Main Cast: Joan Blondell, Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, ZaSu Pitts, Guy Kibbee
Release Year: 1934
Country: US
Run Time: 95 minutes
Plot
As the title song says, you go to those shows to see those beautiful dames--and there's dames aplenty in this 1934 Busby Berkeley extravaganza. The wisp of a plot is motivated by one Ezra Ounce (Hugh Herbert), a silly millionaire who spearheads a national anti-fun movement. Ounce's distant cousin Dick Powell is a producer of musical comedies. Ounce's partner is Guy Kibbee, whose daughter is Ruby Keeler. Kibbee is also the "sugar daddy" of Joan Blondell, Powell's friend and co-worker. Fill in the rest of the blanks yourself. If the plot doesn't interest you (and there's no reason why it should), sit back and enjoy the humongous production numbers based on the Warren/Dubin songs "I Only Have Eyes for You", "The Girl on the Ironing Board", and of course the title number. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
As Dames amply demonstrates, some musical films simply have to be judged by a different standard than other films. Dames is enormously entertaining, but it really shouldn't be. The script is a re-hash of every other backstage musical; for novelty, the writers have thrown in some nonsense about bluenoses trying to clean up entertainment and take away all the fun in the world. It's absolutely no more convincing on screen than it sounds in that brief summary, and neither it nor any other part of the screenplay is exactly overflowing with genuine wit or originality. Dames' cast has some genuine appeal, with the always-reliable wisecracking Joan Blondell and character actors like ZaSu Pitts, Guy Kibbee and Hugh Herbert around for solid support. Leading man/juvenile Dick Powell is in very fine voice, and as usual gives this kind of role a lot more than it deserves. Ruby Keeler is as flat and unconvincing as ever, and doesn't get to dance as much as one might wish. But Dames gets such high marks, in spite of its screenplay and Keeler's non-acting, because of its fine score and because of Busby Berkeley's wildly imaginative treatment of the musical numbers. This is especially true of the "big 3" that climax Dames. "The Girl with the Ironing Board" is a zany, cartoon-ish exploration of clothing coming to life, and immense fun. "I Only Have Eyes for You," in addition to boasting a gorgeous Harry Warren melody, benefits from incredible, nightmare-like staging, with Dick Powell seeming to be driven crazy as every girl he sees comes to look like Keeler; it's far more bizarre and delightful than it sounds on paper. And the title number features the kind of heightened "marching band" routine and delirious shots that one expects of Berkeley. This trio raises Dames from the standard to the unbelievable, making it a film that really must be experienced. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Eccentric multimillionaire Ezra Ounce (Hugh Herbert), whose main purpose in life is raising American morals through a nationwide campaign, wants to be assured that his fortune will be inherited by upstanding relatives, so he visits his cousin, Matilda Hemingway (Zasu Pitts) in New York City, in Horace's view the center of immorality in America. What Ounce finds most offensive are musical comedy shows and the people who put them on, and it just so happens that Matilda's daughter, Barbara (Ruby Keeler), is a dancer and singer in love with a struggling singer and songwriter, her 13th cousin, Jimmy Higgens (Dick Powell). On Ezra's instructions, Jimmy the "black sheep" has been ostracized by the family, on pain of not receiving their inheritance.
Matilda's husband, Horace (Guy Kibbee) meets a showgirl named Mabel (Joan Blondell), who's been stranded in Schenectady when her show folds, and connives her way into sleeping in Horace's train compartment as a way to get back home. Terrified of scandal, he leaves her some money and his business card, along with a note telling her to not mention their meeting to anyone; but when Mabel discovers that Horace is Barbara's father, she blackmails him into backing Jimmy's show.
Songwriter Sammy Fain, who contributed to the music used in the film, has a small role as "Buutercup Balmer", a songwriter. This character's name, along with "Johnny Harris", came from two men who owned movie theatres in Pennsylvania - this was done at the behest of producer Hal Wallis.[1]
Veteran bit-part actor Milton Kibbee, brother of Guy Kibbee, has a bit-part as a reporter.
Jean Rogers, who later played "Dale Arden", Flash Gordon's girlfriend, in 30's serials, is in the chorus.
The name of Hugh Herbert's character, "Ezra Ounce", is an obvious reference to Modernist poet and critic of the period, Ezra Pound.
Musical numbers
The musical sequences in Dames were designed, staged and directed by Busby Berkeley - the Warner Bros. publicity office invented the phrase "cinematerpsichorean" to describe Berkeley's creations.[1] By this time, after the success of 42nd Street, Footlight Parade and Gold Diggers of 1933, Berkeley had his own unit at Warners, under his total control as supervised by producer Hal Wallis.[2]
"I Only Have Eyes for You" - by Harry Warren (music) and Al Dubin (lyrics). At one point in this number, sung by Dick Powell to Ruby Keeler, all the girls in the chorus wear Ruby Keeler masks as they move around the stage, but in just about every shot, the real Keeler passes by the camera briefly. In 1989, this song won an ASCAP Award as the "Most Performed Feature Film Standard".[3]
"The Girl at the Ironing Board" - by Harry Warren (music) and Al Dubin (lyrics). Joan Blondell was seven months pregnant at the time this number was filmed, and care had to be taken by her husband, cinematographer George Barnes, not to show her condition. Also, at one point in the number, a property man can be seen in the background, hanging up clotheslines.[2]
"When You Were a Smile on Your Mother's Lips and a Twinkle in Your Daddy's Eye" by Sammy Fain (music) and Irving Kahal lyrics
One of the effects of the Production Code on this film is a musical number that never made it to the screen. Berkeley had planned one featuring Joan Blondell about a fight between a cat and a mouse that ended with Blondell inviting everyone to "come up and see my pussy sometime." Producer Hal Wallis removed this number from the script before it even got to the censors of the Hays Office.[2]
Production
The director originally slated to do the film was Archie Mayo, and then a second director before Ray Enright got the job a week before filming began.[2] Some early casting considerations had Ruth Donnelly playing "Mathilda" instead of Zasu Pitts, and Hobart Cavanaugh as "Ellsworthy Todd".[1] At one point, it was suggested that Eleanor Powell do a specialty number, but she declined to do so.[5]
Dames began production at the Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, California on 28 March 1934. Ray Enright completed the dramatic scenes in mid-April of that year, while Busby Berkeley continued working on the musical numbers until 3 July. The film had its premiere on 16 August 1934 and went into general release on 1 September.[6][7]
