Dance Hall (1950)
Director: Charles Crichton
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Perhaps the closest the British cinema of its period came to a neo-realist fresco: a matrix of low-key melodramatic narratives converging on the communal (rather than institutional) core of the local palais, and on an upcoming dance contest. The diffuse focus on working-class women marks it as a welcome rarity (presumably to the credit of unsung Ealing screenwriter Diana Morgan), and even the domestic cliché situations communicate a lively sense of resistance to dominant social and economic austerity. Director Crichton moved on to some of the cosier Ealing comedies, but working on Dance Hall, as co-writer and editor respectively, were more abrasive talents Alexander Mackendrick and Seth Holt.Author: PT
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Cast & crew
Director: Charles Crichton
Producer: Michael Balcon
Cast: Natasha Parry, Diana Dors, Petula Clark, Jane Hylton, Donald Houston, Sydney Tafler, Kay Kendall, Bonar Colleano, Geraldo, Ted Heath full cast
Duration: 80 mins
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