They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

Pollack's adaptation of Horace McCoy's novel about the competitive dance marathons of the Depression years was enthusiastically received when first released, and had a string of Academy Award nominations, several of them for its performances. The acting is strident and overblown, the narrative technique gimmicky and obvious, and the implication that the competitors' situation is a microcosm of a wider-reaching American malaise (though safely distanced by the period and the flash-back-and-forth narrative technique) rather pretentious.