Twilightfa
Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.
SeeQuant
Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction
Bumpy Chip
It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
Lechuguilla
It's a good thing Barbara Stanwyck graduated to better scripts. Had she remained in films like this she would never have become a star. Hubbub and chaotic backstage drama in a NYC burlesque theater set the stage, so to speak, for a backstage murder.Stanwyck plays Dixie Daisy, a slightly sleazy performer who sings and dances to an audience composed mostly of salivating old men. Dixie's female backup performers are young, curvaceous, bawdy "dames" who wear over-sized hats. The theater's backstage milieu looks and sounds as mocking and caustic as one would expect for such an ignoble place. And amid this baseness a murderer lurks.The script is talky and the pace seems rushed. Despite the tacky superficiality of the characters, they all seem troubled and hurting at a deeper level. The plot moves along quickly with occasional stage performances interspersed with interpersonal relations, not the least of which is a budding romance between Dixie and comic Biff Brannigan (Michael O'Shea). The film's tone abruptly changes, at the midpoint plot turn, from snappy and light to serious and subdued once the murder occurs. The whodunit mystery is interesting, and the identity of the killer was quite a surprise to me.B&W cinematography is adequate if ever so slightly blurry. Sound quality in the copy I watched was better than most films from that era. Prod design appears cheap and minimal. Casting is acceptable except for Stanwyck, who looks too old for the role of Dixie. Yet there's almost no better actress, regardless of what role she happens to be playing. Those lady's hats, enormous and grandiose, add interest to the visuals."Lady Of Burlesque" presents us with a 1940s theater setting that looks and sounds cheap and tawdry. But the murder mystery element adds depth and interest that ups what would otherwise be my negative opinion of this film. And despite being poorly cast, Barbara Stanwyck slaps on considerable value that only she could have provided in that film era.
wes-connors
Barbara Stanwyck (as "Dixie Daisy") is a striptease dancer, singing "Take it off the E-String (Play it on the G-String)" while shaking her booty. Stand-up comic Michael O'Shea (as Biff Brannigan) is especially turned on by Ms. Stanwyck, but she likes to steer clear of clowns. Stanwyck thinks comics bring bad vibes. She and the admiring Mr. O'Shea are among the New York City stage performers hit by a series of "G-String Murders" (stripper Gypsy Rose Lee's more titillating title). But, don't expect to see women modeling the equivalent of today's "thong" or "string bikini" - except around their pretty necks.You've got to appreciate Stanwyck putting such energy into an inappropriate part; she approaches acting assignments with admirable professionalism. "Lady of Burlesque" seems more suited to Betty Grable or Rita Hayworth, but Stanwyck goes for it without showing distaste or boredom with the role. O'Shea keeps step, with director William A. Wellman guiding the players. Sexy blondes Iris Adrian (as Gee Gee Graham) and Marion Martin (as Alice Angel) are worth catching. J. Edward Bromberg (as S.B. Foss) manages to stand out in the leggy crowd. And, sophomoric comic Pinky Lee (as Mandy) is fresh.***** Lady of Burlesque (5/1/43) William A. Wellman ~ Barbara Stanwyck, Michael O'Shea, Iris Adrian, J. Edward Bromberg
Cristi_Ciopron
LADY OF BURLESQUE,an old humble screwball mystery ,very clumsily made, has one thing of real interest—Mrs. Stanwyck, at her rather hottest, as a sex—bomb. As for the rest, it's a quite insipid screwball comedy, unpretentious B slapdash. I find this genre as admissible as the sleazy fancily violent thrillers of the '70s.Mrs. Stanwyck gives a rather standard performance as a wisecracker ;she makes such nice remarks about how men were looking at her ankles when she was 11;today, such confessions would sound utterly unacceptable. But LADY OF … was made in a time when people were having so much more fun ….LADY OF BURLESQUE is about a couple of murders in a burlesque theater ; Mrs. Stanwyck is the Colombina, and an Irishman is her Pierrot; hence the screwball. The execution is, as I already stated, silly and clumsy.Balast.
writers_reign
If you're looking for authenticity, atmosphere and the stink of flop sweat then this is for you. Gypsy Rose Lee prevailed on room-mate Craig Rice to help whip her memoirs of burlesque into shape and throw in a murder or two for ballast and William A. Wellman does his usual pro job behind the camera. In 1943 there was no way you could show stripping - which was, of course, the main attraction of burlesque - but what we do get is actual Top Banana-Second Banana routines that had been used in burlecue since year One. With hindsight we can compare the atmosphere to Gypsy -both in stage and film form - and Sugar Babies, which revived the format in the eightiesbut this is the next best thing to being there. Don't miss it.
