Lady of Burlesque, 1943.
Directed by William A. Wellman.
Starring Barbara Stanwyck and Michael O'Shea.
Lady of Burlesque - also known as The G-String Murders and Striptease Lady - is a 1943 murder mystery set in a New York burlesque house and is notable for pushing the boundaries of the Motion Picture Production Code, a stringent set of guidelines which governed all American productions until the late 1960's.
Based on the novel The G-String Murders by famed striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee, the film adaptation stars silver screen legend Barbara Stanwyck as Dixie Daisy, a newcomer who has quickly adapted to the ruthless and bitter backstage politics of the burlesque scene. When Dixie falls out with a rival singer and later discovers her body - killed via g-string strangulation, naturally - she becomes the prime suspect in a murder investigation.
This was Stanwyck's second role as a showgirl in as many years (the other being in Howard Hawks' 1941 feature Balls of Fire), and she is joined by Michael O'Shea as her romantic interest, comedian Biff Brannigan. With elements of comedy in addition to song and dance routines, Lady of Burlesque remains an entertaining and suspenseful film, albeit somewhat dated by today's standards.
Embed courtesy of Internet Archive.
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