After the Dance: A quick, dusty spin through the thirties

Is it worth your hour?

If you like movies that move fast and don't bother with much heavy lifting, sure, After the Dance is a decent way to kill sixty minutes. If you’re looking for something that respects your time or offers a complex plot, you’re probably gonna hate it. It’s a B-movie through and through, and it knows it.

Nancy Carroll is really the only reason to stick around. She’s got this nervous energy that makes her feel like the only real person on screen. When she’s dancing with George Murphy, the movie actually finds a heartbeat for a second. It’s not exactly Peg o' My Heart in terms of star power, but it works.

The plot, or lack thereof

The whole thing is basically a series of coincidences glued together with stage makeup. Man escapes prison? Check. Meets a girl who just happens to be a dancer? Obviously. They get famous overnight because that’s how show business works in these old dramas.

There is this one guy, Jack La Rue, who plays the jealous ex-partner with such intensity it’s almost funny. He’s lurking in shadows for half the film. Every time he showed up, I couldn't help but think of the low-stakes villains in Diplomaniacs. He’s just there to be the roadblock, really.

The ending is a total bummer, but it's the kind of "well, that’s life" bummer that the 1930s loved to serve up. The cops are surprisingly cold-hearted. They don't give a rip about the guy's innocence. They just want the paperwork filed.

• Nancy Carroll’s dress in the second act is surprisingly modern.
• George Murphy looks like he’s trying to dance his way out of a tight spot, which, I guess, is the whole point.
• The prison break scene happens so fast you’ll blink and miss it.
• There’s a weird amount of background chatter in the club scenes that sounds like it was recorded in a bathtub.

I wouldn't call this a classic. It’s just a little piece of celluloid that happened to survive. It’s got that dusty feeling, you know? Like it’s been sitting in a trunk for eighty years. Sometimes that’s enough. 💃🎞️