RKO raised a ruckus when it released The French Line in 1953 without a Production Code seal of approval. The reason the studio skirted the censors: Jane Russell’s scandalous dance at the end of the picture, originally presented in 3-D, no less, and given the teaser “It’ll knock both your eyes out!” This was Russell’s followup to Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, in which she co-starred with Marilyn Monroe.
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Bella Cortez in Vulcan, Son of Jupiter. The 1962 picture followed the exploits of Vulcan as he battled lizard men and other monsters terrorizing the ancient world. Cortez joined another Cuban beauty, Chelo Alonso, as a dancer in many Italian-made sword and sandal epics in the 1960s.
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Long before there was “Gangnam Style,” wild and crazy teens were cutting loose in the Bollywood thriller Gumnaam. Here, the masked teens — hot chicks and an entourage of studly dudes — show off their moves winning a dance contest as Mohammed Rafi wails “Jaan Pehechaan Ho.” This scene from the 1965 movie later resurfaced at the opening of Ghost World and also inspired a widely seen Heineken commercial.
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We usually remember her wearing a sarong, and trouping off on the road with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, but this dance number from 1949’s Slightly French better encapsulates the sultriness of Dorothy Lamour. The choreography is by Robert Sidney, fresh from working with Rita Hayworth in The Loves of Carmen. Douglas Sirk directed — a prelude to his swooning melodramas with Rock Hudson in the 1950s.
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Mitsuko Takara as Orphea performs for a distracted royal court in Sodom & Gomorrah, Robert Aldrich’s 1962 Biblical epic advertised with the tagline: “The cities that mocked the very name of God…The vengeance that tore the Earth asunder!”
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Marlene Dietrich sings and dances to “Hot Voodoo” in 1932’s Blonde Venus. Sam Coslow, a songwriter on the Paramount staff, wrote the “Hot Voodoo” lyrics. Coslow later distinguished himself by penning Dean Martin’s signature tune “Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime.”
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This home movie captures Sheree North performing a private dance at a Hollywood party. There’s no music, but North’s moves are expressive enough to carry the day. A trained dancer, she had the exact same measurements and weight as Twentieth Century Fox’s unreliable star — Marilyn Monroe — so the studio put North under contract as insurance. By the 1970s, North had became a mainstay on television, closing out her career with appearances as Cosmo Kramer’s mother Babs on Seinfeld.
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A couple of bellhops, including one who bears a resemblance to Al Bundy, get worked up watching Jayne Mansfield dance a wicked hula in the 1964 Italian comedy Primitive Love. She made only four more screen appearances before dying at age 34 on June 29, 1967 in a car crash while en route from Biloxi to New Orleans.
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Raquel Welch in a skimpy space girl garb dances in front of some abstract Mexico City sculptures in her 1970 TV special Raquel! Watching this video, I found myself hypnotized and muttering: “Take me to your leader.”
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Brigitte Helm as Maria drives the men crazy in Metropolis. Fritz Lang’s 1927 film is often considered the first great science fiction classic of the silver screen. Helm actually plays two roles, as a virtuous Maria and a wild and wanton robotic Maria, controlled by the inventor Rotwang, to do his evil biding.
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