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Dance Hall (1950 film)

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Wikipedia article




'Dance Hall' is a 1950 British drama film directed by Charles Crichton. The film was an unusual departure for Ealing Studios at the time, as it tells the story about four women and their romantic encounters from a female perspective.[http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/587320/index.html BFI Screenonline, Roger Philip Mellor: 'Dance Hall (1950)'] Linked 2015-06-01DANCE HALL

Monthly Film Bulletin; London Vol. 17, Iss. 193, (Jan 1, 1950): 99.


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.[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=888&dat=19570722&id=Cj5SAAAAIBAJ&sjid=OXYDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5161,2908493&hl=en Capsule write-up ("Grim drama but well done") for 'Dance Hall's' July 1957 TV broadcast in U.S. (on WSUN, channel 38 in Florida, licensed to city of St. Petersburg)]

Main cast



* Donald Houston as Phil

* Bonar Colleano as Alec

* Natasha Parry as Eve

* Petula Clark as Georgie Wilson

* Jane Hylton as Mary

* Diana Dors as Carole

* Gladys Henson as Mrs Wilson

* Sydney Tafler as Jim Fairfax

* Douglas Barr as Peter

* Fred Johnson as Mr Wilson

* James Carney as Mike

* Kay Kendall as Doreen

* Eunice Gayson as Mona

* Dandy Nichols as Mrs Crabtree

Production



Filming took place in November 1949.

Peter Finch was offered a supporting role but did not appear in the final film. It was Donald Houston's second film.

The film was edited by Seth Holt, who called it "terrible." Actress Diana Dors later called it "a ghastly film - quite one of the nastiest I ever made" although she received positive reviews.

Music



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



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.George Perry: 'Forever Ealing: a celebration of the great British film studio' (Pavilion/Michael Joseph, 1981)

The film premiered on 8 June 1950 at the Odeon Marble Arch in London.[http://find.galegroup.com/ttda/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=TTDA&userGroupName=kenlib&tabID=T003&docPage=article&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&docId=CS50940616&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0 The Times, 8 June 1950, page 3: 'Picture Theatres Odeon, Marble Arch'] Linked 2015-06-01 A review in 'The Times' stated, "[T]he 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."[http://find.galegroup.com/ttda/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=TTDA&userGroupName=kenlib&tabID=T003&docPage=article&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&docId=CS102845132&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0 The Times, 12 June 1950, page 6: 'New films in London'] Linked 2015-06-01

Unusually for an Ealing production of the time, the film tells the story about the four women and their romantic encounters from a female perspective, presumably the input of screenwriter Diana Morgan. The film retains interest as "an historical piece full of incidental detail: visual reminders of London bomb sites and trolleybuses, and references to Mac Fisheries, 'Music While You Work', football results and rationing."

'FilmInk' 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




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