Lady of Burlesque (AKA
Striptease Lady ~ 1943)
Murder mystery starring the great Barbara Stanwyck as 'Dixie Daisy', the top act of a burlesque show. Someone is murdering the showgirls - strangling them with their own G-strings. The police are convinced the murderer is connected with the show, as every killing takes place on the theatre premises. After an attempt on her own life Dixie has no doubt the murderer will try again and starts to work with the other girls to identify and trap the killer.
Based on a 1941 book called
The G-String Murders (written by notorious American burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee), restrictions of the time meant that more risque aspects of the original were toned tone, and elements of song and comedy were added (as part of the onstage routines). The mystery itself is pretty by-the-numbers, but Stanwyck and the rest of the cast are convincing as lifelong 'stage folk' - with Stanwyck doing her own dancing and singing (I found out later that she actually started out as a 'Ziegfeld chorus girl' at just 16).
Some of the comedy style is understandably dated and hard work now, and the 'provocative' dance routines are
very tame!

But Stanwyck is terrific as always. As I was watching it occurred to me that you could loosely remake this as a pretty entertaining 'slasher' ('
Burlesque Bloodbath', maybe?). Interesting to think of Stanwyck as a 'Final Girl'!
Overall, 5.5/10