Wonder Bar (1934)

Meine Damen und Herren- Mes dames et Messieurs- Ladies and Gentlemen….
He whips her with a whip! He whips her, he whips her, he whips her…
But she loves it!

Wonder Bar is a decadent nightclub somewhere in Paris hosted by Al Wonder a provocateur with biting wit and a stealthy influence over the wealthy and influential patrons who enter his club. Wonder’s lurid exhibitions of impossibly glamorous sado-masochistic performances seduce the curious customers where they become prey to beautiful gold diggers and continental gigolos. All the while the band plays sophisticated foxtrots and waltzes that veer into the psychedelic and surreal thanks to choreographer Busby Berekeley.

After a brief prologue that introduces some of the characters’ back stories, the film unfolds in a single night: a complex la ronde of inter-relationships and overlapping motives. Crooning bandleader Dick Powell pines for the exquisite Dolores del Rio. She loves badboy Ricardo Cortez her dancing partner, but he is ready to cash in on his affair with the wife of an important politician and disappear forever.

Unfortunately the wife has come to retrieve her love token, a diamond bracelet which Cortez is desperately trying to exchange for cash. Her husband reported it stolen and has involved detectives who are putting the heat on Cortez. Fearing his past will be exposed he must get away tonight but Del Rio refuses to let him go. Their relationship climaxes on stage as Cortez whips the face of del Rio, determined to make her despise him!

Meanwhile, Jolson realizes a scandal is imminent and the politician could close Wonder Bar in revenge. He begins to quietly manipulate the situation, paying off the troublesome Cortez and steering the lovesick del Rio to himself. But things go too far. Among the liaisons and affairs there is a murder, a suicide. Love is gained and lost. A crime is covered up and the guilty go free. It’s just another night at Wonder Bar….

“Don’t Say Goodnight”

But don’t worry about the plot. This love n-gon is barely sketched in before being steamrolled by the platinum-wigged Berkeley girls in a dizzying infinity mirror waltz “Don’t Say Goodnight”. Rows of identical chorines chime in with a verse and we have entered Berkeley time-space. They reveal a regiment of phallic columns which might be giant candle tapers dripping with dark wax at the tip. The columns gently glide away revealing more chorines in transparent white skirts. They wave their arms and meander through the columns, which again glide away to reveal men in white tuxedos and black masks.
…more about Wonder Bar

Ziegfeld Girl (1941)

Lana Turner, Judy Garland, and Hedy Lamarr star in this showgirl ’sploitation flick that tries to cash in on the glamor and drama of The Great Ziegfeld (it actually recycles footage from that film’s dazzling musical numbers), but ends up a chintzy lurid and poorly-written propaganda piece about what happens to women who dare to abandon their paternalistic yoke and enter showbiz.

The whole plot (or should we just call it the moral) is spelled out 20 minutes into the film in an opening night speech: “…You’re Ziegfeld Girls… Some of you will end up with your name in lights (close up on Judy Garland). Some of you will end up with a husband and kids (close up on Hedy Lamarr). And some of you are going to end up…, well, not so good…. But don’t blame it on the Follies…” Some peptalk!
…more about Ziegfeld Girl

Goldwyn Follies (1938)

Ziegfeld’s Follies has a little bit of everything and something for everyone (except plot). The good thing about a follies is that they showcase a variety of talent, each to their best, and then move along before a singer has to dance or a dancer has to act…. Best of all, a pretty girl can just stand there and be beautiful while elaborate scenery and costume swirl around her like an animated tableau.

When Ziegfeld lost everything in the stock market crash of 1929, he closed a successful run of Eddie Cantor’s Whoopie and sold it to Samuel Goldwyn for much needed cash. Ziegfeld’s elaborate staging was left intact and he got producer credit, making everyone happy and turning a profit. Several more Cantor vehicles would be passed from Ziegfeld to Goldwyn, Broadway to Hollywood, so after Ziegfeld’s death Goldwyn had as much right as anyone to try creating his own Follies.

Looking for what he called “Class”, Goldwyn enticed an exciting couple who’d made their fame on the London Stage in On Your Toes: the exotic Vera Zorina of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and her soon-to-be husband choreographer George Balanchine. Zorina was born in Berlin, a ballet prodigy by the age of 4, but picked the Slavic sounding name out of a list when she joined Ballet Russe and learned to speak Russian to seem more exotic. She couldn’t really act and had no experience in comedy, not much of a sunny Hollywood beauty either. Her real talents were on the stage as a dancer where her athletic body and a sort of aloof intensity said everything.
…more about Goldwyn Follies

The Great Ziegfeld (1936)

Coney Island’s sideshows had PT Barnum… Monte Carlo’s Ballet Russe had Diagalev… and Broadway had Florenz Ziegfeld Jr, a huckster, a gambler, and a womanizer of exquisite taste who introduced his signature showgirls, brought vaudeville comedians uptown, and staged elaborate productions which made legends of composers such as Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, and Jerome Kern. Ziegfeld’s Follies spanned 25 years and were patterned after the Folies Bergère in Paris where sex and exotica were mixed with topical humor, operettas, and gymnastics. The word Follies derives from the Latin word for “leaves” (foliae), connoting the idea of an outdoor venue, so it was fitting that Flo’s annual Follies were originally staged in the rooftop theaters of Manhattan’s growing skyline.
…more about The Great Ziegfeld

Born to Dance (1936)

Remember the first time you had a Long Island Ice Tea? How it’s lethal mix of vodka, tequila, rum, gin, and triple sec — each a potent shot on its own, masked with the right amount of sour mix and soda goes down so easily that you’re asking for another before you realize you’ve been spiked?
…more about Born to Dance