By Richard Harland Smith
Dance Hall
Brief Synopsis
A dance trophy winning young couple is temporarily split up when a playboy aviator leads the girl to believe he's in love with her.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Melville Brown
Director
Olive Borden
Gracie Nolan
Arthur Lake
Tommy Flynn
Margaret Seddon
Mrs. Flynn
Ralph Emerson
Ted Smith
Joseph Cawthorn
Bremmer
Film Details
Genre
Comedy
Drama
Musical
Release Date
Dec
27,
1929
Premiere Information
New York premiere: 14 Dec 1929
Production Company
RKO Productions
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the short story "Dance Hall" by Viña Delmar in Liberty Magazine (16 Mar 1929).
Technical Specs
Duration
60m
Sound
Mono (RCA Photophone System)
Color
Black and White
Film Length
5,700ft
(7 reels)
Synopsis
Tommy Flynn loves Gracie Nolan, a blonde hostess at the Paradise Dance Hall. One evening she is annoyed by a drunken truckdriver, and Ted Smith, a handsome young aviator, intervenes. Tommy, grateful for Ted's help, allows him to dance the prize contest with Gracie. Gracie falls madly in love with the glamorous aviator, to Tommy's despair. When Ted's plane crashes on a coast-to-coast flight, Gracie goes into a state of shock, then calls for Ted. Tommy learns that Ted is not seriously interested in Gracie and that actually he refuses to see her; Tommy then is badly beaten in a fight. Gracie realizes the extent of Tommy's sacrifice, and after their reunion they are married.
Director
Melville Brown
Director
Cast
Olive Borden
Gracie Nolan
Arthur Lake
Tommy Flynn
Margaret Seddon
Mrs. Flynn
Ralph Emerson
Ted Smith
Joseph Cawthorn
Bremmer
Helen Kaiser
Bee
Lee Moran
Ernie
Tom O'brien
Truckdriver
Crew
Film Details
Genre
Comedy
Drama
Musical
Release Date
Dec
27,
1929
Premiere Information
New York premiere: 14 Dec 1929
Production Company
RKO Productions
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the short story "Dance Hall" by Viña Delmar in Liberty Magazine (16 Mar 1929).
Technical Specs
Duration
60m
Sound
Mono (RCA Photophone System)
Color
Black and White
Film Length
5,700ft
(7 reels)
Articles
Dance Hall -
This early talkie from RKO Radio Pictures was a comeback attempt by silent screen actress Olive Borden, who had been one of Hollywood's most highly-paid actresses when she walked out on her Fox contract in 1927 after refusing to accept a salary cut. Branded as temperamental, the former "Joy Girl" drifted from studio to studio, accepting scattershot roles at Film Booking Offices of America, Columbia Pictures, Warner Bros.-First National and RKO Radio Pictures, making the transition along the way from silent to sound films. For Melville Brown's Dance Hall (1929) at RKO, Borden consented to change her trademark brunette bob from black to blonde, which brought the actress a much-needed publicity boost at the time. Adapted from a story by Viña Delmar, authoress of a string of scandalous novels exposing the seamy underbelly of the Jazz Age, and reflecting two of America's abiding diversions in the early years of the Great Depression - dancing and aviation - the script by Jane Murfin (coauthor of MGM's The Women) and Walter J. Ruben sets the plot in and around a Los Angeles dance hall, where the love of a poor young man (Arthur Lake, later Dagwood Bumstead in Columbia's long-running Blondie films) for a pretty taxi dancer is tested by the arrival of a charismatic pilot (Ralph Emerson). Dance Hall has a predictably happy ending but its leading lady was in real life not so fortunate. Having ended her career with a role in the Poverty Row voodoo melodrama Chloe (1934) and driven herself into bankruptcy, Olive Borden succumbed to alcohol addiction and died prematurely at age 41 in 1947.
By Richard Harland Smith
By Richard Harland Smith
Dance Hall -
This early talkie from RKO Radio Pictures was a comeback attempt by silent screen actress Olive Borden, who had been one of Hollywood's most highly-paid actresses when she walked out on her Fox contract in 1927 after refusing to accept a salary cut. Branded as temperamental, the former "Joy Girl" drifted from studio to studio, accepting scattershot roles at Film Booking Offices of America, Columbia Pictures, Warner Bros.-First National and RKO Radio Pictures, making the transition along the way from silent to sound films. For Melville Brown's Dance Hall (1929) at RKO, Borden consented to change her trademark brunette bob from black to blonde, which brought the actress a much-needed publicity boost at the time. Adapted from a story by Viña Delmar, authoress of a string of scandalous novels exposing the seamy underbelly of the Jazz Age, and reflecting two of America's abiding diversions in the early years of the Great Depression - dancing and aviation - the script by Jane Murfin (coauthor of MGM's The Women) and Walter J. Ruben sets the plot in and around a Los Angeles dance hall, where the love of a poor young man (Arthur Lake, later Dagwood Bumstead in Columbia's long-running Blondie films) for a pretty taxi dancer is tested by the arrival of a charismatic pilot (Ralph Emerson). Dance Hall has a predictably happy ending but its leading lady was in real life not so fortunate. Having ended her career with a role in the Poverty Row voodoo melodrama Chloe (1934) and driven herself into bankruptcy, Olive Borden succumbed to alcohol addiction and died prematurely at age 41 in 1947.
By Richard Harland Smith
