DANCEHALL (1929)

[George O'Brien]

Did anyone see, or record DANCEHALL (1929) which was on TCM this week?

A friend of mine had planned on recording it, but there was a hitch in the proceedings. I have never seen the beautiful Olive Borden in talkies and wonder how she came off.

[entredeuxguerres]

Did anyone see, or record DANCEHALL (1929) which was on TCM this week?

A friend of mine had planned on recording it, but there was a hitch in the proceedings. I have never seen the beautiful Olive Borden in talkies and wonder how she came off.

SHE came off delightfully...it was that insufferable, whining idiot Arthur Lake that made the picture almost unwatchable. Whose idea was it to pair such a delectable dish as Olive with that sickening sap? This could have been a great favorite of mine with any other jeuvenile lead substituting for crybaby Lake. The only role I'd take pleasure in seeing him play is that of a punching-bag in a Dead-End Kids picture.

[entredeuxguerres]

Oh yeah, it started about 5 min late, so my timer cut it off prematurely. Best of all, in several spots sound was out of synch.

[drednm]

Sounds like a real treat! I guess I don't miss TCM much.

[entredeuxguerres]

Yes, but with TCM you could have enjoyed that laugh-riot Loves of Pharoah many weeks sooner.

[drednm]

LOL.... I really can't imagine why you hated PHARAOH so much, but to each his own. One of Arthur Lake's lost gems is the silent version of Harold Teen ... at least I believe it is lost.

[martinola]

One of Arthur Lake's lost gems is the silent version of Harold Teen ... at least I believe it is lost.

The silent Harold Teen is at UCLA. (Or at least it was when I saw the nitrate print there in 1996.) From looking at their inventory back then it looked like they have preservation material on it as well.

Regards,
Martin

[FrankFay]

They showed HAROLD TEEN last year in Rome NY - it was VERY funny, and the print was great looking. There was once some technicolor footage in it, but it's gone and no period sources say what it was ... and nothing seems to be missing! Donald Lake made quite a convincing teenager. He also has a nice bit as an office boy in SKINNER'S DRESS SUIT. Yes, he tends to be insufferable in his early talkies- it seems obvious that the studios didn't know what to do with him except use him as a Mama's Boy type - occasionally funny (as in ON WITH THE SHOW) or as a conventional juvenile - generally a failure because of his adenoidal voice and weak singing. Everything clicked when he got the role of Dagwood Bumstead.

[entredeuxguerres]

Even such a tasty peachoreno as Olive Borden is insufficient enticement for my watching Dancehall again, but On With the Show I'll never get half enough of--each time cringing, & hitting FF, the instant Lake's whimpering pan intrudes. True, nothing so revolting as him dancing in his shorts, or with his tiresome old mother, appears in OWTS, but what there is of him is PLENTY. (Joe E. Brown's persecution of him somewhat compensates.)

But his greatest insult to an otherwise terrific, marvelous, wonderful picture occurs in Tanned Legs: yet again, he is for some insane reason paired with a gorgeous cream-puff, June Clyde; guess the match-up is supposed to be comical, but it left me laughing all the way to the toilet. And get THIS: in a picture featuring beautiful June, fantastically talented Ann Pennington, many others of note, idiot Lake is handed top billing!

[Richard M Roberts]

They showed HAROLD TEEN last year in Rome NY - it was VERY funny, and the print was great looking. There was once some technicolor footage in it, but it's gone and no period sources say what it was ... and nothing seems to be missing! Donald Lake made quite a convincing teenager. He also has a nice bit as an office boy in SKINNER'S DRESS SUIT. Yes, he tends to be insufferable in his early talkies- it seems obvious that the studios didn't know what to do with him except use him as a Mama's Boy type - occasionally funny (as in ON WITH THE SHOW) or as a conventional juvenile - generally a failure because of his adenoidal voice and weak singing. Everything clicked when he got the role of Dagwood Bumstead.

No it didn't. Lake's the reason I can't stand the Blondie series, no matter how much I like Penny Singleton. Lakes is annoying in everything he does, silent or sound and the voice makes it a lot worse. Top it off, he was apparently a jerk in real life. Who needs him.


RICHARD M ROBERTS (I'll bet Pauline Kael liked Arthur Lake too. )

[Richard Finegan]

One of Arthur Lake's lost gems is the silent version of Harold Teen ... at least I believe it is lost.

The silent Harold Teen is at UCLA. (Or at least it was when I saw the nitrate print there in 1996.) From looking at their inventory back then it looked like they have preservation material on it as well.

Regards,
Martin

The 35mm print that was shown at Capitolfest on August 13, 2011 was from The Library of Congress. So if UCLA also has a print that's wonderful! As Eric mentioned the print from LoC shown at Capitolfest looked great. And it turned out to be one of the most popular movies shown that week-end (which I was happy to see, as I as the one who pretty much requested it be shown at Capitolfest after a friend and I watched it at LoC several years ago.)

Hey, any movie that features Alice White as a character named "Giggles Dewberry" has got my attention - even if Arthur Lake is in it too!

[Richard Finegan]

Did anyone see, or record DANCE HALL (1929) which was on TCM this week?

A friend of mine had planned on recording it, but there was a hitch in the proceedings. I have never seen the beautiful Olive Borden in talkies and wonder how she came off.

Got it recorded complete and lookin' good, if you need a copy.

[Richard Finegan]

Did anyone see, or record DANCE HALL (1929) which was on TCM this week?

A friend of mine had planned on recording it, but there was a hitch in the proceedings. I have never seen the beautiful Olive Borden in talkies and wonder how she came off.

SHE came off delightfully...it was that insufferable, whining idiot Arthur Lake that made the picture almost unwatchable. Whose idea was it to pair such a delectable dish as Olive with that sickening sap? This could have been a great favorite of mine with any other jeuvenile lead substituting for crybaby Lake. The only role I'd take pleasure in seeing him play is that of a punching-bag in a Dead-End Kids picture.

Margaret Seddon played lake's mother in DANCE HALL. No wonder she got so pixilated a few years later!

[entredeuxguerres]

Got it recorded complete and lookin' good, if you need a copy.

Your copy exhibits no out-of-synch dialog? One or two of these lapses (in my copy) are as bad as the worst in "Deuling Cavaliers."

[entredeuxguerres]

Hey, any movie that features Alice White as a character named "Giggles Dewberry" has got my attention - even if Arthur Lake is in it too!

Any movie that features Alice White in any role whatsoever gets MY attention!

[Richard Finegan]

Hey, any movie that features Alice White as a character named "Giggles Dewberry" has got my attention - even if Arthur Lake is in it too!

Any movie that features Alice White in any role whatsoever gets MY attention!

Well, of course! Mine too! Even her later stuff. She's always worth seeing!

[Richard Finegan]

Got it recorded complete and lookin' good, if you need a copy.

Your copy exhibits no out-of-synch dialog? One or two of these lapses (in my copy) are as bad as the worst in "Deuling Cavaliers."

That's the way it was broadcast - much of it was way-out-of-synch. There are a few different theories as to why in the IMDb user comments. Not sure exactly what is correct.
So, anyone who recorded it got the same print- it wasn't the fault of anyone's cable or TV or recording device.

But I'm okay with it...I'm just glad to be able to see it at all. Too many other 1929 movies are lost or inaccessible.
And as you noted earlier, Olive Borden was delightful. Plus Helen Kaiser (any other Helen Kaiser fans out there?)
And I can't forget to mention the wonderful Dorothy Granger (as the female half of the ballroom dancing team Arnold & Dalton). She told me back in the early 1990's that this was her first movie and that her partner in the scene was her brother. Not sure how accurate that is, but that's what she said, and I haven't heard anything to the contrary since then.

[drednm]

I'll probably never get to see Lake's Harold Teen but at least I've seen the talkie version with Hal LeRoy.

[Richard Finegan]

I'll probably never get to see Lake's Harold Teen but at least I've seen the talkie version with Hal LeRoy.

They're actually two completely different stories, just based on the same characters. The 1934 movie is NOT a remake of the 1928.

So...what I'm saying is: see the 1928 version if at all possible!

[JFK]

No it didn't. Lake's the reason I can't stand the Blondie series, no matter how much I like Penny Singleton. Lake is annoying in everything he does, silent or sound and the voice makes it a lot worse. Top it off, he was apparently a jerk in real life. Who needs him.
RICHARD M ROBERTS (I'll bet Pauline Kael liked Arthur Lake too. )

Significantly, “Arthur Lake” is an anagram (almost) for “Author Kael.”

[entredeuxguerres]

If you can pull that off JFK, try your hand at an "upgraded" Dancehall with idiot Lake digitally replaced by Dick Powell.

[greta de groat]

I DVR's this and had some unexpected free time last night. Oh my, Lake is an absolute atrocity. Slight enough film anyway, but he just made it horrible. And Olive with her hair he'd blonde? Took me half of the film to recognized her, I kepT waiting for her to show up and give the film some interest, but sadly she seemed nothing special here to me, and her character was irritatingly dumb. I'm thinking of deleting the other Arthur lake and Sue Carol filn i recorded. Had to take the bad taste out of my mouth with some Richard Dix and. Lois Wilson.

Greta

[drednm]

So did anyone get a decent copy of this off TCM? The copy I bought was not only out of sync but also out of ratio with everyone looking like 6-4 giants. This can't be what TCM aired.....

[entredeuxguerres]

Had to take the bad taste out of my mouth with some Richard Dix and. Lois Wilson.

Greta

If that's Lovin' the Ladies you mean, you could have watched Dancehall TWICE (God forbid!), and afterwards had mint-fresh breath! Not much of an opportunity for Lois, but one of Dix's best! Always like Bushell a lot as well.

[entredeuxguerres]

This can't be what TCM aired.....

I noticed no particular distortion, but about half of it was out-of-synch...some of it badly. All that, however, was less punishing than Lake's idiocy.

[skyvue]

I don't think for a moment that the sound was out of synch. I think some scenes were overdubbed -- and horribly so. Frequently the dialogue one heard didn't match what the actors were saying -- not just that the timing was off, but that different words were being spoken.

And I agree that Arthur Lake's performance in this movie is egregious. I hoped never to to see a more annoying romantic lead than Oscar Shaw in THE COCOANUTS, but Lake certainly gives Shaw a run for his money.

[entredeuxguerres]

I don't think for a moment that the sound was out of synch. I think some scenes were overdubbed -- and horribly so. Frequently the dialogue one heard didn't match what the actors were saying -- not just that the timing was off, but that different words were being spoken.

And I agree that Arthur Lake's performance in this movie is egregious. I hoped never to to see a more annoying romantic lead than Oscar Shaw in THE COCOANUTS, but Lake certainly gives Shaw a run for his money.

Suppose it's possible that early sound recording could be so problematic that dubbing here & there might be employed as a cut-rate alternative to re-shooting, but that such an atrocious job of it would have been released for exhibition rather strains credulity.

[drednm]

So what Olive Borden films survive?

[Richard M Roberts]

So what Olive Borden films survive?

AIR POCKETS (1924)
TOO MANY MAMMAS (1924)
JUST A GOOD GUY(1924)
SHOULD HUSBANDS BE WATCHED? (1925)
TELL IT TO A POLICEMAN(1925)
THE UNEASY THREE(1925)
FIG LEAVES (1926)
THREE BAD MEN (1926)
THE MONKEY TALKS 91927)
DANCE HALL (1929)
HELLO SISTER (1930)
THE SOCIAL LION (1930)
CHLOE (1934)


There is a rumor that MOMA has material on THE JOY GIRL (1927), but I've never known it to be run anywhere.

Olive is especially luscious in THE MONKEY TALKS, and CHLOE is a jaw-dropper. Probably the best-looking exploitation picture ever made (it was directed by Marshall Neilan). Olive plays a mystery girl raised by a Voodoo-Queen of the Swamps and the big question is whether she's black or white. Absolutely full-tilt bozo picture and Olive also looks pretty darn hot, sadly, it was her last movie.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

[drednm]

So when TCM aired this film, there was no comment made about the out-of-sync sound?