Monday, December 8, 2025

Lady of Burlesque (1943)

  And now back to our regularly scheduled sex and murder movies.

Dixie Daisy (Barbara Stanwyck) is the headliner of a burlesque show at the old Opera House theater.  It's a good job, despite the constant overtures from the smitten comic relief (Michael O'Shea), until one of the other dancers (Victoria Faust) turns up dead, strangled by her own G-string.  With the cops cracking down, everyone in the company is a suspect.

The script was based on a mystery novel by the burlesque queen herself, Gypsy Rose Lee.  According to the Wikipedia entry, it's a fairly faithful adaptation in as much as the censors would allow.  I thought it was a really fun, light comic mystery with a little bit of an abrupt ending.  Costumes are by Edith Head and are amazing.  There are a couple of musical numbers, including the very famous "Take It Off the E String, Play It on the G String".  That one is sung by Stanwyck, who is a great actress but not a singer.  Still, it adds to the slapdash charm, if you let it.  

It's in the public domain but try and find a good print, if you can.  The one on Tubi is okay, although some of the sound is a little wobbly.  

No comments:

Post a Comment