Ballo mortale

My review was written in October 1990 after watching the movie on AiP video cassette.

"Deadly Dancer" is a very tame entry in the popular video genre of go-go dancers in jeopardy. Guest star Shabba-Doo of "Breakin'" can't bring this one to life.

Film is set at Club Metro in L.a., supposedly designed for couples so the dancers are very tasteful (and covered) in their routines. A nut is murdering them and two police partners, Mike and Jack, are on the case.

Okay twist has a woman turning out to be the iller, with one of the cops covering up for her. Weirdest touch here is that two different actors ar3e credited in Jack's role yet the result seems seamless.

Director Kimberley Casey handles individual action scenes well but the film is haphazardly constructed.

Shabba-Doo plays the club emcee and in a cornball scene is "forced" to dance by his boss. Exotic leading lady Smith Worde is worth a second look.

Shabba-Doo is always worth watching. Though he doesn't dance much in this one, the filmmakers seem to have been surer of the appeal of their dance numbers than of their plot, and in a way that's a self-fulfilling philosophy. The choreography (mostly a succession of babes doing angular urban moves) was interesting enough, but the asymmetrical plot-- which ostensibly follows a pair of cops, one stable and the other neurotic, but is dominated by the charismatic Shabba-Doo as a less crucial character-- eventually falls apart in a race to wind itself up in the time left over after all the dancing.