Janie lives to dance and will dance anywhere, even stripping in a burlesque house. Tod Newton, the rich playboy, discovers her there and helps her get a job in a real Broadway musical being directed by Patch. Tod thinks he can get what he wants from Janie, Patch thinks Janie is using her charms rather than talent to get to the top, and Janie thinks Patch is the greatest. Steve, the stage manager, has the Three Stooges helping him manage all the show girls. Fred Astaire and Nelson Eddy make appearances as famous Broadway personalities.
Acting
Crawford's ferocious physicality sells every dance number
Production
The 'Electrical Ballet' — pure pre-code surrealist excess
Cinematography
Mirrors of Venus sequence: art deco fever dream
Director
Robert Z. Leonard
Joan Crawford
Janie Barlow
Clark Gable
Patch Gallagher
Franchot Tone
Tod Newton
May Robson
Dolly Todhunter
Winnie Lightner
Rosette LaRue
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Robert Benchley
Ward King
Ted Healy
Steve
Art Jarrett
Art
Grant Mitchell
Jasper Bradley Sr.
Nelson Eddy
Nelson Eddy
Maynard Holmes
Jasper Bradley Jr.
Sterling Holloway
Pinky
Moe Howard
Stagehand Moe
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was Fred Astaire's screen debut, though MGM didn't sign him afterward — he returned to Broadway until RKO cast him with Ginger Rogers in 1933's Flying Down to Rio.
The 'Electrical Ballet' and 'Mirrors of Venus' numbers showcase pre-Code Hollywood's brief permission to be genuinely weird and sensual before the Hays Code clamped down in 1934.
US
