The Dancing Years (film)

The Dancing Years is a 1950 musical British film based on the musical by Ivor Novello.[2]

The Dancing Years
Argentine poster
Directed byHarold French
Produced byWarwick Ward
Written byWarwick Ward
Jack Whittingham
Based onthe play by Ivor Novello
StarringDennis Price
Gisèle Préville
Patricia Dainton
CinematographyStephen Dade
Edited byRichard Best
Production
company
Distributed byAssociated British-Pathé
Release date
1950
Running time
98 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Box office£205,868 (UK)[1]

Plot

A pre-First World War love affair between a young composer (Dennis Price) and a star of the musical stage (Giselle Preville) falters through a misunderstanding which causes her to leave him and marry a prince (Anthony Nicholls).[3]

Cast

Production

Dennis Price was loaned by the Rank Organisation to ABPC to play the lead role.[4]

Reception

Critical

In The New York Times, Bosley Crowther wrote, "the British obviously spared no expense in bringing Ivor Novello's "The Dancing Years" to the screen. For, in the operetta, which came to the Little Carnegie on Saturday, Vienna, before and after the first World War, was never lovelier than it is in the panchromatic shades of Technicolor; the singers, ballet corps, sets and staging are as handsome as any conjured up in a fairy tale; and the scenarists have not missed a cliché in recounting the bittersweet saga of lovelorn artists' lives...Mr. Novello's music is pleasing but his plot is painfully transparent...Dennis Price, as the minor-league Johann Strauss of the piece, ages gracefully and is appropriately glum throughout the proceedings. As the operetta star and his opposite number, Giselle Preville is attractive, wears the clothes of the period (1910-1926) with distinction and does well vocally by a lilting number titled, "Waltz of My Heart." One of Miss Preville's lines, however, is not quite pointed. "Vienna", she says at the beginning of this yarn, "needs a new composer." Judging by "The Dancing Years", Vienna could use a new story." [5]

Box Office

Trade papers called the film a "notable box office attraction" in British cinemas in 1950.[6] According to Kinematograph Weekly the 'biggest winners' at the box office in 1950 Britain were The Blue Lamp, The Happiest Days of Your Life, Annie Get Your Gun, The Wooden Horse, Treasure Island and Odette, with "runners up" being Stage Fright, White Heat, They Were Not Divided, Trio, Morning Departure, Destination Moon, Sands of Iwo Jima, Little Women, The Forsythe Saga, Father of the Bride, Neptune's Daughter, The Dancing Years, The Red Light, Rogues of Sherwood Forest, Fancy Pants, Copper Canyon, State Secret, The Cure for Love, My Foolish Heart, Stromboli, Cheaper by the Dozen, Pinky, Three Came Home, Broken Arrow and Black Rose.[7]

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References
  1. Vincent Porter, 'The Robert Clark Account', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol 20 No 4, 2000 p493
  2. The Dancing Years at BFI
  3. "The Dancing Years | Film review and movie reviews". Radio Times. 8 April 2013. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  4. "NOVELLO HIT TO BE SCREENED". The Mail. Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 23 April 1949. p. 3 Supplement: SUNDAY MAGAZINE. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
  5. Crowther, Bosley (29 January 1951). "Movie Review – The Dancing Years – THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; 'The Company She Keeps,' With Lizabeth Scott Playing a Parole Officer, Arrives at Loew's Criterion At the Little Carnegie At the Stanley". NY Times. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  6. Robert Murphy, Realism and Tinsel: Cinema and Society in Britain 1939-48 2003 p212
  7. Lant, Antonia (1991). Blackout : reinventing women for wartime British cinema. Princeton University Press. p. 233.
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