Guest Posted October 23, 2005 Share Posted October 23, 2005 Imagine my surprise when watching Way Out West (1930) to see a carnival dance number (with Ann Dvorak) with the dancers in weird cannibal costumes and white afros. The big production number of Free and Easy in the 1930 film of the same name (starring Buster Keaton) has the same costumes! And Ann Dvorak is a chorus girl in that musical number too! Seems odd that MGM would allow two films in the same year to use the same costumes. I mean how often can you fit dancers in cannibal costumes and white afros into the storyline? And I've still never found out the name of the wonderful singer/dancer featured with Keaton in that Free and Easy number. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markfp2 Posted October 25, 2005 Share Posted October 25, 2005 While it would be to unusual to see the same costumes in two movies from the same year, the reusing of costumes, sets, props, etc. has always been standard practice at most studios. Perhaps, a set was built for a major production, and then with a little modification, like a coat of paint, was used in a number of B movies. That's how it was done then and is still done today. Take the street in the hit tv series "Desperate Housewives". That street and those houses are on the Universal backlot and since at least the 1950s have been used in many movies and tv series. Sure they get redressing and remodeling, but it's still the same street and the same houses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 25, 2005 Share Posted October 25, 2005 Yes I understand that...... just saying it's unusual to see the same costumes in two films from the same year and BOTH featuring Ann Dvorak in the chorus....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ayresorchids Posted October 25, 2005 Share Posted October 25, 2005 That is pretty funny. MGM also frequently used some striped western dancing girl costumes that you see in Easter Parade ("Stepping Out With My Baby") and Show Boat. And many of the fashion show costumes from Singin' in the Rain reappear in Deep in My Heart. (Can you tell I love musicals?) Your example was particularly noticable, drednm. For some of the other instances of re-used sets and costumes, we have to remember that when most of these films were made there were few people who could examine them as repetitively and carefully as we have fun doing today. Just thought of one more, pertaining to sets--at the beginning of Citizen Kane, as the camera pans over all the items in and around Kane's manse, you see a gondola that featured in the plot of Top Hat! five years before! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 25, 2005 Share Posted October 25, 2005 LOL.... I never noticed that one in Kane..... MGM also used a fake white-interior stone Connecticut farmhouse with a water wheel in the Crawford/Garson version of When Ladies Meet (it might be the 30s version with Harding/Loy) that shows up in several other MGM films. Also the interiors used in Harvey (noticeably that fabulous staircase) show up again in other films of the early 50s. Makes sense to re-use the sets BUT you'd think they would have doctored them up a bit. And oh by the way, Ann Dvorak was a decent dancer. She's especially noticeable in the production number with Keaton and that mystery woman. Dvorak also got to dance a bit in Bright Lights with Joe E. Brown. She remains one of my favorite underused actresses of the 30s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ayresorchids Posted October 25, 2005 Share Posted October 25, 2005 I think Ann also shows up in the chorus of Good News (1930) in support of Dorothy McNulty (later known as Penny Singleton--or Blondie) doing "The Varsity Drag." You're right, she is good! And such a lovely actress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 25, 2005 Share Posted October 25, 2005 you're probably right..... I've seen that one too with Singleton and Bessie Love...... nowhere as good as the 1947 with June Allyson and Joan McCracken....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ayresorchids Posted October 25, 2005 Share Posted October 25, 2005 Joan McCracken! What a dancer! Check out my article at http://www.porthalcyon.com/features/200505/canteen02.shtml Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 26, 2005 Share Posted October 26, 2005 Indeed.... her only film that I know of..... Pass That Peace Pipe may be my favorite production number EVER! I have the DVD and can watch that number over and over and always see something new.... Ray McDonald was no slouch either! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph Posted October 26, 2005 Share Posted October 26, 2005 Joan McCracken - another name from the past. Wonderful dancer and comedienne. Did lots of broadway and television in the late forties and early fifties. Originated the role of Dixie Evans on Broadway in "The Big Knife," the role which Shelley Winters later played in the movie. Also in "Hollywood Canteen." Married to Bob Fosse and Jack Dunphy (yes, the same Jack Dunphy who was Truman Capote's partner for years). Died far too young from lifelong diabetes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandykaypax Posted October 26, 2005 Share Posted October 26, 2005 Fun thread! There is a dress that Doris Day wears in LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME that one of the extras wore in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN in the party scene. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardny4me Posted October 28, 2005 Share Posted October 28, 2005 I just finished watching the dvd of the RKO film Cat People, and I listened to part of the audio commentary. RKO lost so much money on Citizen Kane they needed Val Lewton, the producer of Cat People to be especially aware of the film's costs. So the massive stairs in her Simone Simon's apartment is the leftover set from The Magnificent Ambersons, and the zoo where the panters are is a park set left over from an Astaire and Rodgers musical. LOL, I immediately thought of this fun thread. The trademark costume Garland wore singing "Get Happy" in Summer Stock was basically re-used from the deleted Mr. Monotony sequence, but at the time they thought nobody would ever see that Easter Parade outtake. But to re-use cannibal costumes for a musical number in the same year in 2 pictures is quite bizarre. I have never seen Way Out West or Free and Easy, but I want to see them both now. I know MGM took the tornado outtakes from The Wizard of Oz and placed them into Cabin In The Sky. The filmmakers never imagined DVDs and 24 hour television channels so I am sure there are plenty more examples. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 28, 2005 Share Posted October 28, 2005 well good luck with that.... Free and Easy was Buster Keaton's talkie debut and is on the recent Keaton DVD collection. It's an ok film with Anita Page, Robert Montgomery, and Trixie Friganza .... my favorite part by far is the title tune/production number. The number makes no sense at all but it is mesmerizing to hear Keaton sing live and dance. Keaton play some kind of aviator/clown who has landed on a cannibal island. All very weird but his dancing skills are surprisingly good and it's all done in one take. Friganza plays a queen and then there is that mystery woman who stars in the number with Keaton. Way Out West was just on TCM and doesn't show up very often. It was aired as part of "spoof night," even though the film is NOT a spoof of westerns but is a comedy western. I noted this film was for sale on ebay. I watch anything with William Haines in it and the film is ok but nothing great. But in the beginning the cannibal girls come out and do a **** dance while Haines (as a carnival barker) tries to draw in the yokels. Good luck with your search...... and fascinating info on Cat People, Summer Stock etc...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spencerl964 Posted October 30, 2005 Share Posted October 30, 2005 It's sad to say, that what is even available, is a metaphor of sorts for what is left as well of what was thee grandest & biggest of all "Dream Factories!" just finally got to see what is left of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer-(1924-) in person. & there is about 40 acres, maybe 44 if you push the issue. Of course now Sony. However, once you cross the street, there is-(for now anyway) still, some of it still-standing. It's almost creepy in a way. Many places say part of "The Yellow Brick Road," is left, but noooo! It's gone as well. However, the *THALBERG BLDG is still intact Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daddysprimadonna Posted November 2, 2005 Share Posted November 2, 2005 I've noticed that Dolores del Rio wears a lounging pajama outfit in "Flying Down To Rio" that a very young Betty Grable later wears in the "Let's Knock Knees" number from "The Gay Divorcee". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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