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Dames

1934, Movie, NR, 90 mins

Dames: Review

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DAMES' mindless story is punctuated by mind-boggling choreography from Busby Berkeley and a sprightly score. Wealthy but loony Ezra Ounce (Hugh Herbert) informs his cousin, Horace P. Hemingway (Guy Kibbee), that he is going to give Horace $10 million because he is such an upright man. Ezra is a reformer with one goal in life: the eradication of anything that's fun. To this end, he is starting a society for the "preservation of American morals," and the condition of Horace's grant is that he help get it going. A first step is keeping distant cousin Jimmy Higgens (Dick Powell), a songwriter in the demon world of the theater, at arm's length. Chorine Mabel Anderson (Joan Blondell) blackmails Horace for the money to finance Jimmy's new musical, however, and Horace's daughter, Barbara (Ruby Keeler), who is in love with Jimmy, is given a role in the show. While the theater types rehearse, Ezra--sucking on his cure-all, "Dr. Silver's Golden Elixir"--hires some thugs to wreck the show. Soon the Elixir (little more than alcohol) takes its toll; the thugs are signaled at the wrong time; the stage is pelted with eggs, tomatoes, etc.; a riot ensues; and everyone, including Ezra and Horace, is tossed in the slammer. There, Ezra discovers that chorus girls are people, too (and a lot more fun than bluenoses), while 13th cousins Jimmy and Barbara patch up a disagreement to complete the romantic happy ending. Silly plot aside, see DAMES for Berkeley's inventive staging of what lesser minds might have ruined. The title number mixes intricate geometry and creative photography in spectacular order, as numbers of women, each with a jigsaw piece on her back, contort to make a full face of Keeler--which then becomes real; "The Girl at the Ironing Board" places Blondell amidst pajamas and underwear come to life; and many more delights are in store from the inimitable Berkeley. leave a comment
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