MovieChat Forums > Sally (1930) Discussion > I didn't care for it.

I didn't care for it.

posted 14 years ago by georgana
2 replies | jump to latest

Fortunately for me I saw this movie in a package deal of Joe E. Brown movies so I was able to absorb the cost of an awful movie. I am a big Joe E. Brown fan. He didn't get top billing in this movie but he should have. He was the only one in the cast that could act. Marilyn Miller's acting and dancing wasn't all that great. The story isn't convincing either. A waitress/part-time dancer goes to a high society party and passes herself off as "Madame Mascarova" and gets a contract to dance on Broadway without an audtion? Sorry but it just doesn't work that way. Dancers were a dime a dozen, especially in those days, and you had to be exceptional to even get an audition let alone a contract. Joe E. Brown started his career in show business as a child acrobat at 10 years old. He worked his way through burlesque and broadway until someone noticed him and wanted him to audition for the movies (for the sixth time - he had already been turned down at least five time before). If Joe were alive today, he would tell you show business is "not a soft touch."

[–] xnobozos 13 years ago

I think you're right, she's a good dancer, but nothing too exceptional. I think a mystique grew around her talents because she died so young and only made 3 movies. You must remember that Sally was a movie, a fictional story. Of course, people don't get signed instantly to Broadway leading roles because they appeared at a party, just like that witches don't get crushed to death when houses from Kansas fall on them in Oz, get it? My God, who ever heard of a place called Kansas anyway? :D

[–] cbalducc 10 years ago

Sally was one of a number of movies the studios produced shortly after the introduction of sound and an early form of Technicolor that required two pieces of film to be glued one on top of the other. Most of these movies were dull musicals and were quickly forgotten. Unfortunately, many color copies were thrown away, which is why many of these pictures are either lost or only available in black-and-white prints.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technicolor