Lady of Burlesque
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Lady of Burlesque (also known as The G-String Murders and in the UK, Striptease Lady) is a 1943 American musical comedy-mystery film, produced by RKO Pictures and directed by William A. Wellman and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Michael O'Shea. It is a faithful, if sanitized, adaptation of the 1941 novel The G-String Murders written by strip tease queen Gypsy Rose Lee.
Plot
A significant portion of the film is taken up with onstage performances, including comic bits and toned-down strip-tease acts. There is also a lot of backstage action not directly related to the evolving murder mystery but highlighting the characters and lifestyles of the performers and crew.
At a New York City burlesque theatre, performer Dixie Daisy (the stage name of Deborah Hoople, played by Barbara Stanwyck) is becoming an audience favorite with her singing and strip-tease act. Backstage, she has mixed interactions with other performers, some of whom are catty and jealous while others are quite friendly, especially Gee Gee Graham (Iris Adrian). Comic Biff Brannigan (Michael O'Shea) tries to get friendly with her, but Dixie turns him away, not having had good experiences with comics before.
During a police raid on the theatre for violating "public decency" laws, the backstage lights go out, and someone tries to strangle Dixie but stops when a stagehand comes by. A number of the performers and crew are thrown in jail, but the theatre's owner and producer S.B. Foss (J. Edward Bromberg) bails them out and awards each employee a share in the company to keep them with him. A few nights later, another performer, Lolita LaVerne (Victoria Faust), is found strangled with a g-string after a violent argument with her boyfriend, gangster Louie Grindero (Gerald Mohr). As a police investigation begins, however, the g-string believed to be the murder "weapon" goes missing, and a number of possible suspects, both from the theatre and outside-- including Dixie herself--come under suspicion. The coroner, though, reveals that Lolita's death was actually due to poison, and Biff reveals that he had hidden the g-string after someone had slipped it into his pocket, earning Dixie's appreciation. Biff, however, is arrested but released when new evidence is discovered.
When Biff and Daisy are onstage for a comedy skit, the body of another rival, Princess Nirvena (Stephanie Bachelor), falls out of a prop, also strangled with a g-string. The murders and related events begin to tie together, and Inspector Harrigan (Charles Dingle), the lead investigator, recommends shutting down the theatre for safety. Dixie, though, rallies the employees by reminding them that they all now have ownership stakes in the show going on.
Dixie remains behind as everyone else leaves for the night. The aged stagehand Stacchi (Frank Conroy) suddenly appears, confessing to the murders and preparing to attack Dixie. The police and Biff arrive on the scene and stop him, since Dixie and her friend Gee Gee had decided to set a trap for the killer. Biff fills in additional information, having discovered that Stacchi was actually Lolita's grandfather, driven to an insane hatred of burlesque performers. With all problems set aside now, Biff proposes to Dixie and she accepts.
Cast
Production
The film was produced by Hunt Stromberg, costumes by Edith Head, and filmed on a 21-day shooting schedule on (rented) sound stages at RKO's Encino movie ranch.
The film depicted as much as censors would allow with respect to the nature of "bumps and grinds", as well as the slapdash nature of burlesque shows. When reviewing the film script, which still carried Gypsy Rose Lee's original title, Joseph Breen, head of the Production Code Administration, the movie industry's self-censorship board, commented, "We are concerned about the prominent use of the object known as the 'G-String' as the murder weapon. It is our impression that the use of this extremely intimate female garment will be considered offensive . . . "
