Dames - Musical Numbers

Musical Numbers

The musical sequences in Dames were designed, staged and directed by Busby Berkeley - the Warner Bros. publicity office invented the phrase "cinematerpsichorean" to describe Berkeley's creations. By this time, after the success of 42nd Street, Footlight Parade and Gold Diggers of 1933, Berkeley had his own unit at Warners, under his total control as supervised by producer Hal Wallis.

  • "Dames" - by Harry Warren (music) and Al Dubin (lyrics)
  • "I Only Have Eyes for You" - by Harry Warren (music) and Al Dubin (lyrics). At one point in this number, sung by Dick Powell to Ruby Keeler, all the girls in the chorus wear Ruby Keeler masks as they move around the stage, but in just about every shot, the real Keeler passes by the camera briefly. In 1989, this song won an ASCAP Award as the "Most Performed Feature Film Standard".
  • "The Girl at the Ironing Board" - by Harry Warren (music) and Al Dubin (lyrics). Joan Blondell was seven months pregnant at the time this number was filmed, and care had to be taken by her husband, cinematographer George Barnes, not to show her condition. Also, at one point in the number, a property man can be seen in the background, hanging up clotheslines.
  • "When You Were a Smile on Your Mother's Lips and a Twinkle in Your Daddy's Eye" by Sammy Fain (music) and Irving Kahal lyrics
  • "Try to See It My Way" - by Allie Wrubel (music) and Mort Dixon (lyrics)

One of the effects of the Production Code on this film is a musical number that never made it to the screen. Berkeley had planned one featuring Joan Blondell about a fight between a cat and a mouse that ended with Blondell inviting everyone to "come up and see my pussy sometime." Producer Hal Wallis removed this number from the script before it even got to the censors of the Hays Office.

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