Dancing Lady

Dancing Lady
theatrical poster
Directed byRobert Z. Leonard
Written byAllen Rivkin
P.J. Wolfson
Uncredited:
Robert Benchley
Zelda Sears
Based onDancing Lady
1932 novel
by James Warner Bellah
Produced byJohn W. Considine Jr.
StarringJoan Crawford
Clark Gable
CinematographyOliver T. Marsh
Edited byMargaret Booth
Music byLouis Silvers
Production
company
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • November 24, 1933 (1933-11-24)
Running time
90 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$923,000[1]
Box office$2.4 million[1]

Dancing Lady is a 1933 American pre-Code musical film starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable, and featuring Franchot Tone, Fred Astaire, Robert Benchley, and Ted Healy and his Stooges (later the Three Stooges). The picture was directed by Robert Z. Leonard, produced by John W. Considine Jr., and was based on the novel of the same name by James Warner Bellah, published the previous year. The movie had a hit song in "Everything I Have Is Yours" by Burton Lane and Harold Adamson.

The film features the screen debut of dancer Fred Astaire, who appears as himself, as well as the first credited film appearance of Nelson Eddy, and an early feature film appearance of the Three Stooges' best-known lineup—Moe, Curly, and Larry—in support of the leader of their act at the time, Ted Healy, whose role in the film is considerably larger than theirs. The Algonquin Round Table humorist Robert Benchley plays a supporting role.

In the original film, Larry Fine completes a jigsaw puzzle only to discover to his disgust that it's a picture of Adolf Hitler. This was ordered removed by the Production Code censors before the film was released to theaters, because they claimed it was an insult to a foreign head of state. The scene was restored to the TV release but not to the video release.

  1. ^ a b The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles, California: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.