hickson, and Michael Panaieff, Belita is technically and mechanically perfect in all her movements -- although the vast number of edits in her dancing and ice skating makes me think not so much -- but moves with neither authority nor passion. She is a beautiful automaton who does everything right, but never causes you to think there is something more than the perfect, meaningless line of motion going on. If you see this, observe Frick & Frack, two comic ice skaters whom I saw about fifteen years after this movie was made. There's no way it's anyone but Frick & Frack, and they're having fun. Belita is doing as she is told.

Walter Catlett is on hand as a plot device and occasional gifter of cigars to people. The music quite good.

James Ellison (Jerry) is completely unlikable and runs the entertainment at a holiday resort. His top dancing team have split up and Ellison needs a female dancer to partner Maurice St. Clair (Manuelo) and he needs one fast. Cue Belita. She is pushed into the limelight and then pretty much walks away with the film as she proves talented at everything! There is some stupid unconvincing love story that plays alongside the performances but it is not the real point of the film.

We get to see Belita perform ballroom dancing with some swing rhythms, some ballet with a cheeky tinge, some tap dancing on skates, as well as her solo skating efforts, all of which are entertaining. This is what you watch for. The film also includes a couple of comedy skating segments with Frick and Frack who are also good value. Outside of these performances, the film is crap because of the incredibly poor acting skills of Ellison. It's actually upsetting that Belita falls for him.

The film's storyline isn't much but if you like ice skating and dance sequences then you'll enjoy this offering. Belita saves it single-handedly.

I am going to tell you this straight: LADY LETS DANCE is a good musical, outright, and a sensational and spectacular ice skating dance film... and one neglected or cold shouldered for far too long (approx 63 years). The second of Monogram's major forays into big and expensive 40s musicals and with a guaranteed Olympic champion in the awesomely gorgeous Belita, LADY LETS DANCE deserves a proper crystal clear stereo DVD reissue with her other three major Monogram films: SILVER SKATES, SUSPENSE and THE GANGSTER. The two musicals (SUSPENSE and THE GANGSTER are terrific crime dramas) are very enjoyable... and with an absolute avalanche of great swing orchestra music with madam in well designed sexy outfits and really beautiful hair and makeup, BELITA must have made millions for Monogram in these films. LADY LETS DANCE is nothing short of an A grade music and dance spectacular. It is crammed with big set pieces, splashy routines, good costumes and some startling stunt comedy from Frick and Frack a Euro comedy team who are as hilarious as they are clever. The sparkling title number LADY LETS DANCE is on par with the 1955 Doris Day number "Swingin The Blues Away" in LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME at MGM, however here we have Belita skating and swinging and out sexing Doris on ice. It really is the climax of the film, with a following 'victory' number almost superfluous. The usual putting on a show antics carry the LLD scenes, and it is superior in every way to SILVER SKATES made the year before, which looks like a practice run for this film. Now that Warner Bros own the Monogram Allied Artists library, I hope someone there reads my reviews for films like this and lets them be seen for new generations. We do not in any way today have musicals as spectacular or full of sexy stunts like this one is and with a big hole in the DVD marketplace for 40s swing skate dance pix (or 50s) there is no better place to start than with LADY LETS DANCE. Like SUSPENSE, this is a good film, unjustly lampooned and unjustly neglected. Dance direction as with SILVER SKATES is by WB musical maestro Dave Gould, a competitor to Busby Berkeley. Ask WB DVD for this film and lets get it out there for kids who would never know a film as spectacular, clever and as swingin as this could ever exist. LADY LETS DANCE! Indeed! Nominated for 2 Oscars, it certainly deserves the one for Orchestration: the music and arrangements are uniformly excellent.