The Dance of Life (1929)
A vaudevillian working in a third-rate burlesque show suffers marital turmoil when success swells his head in this silent back-stage melodrama. He celebrates his stardom with a few drinks. Unfortunately, this leads to alcoholism and carousing with other women causing his wife to eventually leave him and find happiness with another. Meanwhile, the vaudevillian teeters on the brink of alcoholic ruin. Fortunately, just before he tumbles into an eternal bottomless pit of hopelessness, she returns to save him and marital bliss resumes. One of the dance scenes was filmed in early two-tone Technicolor. The film was later remade as Swing High, Swing Low (1937) and as When My Baby Smiles at Me (1948). ~ Tana Hobart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Nancy Carroll, Hal Skelly, (more)
- Director(s):
- John Cromwell, Edward Sutherland, (more)
Synopsis of The Dance of Life
A vaudevillian working in a third-rate burlesque show suffers marital turmoil when success swells his head in this silent back-stage melodrama. He celebrates his stardom with a few drinks. Unfortunately, this leads to alcoholism and carousing with other women causing his wife to eventually leave him and find happiness with another. Meanwhile, the vaudevillian teeters on the brink of alcoholic ruin. Fortunately, just before he tumbles into an eternal bottomless pit of hopelessness, she returns to save him and marital bliss resumes. One of the dance scenes was filmed in early two-tone Technicolor. The film was later remade as Swing High, Swing Low (1937) and as When My Baby Smiles at Me (1948). ~ Tana Hobart, Rovi
Complete Cast of The Dance of Life
- Nancy Carroll - Bonny Lee King/Bonny Kaye
- Dorothy Revier - Sylvia Marco
- Oscar Levant - Jerry
- James Farley - Champ Melvin
- Charles D. Brown - Lefty
- Edward Sutherland - Theater Attendant
- Al St. John - Bozo
- John Cromwell - Doorkeeper
- Hal Skelly - Ralph "Skid" Johnson
- May Boley - Gussie
- James Quinn - Jimmy
- George Irving - Minister
- Cora Shumway
- Kay Deslys
- Ralph Theodore - Harvey Howell
- Director(s):
- Edward Sutherland, John Cromwell
- Writer(s):
- George Manker Watters, Benjamin Glazer
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