Word: hoofers
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...hitting, accurate drama of Manhattan speakeasy days. Producer Jed Harris, co-author Philip Dunning, co-author-director George Abbott rode it to a standstill: at one time eight road companies were playing to standing room only. Now it is a worn period piece. The story, about a small-time hoofer (George Raft) and his partner (Janet Blair) and their hope of getting out of nightclubs into the big time, has been turned into a personal vehicle for Cinemactor Raft. He plays himself (a Holly-wood star) under his own name...
Holidaying on Broadway from his Pacific Coast success, he and his picture dissolve back to the time when he was a Broadway hoofer, and Broadway begins. But its star, who is constitutionally unable to play the simple, naive vaudevillian the original role called for, substitutes the life-&-times of George Raft. They are unco dull...
Benny's plight has not been shared by those of his rivals who depend on punch rather than finesse-particularly ex-Hoofer Bob Hope, who has been going great guns before soldier audiences. Last week Hope put on his tenth straight broadcast from a training camp (location censored). Benny has found that incalculable whoops and whistles upset his expertly worried lines. No ad-libber, he has to stick to his painfully prepared script, feels that a lot of mugging thrown in for a visual audience is a sin against his radio listeners...
...white-rimmed goggles. But the eyes still popped, the voice still beckoned, the legs still scissored as though in time with an incredibly fast march. More of an imp than a comic, more of a song salesman than a singer, more of a ground-coverer than a hoofer, Eddie Cantor still rated the big time for his invaluable gift of always seeming like a nice little guy instead of an actor...
M.G.M. has again grabbed a hold of Hollywood's sure-fire formula for money-making movies. It has tossed together a bunch of old song favorites, a couple of snappy new tunes, some lavish dance spectacles, a hoofer who can hoof, and a singer who can sing. The result is "Lady Be Good," a sizzling pot-pourri of entertainment which tops anything in its line that has been turned out since Ann Sheridan became the sweetheart of the Harvard Lampoon...