Dance, Fools, Dance

1931
Approved
1h 20m

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Joan Crawford in Dance, Fools, Dance (1931)

After the death of her father and loss of the family fortune, Bonnie (Joan Crawford) gets a job as a cub reporter while her brother (William Bakewell) becomes involved in bootlegging.After the death of her father and loss of the family fortune, Bonnie (Joan Crawford) gets a job as a cub reporter while her brother (William Bakewell) becomes involved in bootlegging.After the death of her father and loss of the family fortune, Bonnie (Joan Crawford) gets a job as a cub reporter while her brother (William Bakewell) becomes involved in bootlegging.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.3/10

1.3K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

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Top cast26

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Joan Crawford

Bonnie

Cliff Edwards

Bert Scranton

Lester Vail

William Bakewell

Rodney

William Holden

Stanley Jordan

Clark Gable

Jake Luva

Earle Foxe

Wally
(as Earl Foxe)

Purnell Pratt

Parker
(as Purnell B. Pratt)

Hale Hamilton

Selby

Natalie Moorhead

Della

Joan Marsh

Sylvia

Russell Hopton

Whitey

Ernie Adams

Luva's Henchman
(uncredited)

Sidney Bracey

Albert
(uncredited)

Drew Demorest

Yacht Waiter
(uncredited)

James Donlan

Clinton
(uncredited)

Ann Dvorak

Chorus Girl
(uncredited)

Sherry Hall

Reporter
(uncredited)

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
"Dance, Fools, Dance" is clearly based on two infamous incidents in Chicago crime history: the 1929 St. Valentine's Day Massacre in a garage and the June 9, 1930 murder of Chicago Tribune reporter Jake Lingle, who was shot while heading to a train station. However, unlike the movie's Bert Scranton, Lingle was a shady character who played both sides of the law and had parlayed a $65 a week salary into a $60,000 income. In journalistic terms, Lingle was known as a legman who would telephone in the salient details of the story which would be actually written by a rewrite man. This is what happens when Joan Crawford's Bonnie phones in her story after the shootout.

Goofs
When in the newsroom Scranton tells Bonnie that if they had a chance they would cut the Lord's Prayer to a one-line squib and he quotes, "Now I lay me down to sleep". But the line is not from the Lord's Prayer, it is actually the first line and title of the bedtime prayer, "Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep".

Quotes
Bob: You know I'm very much in love with you, don't you?
Bonnie: Are you?
Bob: I'm crazy about you, and you know it.
Bonnie: I didn't know.
Bob: Well, you know it now. What about it?
Bonnie: That's it... what?
Bob: Going to make me stand on ceremony?
Bonnie: You think I'm so old-fashioned?
Bob: I hope not.
Bonnie: You're right. I'm not. I believe in... in trying love out.
Bob: On approval?
Bonnie: Yes, on approval.
[they kiss as the scene fades out]

Connections
Edited into Hollywood: The Dream Factory (1972)

Soundtracks
Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2 'Moonlight'
(1800-01) (uncredited)
Written by Ludwig van Beethoven
Played on piano by Natalie Moorhead
Reprised on piano by Joan Crawford in a swing version

User reviews41

Review

Featured review

6/10

Joan Goes To Work

Joan Crawford got to display some of her dancing talents which brought her to films in the first place in Dance Fools Dance. She also was paired for the first time with Clark Gable. Although Gable was sixth down on the billing the impression he made assured that he and Crawford would work together again.

In fact when Dance Fools Dance came out Crawford was already shooting another film, Laughing Sinners with Neil Hamilton and Johnny Mack Brown as her leads. The reviews Gable got made Louis B. Mayer scrap all the footage that had been shot with Brown and Gable was immediately recast in that picture.

Crawford and William Bakewell play a couple of rich kids whose father William Holden loses everything in the Crash of 29 and dies from the shock of it. And I mean he lost everything as the mansion and its furnishings are auctioned off to pay all the debts the estate owes. Both of them have to go to work, Bakewell not all pleased with that prospect.

Joan goes to work for a newspaper, writing sob sister stuff and she proves she has a knack for it. Bakewell on the other hand gets a job with your friendly bootlegger and his boss who is Clark Gable.

At this point the film makes use of the real life incidents of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre and the murder of reporter Jake Lingle in Chicago who covered the gangland beat. Cliff Edwards who plays the reporter does an excellent job, possibly the best acted part next to Gable.

Playing opposite Crawford as her ever faithful boyfriend from the good old rich days is Broadway actor Lester Vail. I looked Vail up on the Broadway Database and he had considerable stage career. He did not do too many films and truth be told he did not register well as a screen presence. No wonder all the talk was about the few scenes Gable and Crawford had together when she went undercover to investigate the murder of her friend and colleague Edwards.

Though it goes over the top in the melodrama toward the end Dance Fools Dance was a significant milestone in the careers of two screen legends.