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The Unfinished Dance

THE UNFINISHED DANCE

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CREDITS

1947, 101 minutes, Technicolor.
Producer, Joe Pasternak; Director, Henry Koster; Screenplay, Myles Connolly and Paul Morand; Cinematography, Robert Surtees; Music Direction, Herbert Stothart; Choreography, David Lichine.

CAST

Meg Merlin, Margaret O'Brien; Mlle. Ariane Bouchet, Cyd Charisse; La Darina, Karin Booth; Mr. Paneros, Danny Thomas; Olga, Esther Dale; mr. Ronsell, Thurston Hall; Murphy, Harry Hayden; Josie, Mary Eleanor Donahue; Miss Merlin, Ruth Brady; mme. Borodin, Ann Codee; Jacques Lacoste, Gregory Gaye; Fred Carleton, Charles Bradstreet; Phyllis, Connie Cornell.

SONGS

Holiday for Strings by David Rose; I Went Merrily On My Way by Sammy Fain and Irving Kahal; excerpts from The Bartered Bride by Smetana; Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky; Faust by Gounod; Liebesfreud by Kreisler and Beethoven's Symphony No. 2.

PLOT SYNOPSIS

"The story of a poor orphan (O'Brien) and how her hero-worshipping devotion to a famous ballerina (Cyd Charisse) results in a tragic accident when, mistakenly believing newcomer Karin Booth to be a threat to Charisse's supremacy in the company, she inadvertently pulls the wrong switch during a performance, causing Miss Booth to fall through a trap door and injure her spine. . ."
- Clive Hirschhorn, The Hollywood Musical

NOTES

". . .a glossy but cloying remake of Jean Benoit-Levy's touching French film Ballerina (1938). . .it pulled all the wrong switches where the emotions were concerned, substituting bathos for pathos."
- Clive Hirsachhorn, The Hollywood Musical

"The same old story with pathos, humor and ballet substituted for pathos, humor and chorus girls."
- MFB

"The delicacies of the French original, La Morte du Cygne, give way to standard Hollywood hokum and produce an accomplished but totally uninteresting film."
- Halliwell's Film Guide


This was the film debut of Karin Booth.

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