In a plot set in a single evening (as does Universal's forgotten 1932 drama, NIGHT WORLD starring Lew Ayres and Mae Clarke, with Boris Karloff as the night club proprietor, which featured one brief Busby Berkeley production number), Al loves the star dancer, Ynez (Dolores Del Rio), who loves her partner, Harry (Ricardo Cortez), but he is carrying on an affair with a businessman's wife, Liane (Kay Francis), etc. Jolson, in his first Warner Brothers musical after a four year absence, fits his role to perfection as Al Wonder, entertainer and proprietor of The Wonder Bar night club in Paris.
It's one of the most elaborate musicals to star Al Jolson, with choreography by the Million Dollar Dance Director, Busby Berkeley.
#Reraser gay bar song movie
WONDER BAR (First National, 1934), directed by Lloyd Bacon, is a perfect example of a pre-code movie that dares to be daring and surprisingly different. Read the other comments on this site for the story and viewer outrage. not too much a stretch for Joel Grey in 1972 singing Wilkommen and getting an Oscar! Find WONDERBAR and show it to everyone you know! Colossal and bent as all hell. and this is all just starters! On top of all this is Al Jolson leering and bellowing, all lustful and creepy. The scene where two turkey -like old dames ditch their husbands and together pick up the one gigolo (planning a threesome) is a screamer.he clinches the job with the incestuous note "You remind me of my mother" to which they very happily go for him. That is in between floating past the camera, lit from behind so we can see how sheer their garments are. Wait 'till you see the epic musical sequence called Don't Say Goodnight where a squadron of negligee clad showgirls dance around massive moving 'pillars' that have big veiny patterns weaving down from the top. It is created directly from the soundtrack so there is plenty of dialog as well. The orchestral score is excellent - and I have an LP from the 70s with GO INTO YOUR DANCE on the other side. All in the most glamorous setting and style imaginable.
I loved all 189 minutes of it because I kept re winding so many bits over and over just to gasp between laughs at the blatant unstoppable cheerfulness of it's violations. It just does not stop being deliberately immoral vulgar and hilariously rude for all of its 88 minutes.
#Reraser gay bar song code
Someone at Warners must have decided to create a shopping list of production possibilities directly from the planned Hays code of banned themes. There's no point explaining it or any other of the screwy dance numbers.including the leather clad S&M themed whipping (and murder) tango by "Inez and Harry".complete with loud cracks of the whip across the gorgeous face of the awesomely beautiful Delores Del Rio. Deleriously vulgar and immoral in every scene, all set in a sensational nightclub for all ages and kinky tastes, each leering winking and squabbling, all set to foxtrots and waltzes re-imagined by Busby Berkeley and climaxing with the most hilariously offensive musical number of all time: Going To heaven On A Mule.
Along with DANTE'S INFERNO and THE MERRY WIDOW also made in 1934, I think this film is the reason the censorship Hays code was rigidly enforced in Hollywood for the next 30 years.