Born to Dance...Best Musical With Non-Dancers and Singers

[Rick LaRoche]

Just finished watching Born to Dance.  About an hour and a half in - just before Lucy throws the glass thing at McKay - something falls behind her from the ceiling.  Try as I might, I can't figure out what it is.  Can anyone else do better.  It's one of those crazy things that for some reason gets by the editors.

[BlueMoods]

22 minutes ago, Rick LaRoche said:

Just finished watching Born to Dance.  About an hour and a half in - just before Lucy throws the glass thing at McKay - something falls behind her from the ceiling.  Try as I might, I can't figure out what it is.  Can anyone else do better.  It's one of those crazy things that for some reason gets by the editors.

This was listed under the Goofs section of IMDB: Sounds like it might be the same scene you're referring to.

[cmannconso]

Born to Dance was pre-World War II in 1936 but it was not pre rise of fascism. Patriotism to our democracy would be at the forefront of our psyche.

[Chuck V.]

Sadly, the US had mixed feelings about fascism back in 1936.

[MotherofZeus]

Look closely also -- at the end of the final performance of Broadway Melody -- I could swear about 4/5s of the way into the number, I saw Jean Harlow probably as an uncredited extra, as one of the chorus girls or a viewer.  I will have to watch again, but I swear it was her.  I know there were many, many folks looking like that at the time, but there is only one Jean.  

Secondly, when the Ziegfeldesque crew is gathered round and listening to a performance, the expressions on the chorus girls' faces is so atypical of musicals.  The genre had not yet set the standard of what chorus girls must be doing.  Some are smiling, some smirking, some just staring.  There wasn't the glow of enraptured glory that chorus girls would uniformly adopt as facial expression.  It was really interesting to see an early example before uniformity was a standard.

[MalRoseMallory]

I was really impressed with Jimmy Stewart and Buddy Ebsen in Born to Dance. They are not singers, yet the production made them out to be. Come on, Jed Clampton, the Beverly Hillbilly started out in a musical? That's insane to me! 

I think they did wonderful and this one musical was excellent.Man alive can Eleanor Powell dance? She's got it all.

[MalRoseMallory]

Oh, and Una Merkel made the show as well with her one-liners and wit. I believe this was her best movie as well. 

[MarkH]

Buddy Ebsen was a song-and-dance man for a couple of decades prior to his other roles. He danced in vaudeville and on Broadway before coming to. the movies.

But it is a shock the first time you see his old dancing persona when you only know him from Beverly Hillbillies.

[Heidistreich]

Loved Born to Dance. Eleanor Powell was incredible! Buddy Ebsen just beat Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow in comedic dancing for me. Wow, a new favorite for me to watch again. Pure pleasure and entertainment. The cop pantomime was fun and done to perfection, but in a weird spot. I don’t know the reasoning behind the cops spot and can’t think of anywhere the bit could fit in the film. “Under My Skin” dance was gorgeous and awe inspiring. It was like they were floating on ice skates. 

Loved loved loved Born to Dance.

[BunnyWhit]

On 6/9/2018 at 2:16 PM, MarkH said:

But it is a shock the first time you see his old dancing persona when you only know him from Beverly Hillbillies.

.....lest ye forget.....Jed Clampett does do sort of a down home buck-and-wing!

[ColoLynn]

My husband saw this too, we thought it looked like a newspaper - especially since an actor had just been holding, and throwing,  one in that scene.   I couldn't see it without slo mo, we figure it was indeed a goof 

[Lover-o-Classics]

Just off the top of my head... 'Glenn Miller Story' (Jimmy Stewart, June Allyson), 'Night and Day', about Cole Porter (Cary Grant, Alexis Smith).  Without dancing, are they considered musicals?  As far as I'm concerned, if they're basically about music, they're musicals.