AFTER THE DANCE. Columbia, 1935. Nancy Carroll, George Murphy, Thelma Todd. Director: Leo Bulgakov.

   As you will have noted, Thelma Todd is in both this movie and the one I previously reviewed on this blog, Lightning Strikes Twice. This may not strike you as remarkable as it does me, so allow me to explain further. I recorded both movies back-to-back on the same home-made VHS tape back in 1991, but Lightning was shown on American Movie Classics, and a day or so later, After the Dance was on The Movie Channel.

   You might guess that there was some sort of anniversary of Thelma Todd’s suspicious death around that particular time, but she died in December 1935, and the movies were shown in August. I’m going to assume that it was just chance, until or unless you can persuade me otherwise.

   As for After the Dance, to get right to it, it’s – well – not very good. One reviewer on Amazon has called it a “proto-noir,” but while I concede the point, it isn’t one that would have occurred to me.

   It is a crime movie in part — in fact, for the most part — with only a semi-happy ending – which was, I admit, very uncommon in 1935 – but the story is sappy, and George Murphy’s character Jerry Davis, aka Jerry Blair, a nightclub entertainer who’s railroaded off to jail for a crime he didn’t really commit, simply accepts the bad fate that’s thrust upon him with far too little emotion for the person watching to care very much either.

   Thelma Todd, as Mabel Kane, might have saved him, since she was in the room when the death occurred (which was before the movie started), but she clams up – she’s the villainess in this one – and off to the lime pits he goes. Only to escape, accidentally – Jerry Davis doesn’t seem to do anything on his own initiative – and to be found by Anne Taylor (Nancy Carroll), a vivacious nightclub singer and dancer (and a sheer joy to watch) who puts Davis, now Blair, into her act.

   Where he becomes the star attraction, and whereby the movie changes coats like a chameleon and becomes a song-and-dance musical, and not a crime film at all. But of course fate (Thelma Todd) intervenes once again.

   I liked the part of the film that was a song-and-dance musical. Some of the other Amazon reviewers suggest that parts of the rest of the film are missing, especially a big chunk at the end. It could be; it’s a better theory than mine that the criminous portions of the proceedings were made up as they went along.

   Nancy Carroll was an awfully cute actress, though.