Film review: Dames (1934)

The Criterion Channel has added a collection of Joan Blondell pre-code films, and that's our jam!  We've seen several of them, but this one is packed with Busby Berkeley numbers, so definitely worth a view.  Like at least one of the others we've seen, it also features Ruby Keeler (Barbara) and Dick Powell (Jimmy), as a couple who also happen to be cousins (13th, he tells her, when she worries about it).  

They are both saplings of the Ounce family tree.  The self-styled trunk is millionaire eccentric (and Buffalo native) Ezra Ounce.  His cousin's husband (father of Barbara) is Horace P. Hemingway, whom we see being ushered to Ezra's penthouse office at the beginning of the film.  It's only his second visit, the first was for Barbara's birth, but for this one he is delighted to hear that Ezra has decided to dole out some of his millions now and not wait for his death.  The catch is that he will come to New York with Horace and stay with him for a month to make sure that he is of high enough moral fiber to deserve the money.  For uncle Ezra is a moral crusader (as well as inexplicably fond of elephants).  Well, things immediately start to go awry for Horace (who is himself pretty wealthy - something to do with sausage skins - but Ezra is offering $10 million in 1934 money, which translates to about $180 million, according to the trivia on IMDb) on the train to New York; he says goodnight to Ezra and heads to his cabin, only to find his bed already occupied by Joan Blondell's Mabel.  She was part of a show in Troy NY that suddenly got canceled, and she had no money for a cabin, so she decided to take his.  She threatens to scream if he complains, and he, naturally terrified of being cut off ("like a ripe banana"), complies.  And stupidly, the next morning he leaves a $100 bill and his card asking that she never speak of this incident.  The plot to take advantage of Horace doesn't take hold in Mabel's head until she arrives at her promoter's office at the same time that said promoter is handing a check to Jimmy having pledged to back his musical production "Sweet and Hot" after everyone else in town has turned it down.  After lambasting the promoter so much he flees "to lunch", she explains to Jimmy that the check is worthless, but on hearing that Barbara's last name is Hemingway and quickly putting two-and-two together, she makes a pact with Jimmy that she'd get him the money to finance his show if he puts her in it (he plays her a tune and she likes it - but Barbara, listening outside, gets jealous).  So Mabel sneaks into the Hemingway household and camps out in Horace's bed (fortunately for her, the Hemingways have separate bedrooms), and threatens to scream unless he finances the play.  In fact, to show she means business, she shouts "Ezra!" (by this time she knows of the $10M, which is why she knows Horace will be willing to give up a mere $25 grand), which Horace has to try to persuade his wife and Ezra was just the pipes.  Well, the show goes into rehearsals, Barbara gets a key role in it, and at the same time Ezra has founded an Ounce society for American Morals, and has heard about this new raunchy production "Sweet and Hot" and gets his narcoleptic (don't ask) bodyguard to round up a gang of toughs to break it up.  Cue the usual Busby Berkeley numbers, which, as in Footlights Parade and Gold Diggers of 1933, get clustered in the last third of the movie.  They are truly spectacular and surreal.  Feast your eyes (for some reason, Blogger doesn't let you see the full width of the screen - click on the title to have it open up in YouTube):

A running gag in the movie is that the hyper-moral Ezra is addicted to "Dr. Silver's Golden Elixir" which is 50% alcohol.  It cures his hiccups (or so he claims).  In the end scene where Ezra and the Hemingway parents are up in the balcony watching the show, and waiting to give the signal to the thugs to break it up, they're chugging down the new EXTRA STRENGTH (70% alcohol) version and get well and truly sloshed.  As a result, they love the show, and Ezra changes his mind about cutting Henry off "like a ripe avocado" which he initially says he'll do when he sees Barbara in the show.  All-in-all, top entertainment.  Everyone in it is good (shout-out to Mrs. Hemingway, Zazu Pitts, of the "fidgety hands," who is a seasoned comedienne and shows it) and the productions are, as always, racy, surreal, and gobsmackingly intricate.  And I bet you didn't know until now that this was where "I only have eyes for you" comes from.