Dance Hall (1950 Film)
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''Dance Hall'' is a 1950 British
drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...
film directed by
Charles Crichton Charles Ainslie Crichton (6 August 1910 – 14 September 1999) was an English film director and film editor, editor. Born in Wallasey, Cheshire, he became best known for directing many comedies produced at Ealing Studios and had a 40-yea ...
and starring Donald Houston,
Bonar Colleano Bonar Colleano (born Bonar Sullivan; 14 March 1924 – 17 August 1958) was an American-British stage and film actor based in the United Kingdom. Biography Early life Colleano was born Bonar Sullivan in New York City. He had childhood experiences ...
, Natasha Parry and
Petula Clark Sally "Petula" Clark (born 15 November 1932) is a British singer, actress, and songwriter. She started her professional career as a child actor, child performer and has had the longest career of any British entertainer, spanning more than 85 y ...
. The film was an unusual departure for
Ealing Studios Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in west London, England. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on th ...
at the time, as it tells the story about four women and their romantic encounters from a female perspective.


Plot

The storyline centres on four young female factory workers who escape the monotony of their jobs by spending their evenings at the Chiswick Palais, the local dance hall, where they have various problems with their boyfriends.


Main cast

* Donald Houston as Phil *
Bonar Colleano Bonar Colleano (born Bonar Sullivan; 14 March 1924 – 17 August 1958) was an American-British stage and film actor based in the United Kingdom. Biography Early life Colleano was born Bonar Sullivan in New York City. He had childhood experiences ...
as Alec * Natasha Parry as Eve *
Petula Clark Sally "Petula" Clark (born 15 November 1932) is a British singer, actress, and songwriter. She started her professional career as a child actor, child performer and has had the longest career of any British entertainer, spanning more than 85 y ...
as Georgie Wilson * Jane Hylton as Mary *
Diana Dors Diana Dors (born Diana Mary Fluck; 23 October 19314 May 1984) was an English actress and singer. Dors came to public notice as a Bombshell (slang), blonde bombshell, much in the style of Americans Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, and Mamie Van ...
as Carole * Gladys Henson as Mrs Wilson *
Sydney Tafler Sydney Tafler (31 July 1916 – 8 November 1979) was an English actor who after having started his career on stage, was best remembered for numerous appearances in films and television from the 1940s to the 1970s. Personal life Tafler was bor ...
as Jim Fairfax * Douglas Barr as Peter * Fred Johnson as Mr Wilson * James Carney as Mike *
Kay Kendall Justine Kay Kendall McCarthy (21 May 1927 – 6 September 1959) was an English actress and singer. She began her film career in the musical film ''London Town (1946 film), London Town'' (1946), a financial failure. Kendall worked regularly unti ...
as Doreen * Eunice Gayson as Mona * Dandy Nichols as Mrs Crabtree


Production

Filming took place in November 1949.
Peter Finch Frederick George Peter Ingle Finch (28 September 191614 January 1977) was an English-Australian actor of theatre, film and radio. Born in London, he emigrated to Australia at the age of ten and was raised in Sydney, where he worked in vaudevi ...
was offered a supporting role but did not appear in the final film. It was Donald Houston's second film. The part of Alec was originally played by Dermot Walsh but he was replaced during filming by Bonar Colleano. "I did feel very cross about that," said Walsh later. "They'd ruined my career in first features." The film was edited by Seth Holt, who called it "terrible." Actress
Diana Dors Diana Dors (born Diana Mary Fluck; 23 October 19314 May 1984) was an English actress and singer. Dors came to public notice as a Bombshell (slang), blonde bombshell, much in the style of Americans Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, and Mamie Van ...
later called it "a ghastly film – quite one of the nastiest I ever made" although she received positive reviews. Director Charles Crichton later said "it wasn't a picture I particularly wanted to make but was quite interesting." He said the film "didn't do too well" so his career was "sliding" before being "rescued" by ''
The Lavender Hill Mob ''The Lavender Hill Mob'' is a 1951 British comedy film from Ealing Studios, written by T. E. B. Clarke, directed by Charles Crichton, starring Alec Guinness and Stanley Holloway and featuring Sid James and Alfie Bass. The title refers ...
''.


Music

The bands of Geraldo and Ted Heath provide most of the music in the dance hall.


Release

The film premiered on 8 June 1950 at the Odeon Marble Arch in London.The Times, 8 June 1950, page 3: ''Picture Theatres – Odeon, Marble Arch''
Linked 2015-06-01


Reception

Some critics felt that the lead actresses were too glamorous for the working-class ladies whom they represented but agreed that Clark, slowly emerging from her earlier children's roles, and Parry, in her screen debut, had captured the spirit of young postwar women clinging to the glamour and excitement of the dance hall. ''
The Monthly Film Bulletin The ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 until April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those wi ...
'' wrote: "The story is conventional and shapeless, while the sub-plots are merely incidents. The film relies on the presentation of the dance hall for its appeal, but, unfortunately, although the dance hall is made the focus for all activities, it somehow fails to come to life as more than a background for the action, and its various attractions for the girls are hardly suggested. The treatment of the setting, indeed, is deliberately repetitive; each dance hall sequence is introduced by shots of a drummer or trumpeter; the same extras appear, performing energetically, and even in the last scenes, when the distraught Eve wanders among the happy crowds, the contrast between her mood and her surroundings is not imaginatively caught. The film does achieve a certain excitement in the dancing championship, dramatically cut, but the remainder is disappointingly flat." A review in ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' stated, " e trouble with the film is that the characters do not match the authenticity of the background, and the working girls, who are the heroines, are too clearly girls who work in the studio and nowhere else" and concluded that the film "is not without its interest, but it does not quite live up to the high standards set by the Ealing Studios."The Times, 12 June 1950, page 6: ''New films in London''
Linked 2015-06-01 For the BFI, Roger Mellor wrote that the film retains interest as "an historical piece full of incidental detail: visual reminders of London bomb sites and
trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...
es, and references to Mac Fisheries, '' Music While You Work'', football results and
rationing Rationing is the controlled distribution (marketing), distribution of scarcity, scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resourc ...
." ''
FilmInk ''FilmInk'' is an Australian film magazine published by FKP International Exports. It was founded by current publisher Dov Kornits and Colin Fraser in July 1997, in Sydney. The magazine has been through many changes over the course of its exist ...
'' wrote: "Dors is easily the best thing about the film, playing a saucy minx out for a good time, and does not get nearly enough screen time. The film focuses more on the adventures of Parry, Hylton and … Donald Houston."


References


External links


''Dance Hall''
at the
British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...
* * *
Review of film
at '' Variety''
Dance Hall
at Letterbox DVD
Dance Hall
at
TCMDB Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of ...
{{Alexander Mackendrick 1950 films 1950 drama films Ealing Studios films Films directed by Charles Crichton British black-and-white films Films set in London British drama films 1950s English-language films 1950s British films English-language drama films