Come Dance With Me

Come Dance With Me is the intricate tale of a young Parisienne's attempts to clear her husband of a murder charge by nudging the gendarmes along what she thinks to be the proper course to justice. Whom she is accusing depends on how much of the movie has elapsed, since in its two hours she manages to suspect and unsuspect a sizable number of the cast.

The setting for most of leading lady Brigitte Bardot's amateur detectivisms is a rattle-trap French dance hall run by a blackmailer, who unknown to Miss Bardot has got the drop on her husband. The husband, played by Henri Vidal, has just stormed into the establishment to try to get himself off the hook, when the black-mailer-owner is murdered. The inevitable "innocent bystandars," none of whom, as Miss Bardot later discovers in her quest for information on the crime, are particularly innocent, witness Vidal's entrance, call the police, and set off the fireworks.

Miss Bardot's attempts to find the real murderer produce reactions ranging from catcalling laughter to a commendable degree of tension. Where the heroine of an Alfred Hitchcock movie would creep inquisitively into a fruit cellar, Miss Bardot pursues her suspicions into an attic, and although the only person she finds there is a police officer also investigating the crime, the classic suspense formula nevertheless brings forth some tight moments.

The characters in the movie are about as typical as the events, except for the husband. He is, I believe, the first he-man ever to be cast as a dentist. Fairly obviously his profession considerably alienates bride Brigitte's socially minded father, but such scorn is obviously unmerited because the hero dresses Ivy-Leaguishly and drives around in a brand-new white sports car--a fine vehicle indeed except when it serves as a background for the equally white subtitles.

The rest of the cast is perfect, especially for anyone who likes to think in black and white while watching technicolor. The villains look extraordinarily vile, except for one or two who don't seem to care one way or the other. Brigitte's father performs admirably in a comic-relief role; his best scenes occur when he goes to the dance hall looking for Vidal and (inevitably) is mistaken for a prospective pupil. And the inspector and his sub-gendarmes express all of a cop's care-worn but crime-piercing wisdom.

All in all, the film has more than enough pit comedy to make up for any lack of subtlety, and if Brigitte's Bardot's performance is not as dramatically skillful as that of Grace Kelly in the somewhat similar Rear Window, Miss Bardot has certain other fundamental qualities that make up for the difference.