Dancing Romeo (1944) User Reviews

I think "Tale of a Dog" should have been released last, but this one wasn't too bad

[Moax429 · 7/10 · 15 June 2009]

It's beyond me why MGM chose to release "Dancing Romeo" last instead of following the sequential production order and releasing "Tale of a Dog," the very last "Our Gang" short subject made, as the final entry.

"Dancing Romeo" did appear somewhat more "put on" than some other Metro-produced (non-musical) "Our Gangs," especially during Marilyn and Gerald's big production number and the scenes where their faces are superimposed in Froggy's eggs and on the billboard advertising bathing suits. (Like the other reader, I too preferred to eat my eggs scrambled after I saw that scene for the first time!)

But, the saving grace of "Dancing Romeo" had to be Froggy's dance "recital" (especially the part near the end where it looked like he was doing a kazotsky, with his arms folded while kicking his feet out). Of course, snotty and stuck-up Gerald had to mess up the whole thing, but when Froggy told Marilyn he did it all for her, Froggy's concluding surprise was rather funny, too.

I also could never find out what that piece was that was heard during Froggy's dance until recently; it was Franz Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody" (which was also heard in the Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies short "Rhapsody in Rivets" three years earlier, and what Milton Berle's cast, dressed like Texaco gas station attendants, sang at the beginning of his old "Texaco Star Theater" show in the 50's).

There could also have been some irony in the scene where Gerald cuts Froggy's cables, manipulated by Mickey and Buckwheat. Maybe that was a veiled way of MGM saying the "Our Gang" series was officially over with?....

So although "Dancing Romeo" wasn't as funny as "Tale of a Dog," it *wasn't* entirely bad, either. I'll give it a 7.

And, when audiences first saw this film on Saturday, April 29, 1944 in theaters, who'd have thought when they saw the closing title card, showing the kids running down a neighborhood street hand-in-hand into a sunset (sandwiched between "The End" and the mini-MGM-Leo-the-Lion-and-torch-insignia logo), it would be the *very last* time?....

I couldn't eat sunny-side up eggs for years afterward!

[Janryken14 · 5/10 · 22 January 2007]

OK, so maybe this wasn't brilliant acting, yet I have a nostalgic soft spot for the Our Gang and Rascals shorts.

As a little tot, Froggy's voice always scared me, and even now, as adults, my brother and I will call each other Froggy when we have laryngitis. :) The "Dancing Romeo" episode sticks out in my mind to this day (and I'm 43) because of the scene where Froggy is eating breakfast and as he stares into his eggs, there is his beloved Marilyn, dancing inside the egg yolks. As a four-year-old, I freaked out and refused to eat "eggs with people in them" until I was at least 10. Poor mom always had to scramble them. :)

Dancing Romeo is a nice showcase for Froggy in the Our Gang series

[tavm · 7/10 · 2 February 2015]

This M-G-M comedy short, Dancing Romeo, is the two hundred twentieth entry in the "Our Gang" series and the one hundred thirty-second talkie. Froggy has a crush on Marilyn (Valerie Lee) who's too busy taking classical dancing lessons with Gerald (Bobby Browning) to spend time with him. After seeing her and her partner dancing at the party, Froggy can't get his mind off of them and resolves to dance himself. Compared to Mickey Daniels & Mary Kornman, Jackie Cooper & Miss Crabtree, and Alfalfa & Darla, Froggy & Marilyn aren't a great couple on the series but they're quite intriguing to watch nonetheless. So I liked the way the thing ended and I liked this short enough to forgive the usual less-than-polished acting of the kids. Cyril Endfield did much better in his second directorial effort in the OG series than in his first. So on that note, Dancing Romeo is recommended. Oh, and I always think of the "Sleeping Beauty Waltz" by Tchaikovsky-which was danced by Marilyn and Gerald-as "Once Upon a Dream" from Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty and when "Hungarian Rhapsody" by Franz Liszt was playing during Froggy's "dance", I immediately thought of Bugs Bunny's cartoon Rhapsody Rabbit when he was trying to perform that on the piano when a mouse keeps interrupting him...

one of the few films Froggy is good in

[marjcbs · 18 September 2004]

Froggy has always been sort of a puzzle to me. I never could figure the guy out. I mean, once you got past his frog voice (which became all the more grating towards the end of the MGM series), there really wasn't much else recommendable about him (except maybe those cute philosophical quotes from his Aunt Minnie).

Then comes "Dancing Romeo," a film in which Froggy gets to show his stuff as a love-sick kid who has his heart set on a girl who's devoted to dancing. So what does he do? He learns to dance, which he does during the last half of the film. And I must say, the combination of the Hungarian Rhapsody and his wire-manipulated leaps and bounds is quite effective.

Froggy is by no means my favorite Our Gang character, but he seems to hold his own well in this particular film.

A decent ending to a wonderful series

[Andrew "Mister" K · 6/10 · 26 November 2004]

Though "Tale of A Dog" is usually listed as the last OUR GANG film, "Dancing Romeo" was both filmed and released afterwards, making it truly the last entry in the series. And unlike "Tale of A Dog", "Dancing Romeo" is actually a decent film.

Sure, it's fairly pale compared to "School's Out", "Fishy Tales", "Forgotten Babies" and the other great "Our Gang" films from when they were produced by creator Hal Roach. It's even tame compared to early M-G-M entries such as "Party Fever". But it has to be by far the best entry of the last season. In fact it's a relief compared to such travesties as "Benjamin Franklin Junior". This the only one that isn't either steeped in condescending morals or a hopelessly halfhearted token of "comedy". It's also the rare Our Gang that actually makes good use of Froggy ("Going to Press" is another.)

The story of Froggy's attempts to impress a dancer whom he has a crush on is simple and effective, and given restrained direction. There are a few genuine laughs. Perhaps the best moment comes after Froggy has confessed he's about to do the most desperate thing possible. Janet worries he's going to shoot himself, and he replies "Worse than that! I'm gonna learn how to dance!" Also amusing is the kiddie audience's earnest response to Froggy's "recital" ("he must have been practicing for his whole life!")

This is no classic, certainly not to be confused as representative of Our Gang at its best. Yet it demonstrated that if the series could no longer be saved, at least it could end on a relatively high note.

Retread

[dbborroughs · 4/10 · 14 November 2009]

Froggy is taken with a young girl he sees dancing and decides to give a dance recital in the hopes of winning her.

Retread story re-uses material from earlier in the series to make a story that feels like you've seen it before even when you haven't. Give the film points for looking and feeling like a bigger production but at the same time it can't disguise the sense that we've been here before. While I was watching this I kept trying to remember which Alfalfa short this was ripping off. I don't think it was stealing from any one short, however I do think it stole bits and pieces from a number of shorts.

Not the worst, its not the best its kind of a middle of the road of the MGMs with a point taken for seeming so familiar.

Froggy's a cute kid when he doesn't talk

[kpetnews · 4/10 · 10 April 2007]

Apart from the MGM staginess, this is kind of a fun little short, especially at the end when Froggy does his wire-assisted dance. There's one part where he "runs" (or tries to) across the back curtain that actually got a chuckle out of me.

But, man, these kids can't act. Buckwheat barely gets by. Mickey doesn't say much, and when he does, he says it adequately if shrilly. Janet's really horrible. She's given a "comic" line of "You're not going to (STAGE GASP) shoot yourself, are you?" that comes out like she's reading a cue card. Valerie "Marilyn" Lee, Froggy's love interest, is actually the best actress of the lot, and Maltin rightly says her thespian skills are less than inspiring.

If you must watch, you can get some humor out of Froggy's dancing sequence, so it's not a waste of time for Our Gang aficionados.

This short reveals the Total Hoax behind . . .

[cricket30 · 8/10 · 19 April 2019]

. . . such alleged theatrics as ballet, figure skating, gymnastics, and "X-Games" snowboarding: They do it all with wires! Everyone who saw Miss Rabbit Furs--"T. Harding"--hike up her skate onto the judges' table during the 1994 Olympic Icecapades Final could see at a glance that any double (let alone triple) aerial spins from this Leaping Loser would be more fake than even "Moon Landings." In a rudimentary way intended to expose these "sport" scammers in pictures that even a lay person can understand, DANCING ROMEO takes viewers backstage as one such outrageous prank is being perpetrated. It's easy for TV commentators to blather "Pay no attention to the puppeteers behind the curtain," but "Froggy's" DANCING ROMEO handlers are simply a less sophisticated version of the screen con artists who've got most of the World bamboozled to believe that a few "superstars" can simulate the Moon's hypothetical gravity shortage while performing incredible, unbelievable, astonishing aerial spins, somersaults, and hang times. On the next occasion They're trying to trick YOU with this Snide World of Sports, just think of Froggy dangling from a wire during DANCING ROMEO!