Bolero

This is a surprisingly good '30s dance film from Paramount. It is neither a frothy comedy nor a dated revue like so many musicals of the day. There's a bit of a story, some nifty dialogue and a whole lot of style.

The story follows Raoul (perfectly cast George Raft) as he rises from coal mine laborer to be a top dancer in pre-Great War Europe. Unrelenting and egocentric, he goes through a line of dance partners from whom he flees romantic entanglements until war changes everything. As unlikely as the plot sounds on paper, director Wesley Ruggles easily guides the action from Raoul's unfortunate experience in an amateur theater to a beer garden to a Paris nightclub to a London club to his own hot spot. Along the way there is the desperately possessive Frances Drake, erotic fan dancer Sally Rand, and best of all Carole Lombard as Helen, the woman Raoul really falls for.

Those who are watching the film just to see Lombard have to wait a while before she first shows up. In fact, it is even longer before we first hear the music of "Bolero" itself. But it's all worth the wait.

The dances are a great representation of Raft's vaudeville and nightclub act before he hit Hollywood. The portrayal of the first Paris club, in fact, recalls a very young Raft's real employment as a tea-room gigolo - dancing with dowagers for tips with the possibility of having to fulfill other obligations afterward. Sex has a constant presence here, as is usually the case with Raft's adult fare. The hint of it spices the dialogue and drives the action. Rand's famous fan dance is a sensual highlight, and Lombard easily strips down to her skivvies as well.

A major part of the consistent mood is Leo Tover's cinematography. He dramatically captured the dances as well as emphasizing the performances of the actors with light and shadow. Even in the distance shots of the Bolero number when dance doubles do the heavy lifting, there is never a break in the moment. Tover and Ruggles set up the film to play to Raft's strengths and let Lombard be Lombard.

As with so many movies, the grotesquely gruesome World War I is hacked down to about two minutes, but it does cause a huge turn in the plot. And believably so, as the long-term effects of poison gas really did ruin the lives of those who survived the war itself.

It is odd to see Raft and William Frawley playing brothers (they are almost different species), and it is not explained until very late in the film that they are only half-brothers. Also coming late is the sudden information that Raoul's mother was Belgian, making it convenient for him to join the Belgian army as a publicity stunt.

But the movie isn't about plot - it's about mood and style. This is the only "A" musical Raft was fortunate enough to get. The studios threw him into other musicals occasionally, but they were all cheaper, slap-dash affairs (like the vastly inferior "Rumba" with lover Carole again) trying to make the same buck without half the production value and certainly without quality direction.

George Raft's character, Raoul, is embarrassed at a talent show as the film opens and he does his very fast Charleston - it really is a sight to see - and the crowd boos as he is pulled off stage by the "cane around the neck" method.

He vows to succeed at dancing, and finds a good female dancing partner, but she is demanding that she be his romantic partner as well. Hungry to continue the fame and cash, Raoul pretends that he likes her that way. One night when she quits in a jealous rage, in walks Helen Hathaway (Carole Lombard) and offers to be his dance partner. Raoul accepts on the condition that she pass an audition, and promptly shows the clingy partner the door.

One of the oddest scenes to somebody who doesn't know about the precode era is the scene where Helen auditions. She strips down to her underwear in Raoul's hotel room so she can freely move as Raft says that she could be naked for all he cared, this is strictly business. Six months later this would not have been allowed, but from about 1930-1934, scenes such as this were very common in film.

Helen and Raoul do become a famous dance team, all the time talking a little too much about how they do not care for each other romantically, that they are strictly business. Things look like they might be turning romantic for awhile. Then, while in France, the native Belgian Raoul, noticing all of the soldiers in the audience, stops mid performance to tell the audience he will be enlisting in the army tomorrow. Helen is impressed with his patriotism, only to find out it is all a stunt - Raoul says the war should last "two weeks tops", but will be great publicity after this little skirmish is over. This type of blatant manipulation repulses Helen and she walks out on the partnership and the building relationship. How will this all work out since we know WWI did not last just two weeks? Watch and find out.

Points of interest include Ray Milland with one of the silliest looking fake mustaches of all time as a wealthy suitor of Helen's, Carole Lombard early in her career when she was playing the tall elegant type, not the screwball comedienne, fan dancer Sally Rand doing an actual fan dance number, and of course George Raft being given an entire film in which to display his tremendously graceful dancing talents. Finally, there is William Frawley, later of I Love Lucy fame, as Raoul's brother and irascible agent.

I'd recommend it, if only to see Raft dance. Some movies that were actually about Raft as a dancer such as "Stolen Harmony" seemed to go to great trouble to NOT show Raft dancing. Why I'll never know.

This is a dance film very much in the classic mold. An arrogant but popular dancer is dumped by his/her partner/lover and takes a new partner in order to win a contest against the former, only to fall in love again, this time for real.

"Saturday Night Fever" any one?

What makes this movie so worth watching is not the plot, nor even the dancing: it is the manner in which it is presented.

George Raft, sleazy as ever, tells Carole Lombard, who has come to audition in his hotel room, to do so in her underwear. She complies without complaint. Later in the film Sally Rand performs her famous Fan Dance. Properly done, a woman hides her complete nudity behind two enormous ostrich feather fans, while keeping herself and the fans in constant motion.

It is safe to say that neither of these scenes would have been possible a year later, nor for another thirty after that.

If you enjoy precode films, and would like to see how far the studios would go in order to get those depression dollars, or could go to irritate the censors, this is a fine example.

In his eighties extravaganza "Les Uns et Les Autres" ,Claude Lelouch tried a new choreography for le Bolero de Maurice Ravel.It cannot hold a candle to the wonderful Raft/Lombard dancing.This extraordinary finale has also emotion and heart going for it,an emotion totally absent of Lelouch's too perfect and terribly cold sequence.

The story takes place in France 1910.A miner (Raft) becomes a Danseur Mondain.He 's not interested in his female partners and is a real heart breaker.His only purpose is to marry a rich woman.Enter a gorgeous woman (Lombard) who registers the same desire :she 's looking for a money match.So both agree not to fall in love with each other.

Outside the finale ,best scene is the first interrupted ballet : Raft realizes his military audience is not watching them ,talking about the war which has just begun.So they stop dancing and the band segues from Ravel's work to "La Marseillaise" oddly sung in English.

George Raft is excellent as an ambitious dancer (he was a Broadway dancer before coming to Hollywood) who is never satisfied. He works his way up thru beer gardens and honky tonks in the US to the height of London and Paris supper clubs, finally owning his own nightclub. Even if some of the long shots are doubled by a dance act, there is enough footage here to show that Raft could dance. Not an Astair or Kelly, but Raft could certainly move--in total opposition to his screen persona as rigid tough guy. Bolero is one of Raft's most likable and best film performances.

Carole Lombard, in horrible makeup, cashes in on her breakthrough year of 1934 (this film and Twentieth Century) in her role as Helen. Lombard and Raft were a good team and are quite believable as dancers. Lombard slinks thru a few numbers here before the big Bolero production number--she even danced in her underwear for her audition. Quite racy. Lombard remains one the the screen's great treasure even 60 years after her death.

Sally Rand is surprisingly good as Annette, and yes Rand does her famous "fan dance" complete with see-through negligee. She has a couple of really solid acting scenes as well. William Frawly is good as the Irish brother (Raft plays a Belgian), while Gertrude Michael and Frances Drake are solid in support. Ray Milland has a small role as Lombard's husband.

Bolero was a hit, a change of pace for Raft, a star-making role for Lombard. It spawned 1935's Rumba, which was not a hit. And even if the long shots are of Veloz and Yolanda, they are extremely well done. We see enough of Raft and Lombard in dance action to believe that ALL the dancing is done but them.

Nice film though I wish the Bolero dance number had been longer. This and Night After Night rank among Raft's best performances.