Movie review - "Dance Hall" (1950) ** (warning: spoilers)

Ealing try making a film about women and the result isn't very good though it has moments of interest. The basic idea is strong - a look at four young friends who work in a factory and live for their nights at the dance hall. A 1950 version of Sex in the City in working class Britain, great - or, more accurately, a 1950 version of Saturday Night Fever from the female point of view. You can see the appeal - a bit of social realism, some dancing, great roles for up and coming stars.

The cast is decent - you've got Natasha Parry, Jane Hylton, Diana Dors and Petula Clark as the gals with Donald Houston and Bonar Colleano as dudes.

And the central love quadrangle is strong  - Parry goes out with Houston but wants to dance with Colleano, making Houstin jealous and Hytlon loves Houston.

But the film makes key mistakes. Parry and Hylton are easily the least charismatic of the four lead. Clark and especially Dors leap off the screen with charisma - but they have minor roles. Dors looks as though she's going to be a lot of fun, and she is, as a saucy minx out for a good time, but has this terrible subplot where a weird guy chases her and ends up dancing with her.  (Dors really should have played Hylton's role - the minx in love with the guy she cant have). Clark is fresh and pretty but doesn't have enough screentime and doesn't even sing.

Too much time is spent on boorish Houston - I think Ealing really wanted to make a film about guys and so keep slanting the project towards him. And he's a horrible possessive character. It might have worked had Houston realised that he and Parry were different and he should be with Hytlon but Houston and Parry get married and Colleano is revaled to be a sleaze and... urgh.

Fascinating look into society at the time - the factory work, the dance halls. The guy who runs the dance hall is really sleazy and I'm not sure the filmmakers intended him to be so.