The Dance of Life

The Dance of Life
Directed by	John Cromwell; A. Edward Sutherland
Written by	Benjamin Glazer; Julian Johnson (titles)
Based on	the play Burlesque; by George Manker Watters and Arthur Hopkins
Starring	Hal Skelly; Nancy Carroll
Music by	Adolph Deutsch; Vernon Duke; John Leipold
Cinematography	J. Roy Hunt
Edited by	George Nichols Jr.
Production; company	Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	August 16, 1929 (New York City) September 7, 1929 (U.S.)
Running time	115 minutes
Country	USA
Language	English

The Dance of Life (1929) is the first of three film adaptations of the popular Broadway play Burlesque, the others being Swing High, Swing Low (1937) and When My Baby Smiles at Me (1948).

The Dance of Life was shot at Paramount's Astoria Studios in Astoria, Queens, and included Technicolor sequences, directed by John Cromwell and A. Edward Sutherland.

In 1957, the film entered the public domain (in the USA) because the claimants did not renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication.^[1]

Cast

Hal Skelly as "Skid" Johnson
Nancy Carroll as Bonny King
Dorothy Revier as Sylvia Marco
Ralph Theodore as Harvey Howell
Charles D. Brown as Lefty
Al St. John as Bozo
May Boley as Gussie
Oscar Levant as Jerry
Marjorie Kane (uncredited)

Plot

Burlesque comic Ralph "Skid" Johnson (Skelly), and specialty dancer Bonny Lee King (Carroll), end up together on a cold, rainy night at a train station, after she fails an audition and he complains about her treatment by the impresario of the show and quits. They decide to team up and apply for work with a much better show on "the big wheel".

The two things they have in life are dancing and each other, if she could only keep him away from the booze, long enough to keep dancing.

A tragi-comedic, burlesque version of All That Jazz, from an earlier era.

Soundtrack

"True Blue Lou"

Music by Richard A. Whiting

Lyrics by Sam Coslow and Leo Robin

Sung by Hal Skelly

"The Flippity Flop"

Music by Richard A. Whiting