..is Doris standing on that stage in that tight black dress singing "Ten Cents a Dance"...never before had Doris appeared more adult and sensual onscreen...she just sizzled in this scene and just smashed her previous screen image to bits with this one scene IMO. Thoughts?
shareMy God yes. Doris Day singing "Ten Cents a Dance" gets me every time. She goes through a gamut of emotions just singing that song. It rather neatly encapsulates the entire theme of the movie. Never has Doris been more sexy nor in better acting form. It's worth watching the entire movie for just that scene.
shareDoris Day: An incredible talent. Most people under the age of 50 may only know of her from referencing her hit songs "que sera sera" and one or two others. However... Doris was thought of as one of the best vocalists of the "Big Band Era." Starting out wanting to be a dancer, she unfortunately broke her leg in a car accident. While recovering she had access to her uncles bedroom which was situated above a tavern that the family owned. The jukebox played tunes of the 40's and 50's including some of Doris' favorites from Benny Goodman and Ella Fitzgerald. She could sing, oh how she could sing.
In "Love me or leave me" she plays the popular Ziegfeld star and female vocalist of the 20's, Ruth Etting. Doris is at her best as Etting. Many who have played leading male rolls with Doris preach about how good an actress she really was. We who know about Doris Day already know what a superb singer she was, a really talented voice that one could recognize anywhere, anytime.
The scene that is referred to where Doris is singing in a black dress is referred to as one which destroys Doris' clean "girl next door" image. I don't agree with that because of this particular scene, but I do agree that Doris' sex appeal is certainly proudly displayed by the producers. One of indisputable beauty, Doris also had a beautiful figure which we can clearly see. Very few of Doris' scenes in her well know film work, take advantage of her superb voluptuousness. In "Young at Heart" she is seen in short shorts and other garb that display her treasures. We get to know more of her there. Yet, it seems to me that Doris does keep her "Virginal" clean type of characteristics throughout her career. One of the great vocal talents of her time, an under rated actress, one who was chased by every guy in Hollywood for a date, (only to marry an embezzeler, Marty Melcher) we do get a chance to see how well Doris Day can turn on in a sexy roll. I attribute this to superb acting and then perhaps some hormones of her own are on display. The black dress scene? Ok, if that scene did it for you, i have no problem with that.
"The jukebox played tunes of the 40's and 50's...." You must mean the 30's and 40's. By the fifties she was in movies.
Ten Cents a Dance is the outstanding song from this film, that is full of great music. It was written by one of my favorite composing teams, Rodgers and Hart. When Doris Day belts out the bitter lyrics in the black gown that contrasts with her blonde hair and shows off her figure as in none of her other movies I've seen, she is a knockout! Ruth Etting never worked as a dance hall hostess. But after Day's portrayal shows the singer employed that way as the film opens, her singing of Ten Cents a Dance fits in with the mood of the character. We feel for her and know why she lets herself be brutally dominated
by Snyder to get ahead.
Day was the best choice for this role because she had been a bandsinger with Les Brown in the 1940's. She later said her years with him were the happiest ones of her life. That was before she went to Hollywood and became a big star.
Despite Ruth Etting objecting to the casting of Day in Love Me Or Leave Me, this may have been the role that was the closest to Day's actual life. She, unlike Etting, didn't get her career started by a gangster. But she perhaps had an understanding of an ambitious young singer struggling for fame. Like Etting, Day was abused by her first husband.
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This is one of those films that has MANY excellent scenes, thanks to the fireworks between Day and Cagney; one of the oddest and most electrifying teamings in movie history.
"Baby, I don't care."
That scene and that song is so revealing. It is not what you expect from Doris Day. Other more sensual singers couldn't have given any more of a raunchy performance than she gave. One of the highlight scenes from Doris Day's career.
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