Dance on the ice

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Dance on the ice
Original title The Ice Follies of 1939
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1939
length 83 minutes
Rod
Director Reinhold Schünzel
script Leonard Praskins
Florence Ryerson
Edgar Allan Woolf
production Harry Rapf for MGM
music Roger Edens
camera Joseph Ruttenberg
Oliver T. Marsh
cut W. Donn Hayes
occupation

Dance on the Ice (OT: The Ice Follies of 1939 ) is an American film with Joan Crawford from 1939. The financial failure accelerated the decline of Joan Crawford's draw at the box office.

action

Larry Hall and Eddie Burgess are quite a successful ice skating duo. They fall apart when Larry falls in love with Mary McKay, an untalented runner who has ambitions as an actress. When Larry becomes unemployed, Mary takes all courage and persuades Douglas Tolliver, the friendly, benevolent CEO of Monarch Studios in Hollywood, to give her a contract. Unfortunately, the contract contains a clause according to which Mary can only marry with the consent of the studio. So she and Larry decide to keep their marriage a secret. Larry, who is increasingly uncomfortable in the role of the housekeeper, makes up with Eddie. Both manage to organize a glamorous ice revue in New York, which they call The Ice Follies of 1939 . The show is a huge success. Meanwhile, Mary is making her first film. Shortly before her breakthrough as an international star, Mary realizes how much more important domestic happiness is next to Larry than all the glamor of the film world. On the night of the premiere of her debut, she explains to the world that she wants to say goodbye to the big screen to be just Mrs. Larry Hall. Douglas Tolliver's willingness to make sacrifices impressed him and he hired Larry to produce the film version of the Ice Follies .

background

Joan Crawford's career had been in a permanent crisis since the mid-1930s. Her attempt to establish herself as an actress in sophisticated conversational pieces had failed after a few attempts such as The Last of Mrs. Cheyney and Burning Fire of Passion . Her predominantly female fans wanted to continue to see the actress in stories about harmless love banter and with numerous admirers. The crisis finally manifested itself in the cast of Crawford in Dance on the Ice . On the one hand, the film was intended as a response to Sonja Henie's popular appearances in lavishly produced ice revues. At the same time, attempts were made to present Joan Crawford to fans in the tried and tested way as a woman who makes it out of nowhere to become a film star, wears wonderful costumes and in the end finds true happiness. The parallels between Mary McKay's rise and Crawford's own story are numerous. Dance on the Ice was produced by Crawford's explorer Harry Rapf. The studio boss Douglas Tolliver was based on the model Louis B. Mayer and the fictional Monarch Studios is the only vaguely concealed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer site.

The uncertainty about the further career progress showed in the constantly changing script drafts. Initially it was planned to present Crawford as a singer. Two songs were also recorded but not used in the end. The appearance of Crawford has also been significantly changed and adapted to the zeitgeist . Her hairstyle was adapted to the current trend that Hedy Lamarr had triggered the year before with her appearance in Algiers : brunette, with a clear center parting. The studio invested a lot of money in the film, and given the lack of confidence in Crawford's box office pull, the actress was heralded under the title for the first time since the late 1920s. At the end of the film, a 17-minute sequence in Technicolor is presented .

Even decades later, the actress regretted participating in Dance on the Ice , which she counted among her worst films ever. She told Roy Newquist:

"For heaven's sake. Everyone must have lost their minds producing "Dance on the Ice". Me, Jimmy Stewart and Lew Ayres as figure skaters - ridiculous. I am a dancer, not an ice skater. When we couldn't do a double, I would run across the ice on my ankles. Nice music, great costumes and the performers of the ice revue helped, but in the end it was a disaster. The audience shared the assessment. "

Theatrical release

Production cost was $ 1,108,000, above the average for an MGM film. Domestic revenue was just $ 725,000, with another $ 448,000 from overseas markets. With a cumulative total income of $ 1,213,000, the loss to the studio ended up being $ 343,000.

Reviews

The critics didn’t like the film.

RWD in the New York Herald Tribune said succinctly:

"Miss Crawford should avoid these types of films in the future."

literature

  • Roy Newquist (Ed.): Conversations with Joan Crawford . Citadel Press, Secaucus, NJ 1980, ISBN 0-8065-0720-9 .
  • Lawrence J. Quirk : The Complete Films of Joan Crawford . Citadel Press, Secaucus, NJ 1988, ISBN 0-8065-1078-1 .
  • Lawrence J. Quirk, William Schoell: Joan Crawford. The Essential Biography . University Press, Lexington, KY. 2002, ISBN 0-8131-2254-6 .
  • Alexander Walker: Joan Crawford. The Ultimate Star . Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 1983, ISBN 0-297-78216-9 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christ. Everyone was out of their collective minds when they made "Ice Follies." Me, Jimmy Stewart and Lew Ayres as skaters - preposterous. A dancer I am, a skater I'm not; whenever I couldn't fake it or use a double I skated on my ankles. Nice music and costumes, and the Shipstad ice people helped, but it was a catastrophe. The public thought so, too.
  2. ↑ Miss Crawford should avoid this type of film in the future.

Web links