Cinema Tuesdays {Lady of Burlesque}

In an old house on Broadway that was covered in lights, lived fifty little girls in two chorus lines.

For my burlesque month, I wanted to do one of the movies that Gypsy Rose Lee starred in for Michael Todd, but I haven't been able to find a copy and I can find a copy of almost any movie. Why hasn't Dita been doing her job and pushing for them to be released?

So instead, I'm doing Lady of Burlesque, which is the 1943 adaptation of Miss Lee's novel The G-String Murders. Although a bit watered down, thanks to the Code, it's still quite daring and a mostly accurate portrayal of backstage burlesque, or at least according to Miss Lee it is, and who are we to question her.

Barbara Stanwyck plays Dixie Daisy, the headliner who spends her spare time fending off the advances of the cute comic Biff Brannigan with her quick wit. But then someone starts murdering her fellow strippers with their own g-strings, which is a horrible way to go and the cops suspect her! But despite cat fights, booze, comics, sabotage, broken sinks, police raids and general backstage bitchiness, Dixie still manages to solve the murders and get the guy by the end of the picture.

Also, Barbara Stanwyck is totally bad-ass!

This is the G-String song, which is quite daring for a Code film, if you use your imagination for when they cut away from her bumps. And yes, she is really singing. Sorry for the water mark, I couldn't find an alternative video.

You may have noticed that the quality of the screen caps is really crappy. That's because Lady of Burlesque is in public domain. Although this means that it is unlikely that it'll ever be restored, is does mean that you can download it completely legally here from the internet archive.