This afternoon, I got around to watching the Hermes Pan documentary DANCE CRAZY IN HOLLYWOOD.
It was a dreadful piece of work consisting mostly of some film clips, not always of dances choreographed by Hermes (like an Eleanor Powell tap routine which went on very long and yet in voiceover Hermes admitted he never worked with her, looked like it was taken from the 1949 silver anniversary party at MGM; a Bojangles Robinson soudie he had nothing to do with, etc.). All the clips used were full frame, even if the films like CAN-CAN, CLEOPATRA, SILK STOCKINGS were widescreen films thus ruining our being able to really appreciate the dancing. And he really had very little to say: a gaffe he made talking with George Gershwin about how awful his song "Shall We Dance" was, explaining how great Rita Hayworth and Cyd Charisse were as dancers (like we didn't know they were), explaining his theory on the different ways that white folks and black folks mark time.
It was made by a French company in 1990, and you could tell that arthritis was affecting his walking and being able to manipulate several fingers on each hand.
I will never again have disdain for the documentaries on our DVDs when I see what an utter mess was made of this golden opportunity to get one of the giants from the golden age of Hollywood to talk about those times and his work. This documentary was done in a haphazard and incomprehensible way; at the least the DVD documentaries we often find fault with are organized and focused. I wish this one had been.
