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Dames

Screening on Film
Directed by Busby Berkeley and Ray Enright.
With Joan Blondell, Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler.
US, 1934, 35mm, black & white, 91 min.

Powell and Keeler star once again as the young lovers in a film which follows the now-established backstage formula. Blondell, who serenades a pile of men’s underwear in “Girl at the Ironing Board,” and ZaSu Pitts give the familiar scenario some welcome comic bite and Berkeley outdoes himself with “I Only Have Eyes for You,” a number in which Powell’s longing for his leading lady materializes in a sea of dancing girls donning Ruby Keeler masks. When Warner Brothers could think of no other way to describe Berkeley’s choreography, they coined the term “cinematerpsichorean.”

Part of film series

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All Together Now: The Cinematerpsichorean World Of Busby Berkeley

Current and upcoming film series

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Melville et Cie. at the Brattle