Dancing Sweeties

There is at least one reason to watch bad films, especially old ones.

So much in life is the result of odd quirks of evolution, or happenstance if you prefer. All the things we are surrounded by seem as natural as sunlight and the only way they could be. But we live in a world where the stilted possibilities so outweigh the lucky happenstance that it is amazing we can stand it.

Movies are a small cosmos we create as our own gods and they behave the same way. So what we watch and how our visual imagination works is largely accidental. You can see some of the broken paths in old films. These reflect the "what might have beens" of the real world and are the real nodes of extinct possibilities in movies.

And when it is a dance movie, so much the better, because film and dance have been on- again off-again sweethearts from the beginning to now. And perhaps no romance in film has been more passionate but constrained than this.

Now. This movie, a vitaphone from the first real year of talkies is an interesting find. The story is simple and staged as a play except for the dance scenes. That story would be unacceptably simple and direct today: a guy is a dancing fool who cannot live without spending nights at the local dance hall competing. The text after the title sequence assures us that such passionate folk exist.

The girl is a simple, ordinary type, interested in building a home and family. By the thinnest of devices, they meet, marry and events transpire as expected. (Dance loses, family wins.)

And that's what happens in the movie proper. Dance is left by the wayside. In fact, except for the title sequence and a bit in the middle where our players watch a Charleston-type group, the dance is a matter of talking about it and some amazingly ungraceful boxstep.

What prompted me to this was seeing "Take the Lead," the newest dance movie as I write this. In a way, these are two ends of two family trees that still hasn't found the perfect mating.

Sigh.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

Bill Cleaver (Grant Withers) is an expert dancer and he meets Molly (Sue Carol) at the dance club on the night of the big dance contest. They strike up a friendship and soon become partners....and end up winning the contest. However, something weird and unexpected happens next. It seems the dance club has planned a wedding that night as a publicity stunt...and the pair who are planning on marrying back out and it looks like the wedding is off. But Molly and Bill hate their living situations...and the couple who marry are to receive all sorts of wedding presents...including a home!! So, they impulsively decide to marry...and as you'd expect, their marriage is indeed problematic! What's next? See the film.

Despite having second-tier actors, the film is entertaining and enjoyable. However, "Dancing Sweeties" is a film that was later remade...though for the life of me I cannot remember the name of the remake and IMDB doesn't list this information on the page for "Dancing Sweeties"...but I clearly remember the same plot in another film. If you can remember the name of the remake, please drop me a line!

This film is a moment frozen in time - that moment being the year or so after talking pictures became the norm in which Warner Brothers, through sheer will and the ingenuity of their employees, gave birth to the fast-paced working man's urban dramas and comedies that defined the company through the 1930's. To study their films from the dawn of sound to the birth of the production code is to study America's descent into the Great Depression from the height of the Roaring Twenties.

This little film sits at that crossroads, and it is the kind of wacky little film that Warners would not have tried a year later, once they began to come up with their own distinctive look and feel, but at this point they are still groping for a formula that works. The movie is about average working people who fill their nights with dance contests at the local dance club, Hoffman's Parisian Dance Palace. The patrons may be working stiffs during the day, but at night they have a chance at the limelight and a trophy commemorating their dancing skill. Enter Bill Cleaver (Grant Withers), a soda jerk by day who still lives with his disapproving parents and who lives for these contests. His regular dance partner is Jazzbo Gans. She's not really his type, but they win contests together, although she aspires for the relationship to be something more. Bill's chief competitor and nemesis is Needles Thompson. Needles claims he has a secret weapon - a new dance partner. Bill gets a look at this new partner, Molly O'Neil, and it's lust, or at least fascination, at first sight. He plays a trick on Needles to divert his attention and starts dancing with Molly. The two win the contest that night, and sit down to talk.

Meanwhile, the dance club had been promoting that there was going to be a marriage performed live at the club that night. Unfortunately, the couple calls it quits and Jerry Browne, Hoffman's Parisian Dance Palace Manager, is told he'll be fired if he doesn't come up with a substitute couple. He plays upon the romantic moment between Bill and Molly - and the free furniture doesn't hurt either - and the couple does the deed, mainly looking for a way out from under their parents. Both sets of parents react badly to the news, and pretty soon the couple is having problems themselves. It's hard to make a marriage work based on a mutual love of dancing, especially if marital responsibilities keep you from doing even that.

This film features a cast that can only rarely be spotted in supporting roles - if at all - just a year later. Grant Withers, who was a early talkie Warners leading man experiment that failed, is very likable here. The smart cracks fit the character he's playing here just perfectly. Sid Silvers is well cast as the dance club manager. This film has two scenes that really are worth watching just for the dance steps. First, the introduction to the film has a couple dancing wildly and it is really a sight to behold. The second scene that is very interesting is about at the film's half-way point. The dance club patrons are all dancing a new step - "The Hullabaloo" - and it has to be seen to believed. The atmosphere, the wise-cracks, the strange choice of subject matter, the demonstration of dancing as it was practiced at the conclusion of the roaring 20's, and even the hummable little waltz tune that back-scores the second half of the film as Bill and Molly's love song make this obscure little film worth your time especially for the early talkie fan and film history buff.

DANCING SWEETIES (Warner Brothers, 1930), directed by Ray Enright, based on the story "Three Flights Up" by Harry Fried, is neither the best nor the worst of the early talkies from 1930. In fact, it's an agreeable look back into the world of dance marathons. With a fine mixture of song interludes, humor and sentiment, it's the dancing sequences, which are a far cry from the latter musicals of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, that highlight this presentation. Starring Grant Withers, shortly before his declining years in "B" westerns and chaptered serials for smaller movie studios such as Republic, and the pert and cute Sue Carol, in her only Warners film, being names unfamiliar to contemporary audiences, yet satisfactory for their performances in a quickie drama such as this.

Following the opening titles featuring superimposing young couple's tap dancing feet with no underscoring, "With some people dancing is a pleasure ... and with some people dancing is a business ... but with some people dancing is life," the story gets underway at the Hoffman Parisian Dance Palace where a dance contest with a free public wedding is to take place. Bill "Kid" Cleaver (Grant Withers) is a conceited dancer with nine first place cups to his credit. The very night he's to dance with his partner, "Jazzbo" Gans (Edna Murphy), Bill takes an sudden interested in Molly O'Neill (Sue Carol), dance partner to his friendly rival, "Needles" Thompson (Eddie Phillips). Attracted by her beauty, Bill conveniently sends Needles away so he can dance with Molly instead. The upset Needles ends up dancing the marathon with Jazzbo, losing the contest to Bill and Molly. Because the bride of the public wedding walks out, refusing to marry an undertaker, Jerry Browne (Sid Silvers), manager of the palace, substitutes Bill and Molly instead. Regardless of being perfect strangers and having similar backgrounds in life, they go on with the wedding and new life together. After meeting their parents, Bill and Molly find a place of their own. Troubles arise when Bill begins to miss his freedom going to dance marathons with Jazzbo, only to scheme his way to step out without ruining his marriage.

Others in the cast include Tully Marshall ("Pa" Cleaver); Margaret Seddon ("Ma" Cleaver); Kate Price (Molly's Mother); Dora Dean and Ada May Vaughan (Molly's sisters, Nellie and Emma). Though sources credit Vince Barnett as Ted Hoffman, after repeated viewing, the actor playing Ted Hoffman for its first sequence, is played by Lee Moran. When Hoffman appears again during the wedding ceremony, he is glimpsed to be Vince Barnett. Maybe a mistake in the editing process.

Though not essentially a musical, some good tunes by Al Dubin and Joe Burke include its theme song of "The Kiss Waltz," first vocalized by Grant Withers, then by a male quartette, and finally by Sue Carol. This is followed by a "Hullabaloo" dance sequence before "The Kiss Waltz" is reprised one last time. With its repeated background play, naturally "The Kiss Waltz" is the movie's song plug here.

While Grant Withers gives a conceited performance in the manner of MGM's William Haines or latter Warner Brothers own James Cagney, he gives a sturdy performance, while Sue Carol, years before retiring from acting to become a talent agent, is sympathetic as well as likable. Sid Silvers offers some humor here, but there isn't enough of him except as master of ceremonies. Even for its short length (62 minutes), it gives the impression of being longer with possibly more songs and story that ended up on the cutting room floor. Regardless, DANCING SWEETIES is good enough for film historians to view and rediscover dancing sweetie, Sue Carol.

Available on DVD, DANCING SWEETIES can be seen once in a while on Turner Classic Movies cable channel. (**)

Some of the themes of They Shoot Horses Don't They are found in this contemporary film of the early talkies about dance contests. Dancing Sweeties is about a boy and girl who have dancing on their minds 24/7.

The young couple are Grant Withers and Sue Carol. After a while though Carol wants to settle down, but Withers is a dancing and in many ways other kinds of a fool.

The song The Kiss Waltz was introduced here, but over all I'd say the film hasn't worn well with age.

Grant Withers was the first husband of Loretta Young. As for Sue Carol she got out of acting and became an agent. Her best known client was her husband Alan Ladd. But that was year's down the road.

If you like museum pieces, this is your movie.