Dance Hall

Dance Hall (1950)

Episodic tale of four factory girls and their various romances at the local dance hall in Chiswick, London. Unusual at the time, the film tells its story from a feminine perspective. Today, it is mainly recognised for its post-war London atmosphere, with bomb sites, trolleybuses and rationing.

Date of release
1950-06-08
TMDB
6.1 / 10 (7)
Runtime
1h 20m
Genres
Drama, Romance
Director
Charles Crichton

Casting

Interesting facts

Dance Hall is a 1950 British drama film directed by Charles Crichton and starring Donald Houston, Bonar Colleano, Natasha Parry and Petula Clark. The film was an unusual departure for Ealing Studios at the time, as it tells the story about four women and their romantic encounters from a female perspective.

Production

Peter Finch was offered a supporting role but did not appear in the final film. It was Donald Houston's second film.

The part of Alec was originally played by Dermot Walsh but he was replaced during filming by Bonar Colleano. "I did feel very cross about that," said Walsh later. "They'd ruined my career in first features."

The film was edited by Seth Holt, who called it "terrible." Actress Diana Dors later called it "a ghastly film – quite one of the nastiest I ever made" although she received positive reviews. Director Charles Crichton later said "it wasn't a picture I particularly wanted to make but was quite interesting." He said the film "didn't do too well" so his career was "sliding" before being "rescued" by The Lavender Hill Mob.

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