When I first began researching the Hollywood comedies of the 1930s and ’40s, Dance, Girl, Dance had an unusually high status among feminist film scholars. The battle of the sexes was inherently interesting for feminist critics, and there was a natural desire to find films that would present powerful, self-fashioning women and challenge the patriarchalContinue reading “Dance, Girl, Dance (1940)”
Monthly Archives: November 2022
Best Foot Forward (1943)
Lucille Ball was ill-served by her studios — first RKO and then MGM –, by history, and probably by her own misplaced ambition to be a topline star. Apparently no one detected, or desired to detect, the slapstick dexterity and hysterical demeanor that would make her the greatest American television comedienne of the post-World WarContinue reading “Best Foot Forward (1943)”
DuBarry Was a Lady (1943)
DuBarry Was a Lady was adapted from a successful Broadway musical by Cole Porter. Like most of Porter’s Broadway productions, it was a racy affair. (Apparently, there was a Madame DuBarry rage at the time. Marie Antoinette’s court rival has receded into the historical background since then.) Like most Hollywood adaptations of Porter’s shows, theContinue reading “DuBarry Was a Lady (1943)”
Hollywood Cavalcade (1939)
Hollywood Cavalcade is a good example of the cinematic conservatism of the Fox comedies in the late ’30s and early ’40s. Narratively, it’s a hash of genres — “a star is born,” historical nostalgia, biopic, backstage romance (“backlot” in this case), film-about-films, American go-getter more interested in his work than in the girl who lovesContinue reading “Hollywood Cavalcade (1939)”