Lady of Burlesque (1943)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

William A. Wellman

Writers:

James Gunn (writer)
Gypsy Rose Lee (novel)

Release Date:

1 May 1943 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Horror | Music | Mystery | Romance

Tagline:

GIRLS and GAGS! MUSIC and MIRTH!

Plot:

Sassy Dixie Daisy is the hot new attraction at a former opera house that's been turned into a burlesque theater...

Plot Keywords:

Theater | Burlesque | Grandfather Granddaughter Relationship | New York City | Rivalry

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Barbara Stanwyck	...	Deborah Hoople, aka Dixie Daisy
Michael O'Shea	...	Biff Brannigan
Iris Adrian	...	Gee Gee Graham
Charles Dingle	...	Inspector Harrigan
J. Edward Bromberg	...	S.B. Foss
Frank Conroy	...	'Stacchi' Stacciaro
Victoria Faust	...	Lolita La Verne
Gloria Dickson	...	Dolly Baxter
Marion Martin	...	Alice Angel
Frank Fenton	...	Russell Rogers
Stephanie Bachelor	...	The Princess Nirvena
Pinky Lee	...	Mandy
Eddie Gordon	...	Officer Pat Kelly
Janis Carter	...	Janine
Lou Lubin	...	Moey, the Candy Butcher

Also Known As:

Striptease Lady (UK)
The G-String Murders

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Sweden:15

Company:

Hunt Stromberg Productions

Trivia:

Craig Rice, mystery writer from the 1940s and roommate of Gypsy Rose Lee, ghost-wrote "The G-String Murders" for her.

Quotes:

Biff: What's the matter with comics?
Dixie: I went into show business when I was seven years old. Two days later the first comic I ever met stole my piggy bank in a railroad station in Portland. When I was 11 the comics were looking at my ankles. When I was 14 they were...just looking. When I was 20 I'd been stuck with enough lunch checks to pay for a three-story house. Naw, they're shiftless, dame-chasing, ambitionless...

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Lady in Question Is Charles Busch (2005)

Soundtrack:

Take It off the E-String

Who Is Killing The Great Ladies of Burlesque?

Barbara Stanwyck got to really show her versatility in Lady of Burlesque doing a couple of numbers that did make me wonder why she didn't try to do a full blown musical. Of course she had the best of inspiration in a book that was partially written by the one and only Gypsy Rose Lee.

Gypsy needed a ghostwriter, but she certainly knew the world of burlesque as none other. So with Craig Rice's ghostwriting they fashioned a murder mystery set in the burlesque world. Somebody is killing the strippers at a burlesque theater and Barbara isn't sitting around waiting to be the next victim. With the help of comic Michael O'Shea she's going to find the perpetrator before she gets done in with her G String.

A lovely group of movie queens help Barbara out in this film. Playing some of her peers are Iris Adrian, Gloria Dickson, Marion Martin, Janis Carter, Stephanie Bachelor, and Victoria Faust. Some of these don't make it to the end of the picture.

Playing another of the comics is Pinky Lee who I well remember because I used to watch his kid's television show back in my salad days. Pinky was as frantic as I remember him and he does a mean jitterbug with Stanwyck.

William Wellman as director keeps the pace of things going pretty nicely. And if you're a leg man, this picture will leave you nothing to complain about. As for the murderer, here's a hint, it's roughly the equivalent of the butler doing it.