Dance, Fools, Dance begins with a party onboard on yacht in which the younglings jump off the boat for a late night swim in their underwear while the older men are ignorant of a possible fall in stocks and the idea of forthcoming great depression; the last days of the carefree, roaring twenties seen through the lens of 1931.Bonnie Jordan (Joan Crawford) and her brother Rodney (William Bakewell) are young, glamorous people who never worked a day in their life and show no resentment for it ether, from a father who doesn't want his children to have the hard time he had. They don't exactly mourn over the death of their father but the loss of their fortune following the stock market crash is the tragedy which gets a reaction out of them. Regardless Bonnie deals with the loss of their fortune surprisingly well and accepts the fault of being left nothing from their father because she and her brother didn't finish school. This is the crux of the character and what makes her interesting. She doesn't doesn't choose the easy way out of getting married to a wealthy man even though the opportunity comes to her but rather desires the thrill to make it on her own as she herself later puts it. I don't believe many people are aware of just how endearing Crawford was in her younger, pre-shoulder pad days. In Dance, Fools, Dance she exemplifies a working class heroine with an aura of refreshingly simple, straightforward bravery which really makes you route for her character; plus there is the joy of watching her flex her dancing talents.Clark Gable is a mere 5th on the cast list, even William Holden (no, not that one) is higher than him but his introductory scene is hard to forget. The downbeat piano music as one of his servants puts a blazer on him as he then blows smoke in a woman's face; tells you everything you need to know without a spoken word. Likewise Bonnie's bother Rodney is a memorable character himself as someone who is shocked by the criminal underworld where his alcohol came from before the depression after taking his supply of booze for granted for so long. Likewise the other great cast member is Cliff Edwards as Bert Scranton who makes for an endearing comic sidekick and mentor to Bonnie.Dance, Fools Dance isn't quite a great film, its concept could be fleshed out and explored to a greater degree and would have been ripe for a remake (and maybe a title that wouldn't sound like something a James Bond villain would say). Although even at that despite the film being imperfect it would still be hard to top with that endearingly creaky, early 30's, pre-code charm.

Dance, Fools, Dance (1931) *** (out of 4) Fun Pre-Code has a father dropping dead when he learns that he's lost everything in the stock market crash of 1929. His daughter (Joan Crawford) and son (William Bakewell) have no money and never had to work a day in their lives until now. She goes to work as a reporter for a newspaper while he gets involved with a gangster (Clark Gable) and soon all three are going to collide. DANCE, FOOLS, DANCE is a must-see if you're a fan of the starts or just this era in history. I always enjoy watching these early films from the 30's because you just never really know what type of wildness you're going to get. The film starts off at a society party where all the young adults decide to go swimming even though there's not enough bathing suits. The entire stuff dealing with the stock market crash was obviously still very hurtful to most in 1931 so many films from this era used it for starting point on a plot. I thought the film was extremely entertaining thanks in large part to the excellent performances with Crawford leading the way. She gets to play a rich society brat, a hard-working reporter and an undercover gangster's girl and she does a very good job with all three. Gable is also excellent as the gangster and there's just no question about it but he and Crawford just had a certainly magic to all their films together. Bakewell is good as the brother and there's nice support from Cliff Edwards and Lester Vail. I'm not going to ruin the ending but it's certainly a great one and something that Tarantino would likely do nearly seventy-years later. DANCE, FOOLS, DANCE is a must see for fans of the genre and there's no question the stars are in good form.

Lots of familiar faces in this one - Joan Crawford stars as Bonnie Jordan, with Clark Gable as the gangster Jake Luva. Cliff Edwards is Bert, and a 20 year old Ann Dvorak is still playing chorus-girl parts at this point. Bonnie's brother "Rodney" is played by William Bakewell, much less-well known, but had made 166 films and TV shows, starting in the silents. Even Sam McDaniel, Hattie's brother, plays the butler in this one. You can tell it's pre-code, since they are buying illegal liquor, and having naughty conversations here and there. Dad goes broke in the stock market crash, and the mooching "kids", now adults, must go to work. Their choices of professions give them separate dilemmas, and they both have decisions to make. Joanie does a dance number in Jake's club in this one, to be able to cozy up to him, shocking all her old high-society "friends". Plain and simple story, no real surprises, but a likely-enough gangster plot, I guess. Everyone was heavy on the makeup, and Joan Crawford does her big, obvious facial expressions which had been so necessary in her earlier silent films, but now seem overdone. I didn't see her slap anyone in this film, but I guess she hadn't started that trend yet in 1931. Entertaining film. Crawford and Gable had come a long way since they were both extras in "Merry Widow" 1925.

This was the first movie that Joan Crawford and Clark Gable made together and they would go on to make several more. Crawford stars a young rich girl who's father is wiped out in the stock market crash and there is nothing left for her and her brother. They have never worked before and the brother, William Bakewell, gets a job with Gable, who is a gangster and Bakewell thinks it will be an easy job but gets in over his head pretty quick. Crawford becomes a reporter at a newspaper but wants to work on the big stories but is given worthless stuff to work on. Their is a massacre in which several of Gable's men are killed and Crawford was a witness to the whole thing. It's a good movie but not one of their best.