Now, THAT’S Dancin’!

In the marvelous Kiss Me, Kate (1953, dir George Sidney), the brilliant dancers of the present day collide with the brilliant taste-makers of tomorrow. Here, MGM temptress/hoyden Ann Miller steps lively with Tommy Rall, Bobby Van mixes with Jeanne Coyne, but watch for a young Bob Fosse mixing it up with Carol Haney (around 2:30 or so). Miller was in her prime, but was about to fade; Rall made sporadic film appearances through the late 1960′s, Van was a master – often overlooked – and Coyne is gone, gone, gone. But! Fosse is Fosse, and Haney holds a place dear in all theater=goers hearts. This is where they shine.

Two Pros

In The Seven Little Foys (1955, dir Melville Shavelson), Bob Hope played Eddy Foy, Sr, progenitor of the wondrous vaudeville troupe that Foy fathered and took on the road. There is an equally astonishing bit, in which James Cagney repeated his role of George M Cohan, from Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942, dir Michael Curtiz) for a brief dance-off from two old pros, playing two old pros.

I Don’t Know If I Ought

The slattern. Of course she doesn’t, but she does it anyway. Here, the estimable Ginger Rogers does the infamous Black Bottom in Roxy Hart (1940, dir William Wellman), the basis for the musical play and Oscar-winning film Chicago.

Percussive Effect? Got It.

I don’t generally like or even understand “the dance,” but this stirs me [non-typo] Celtic soul. That rythmic stomping is mesmerizing and no amount of criticizing the leads diminishes the joy I get from this clip.