At one point, Rocky (Gig Young), the brazenly insincere ringmaster/emcee of a brutal Depression-era dance marathon refers to it as a "show".
This is breaking news to one of the exhausted dancers (Michael Sarazin) who, in his foolish naivete, thought of this grueling Roman Coliseum spectacle as a contest.
"To you it's a contest," Rocky replies, "to them it's a show." By 'them', he's referring to the snack-munching audience who've assembled to watch a collection of hapless contestants eager to dance themselves into physical collapse, madness......and death.
If you fast forward 75 years or so, there isn't all that much difference (certainly not in intent), between the dance horrorshow depicted in this film and the ever growing sludge of TV talent contests.....("American Idol", "The Voice" and at the very bottom of this deep barrel, "The Four")
Maybe nobody dies anymore in these things, but make no mistake........the part about we the audience being played for suckers? The part about impresarios yanking our heartstrings as if we were wooden-headed marionettes?
That hasn't changed one iota. Truer today than it ever was.
Listen carefully if you watch any these shows........in the background, you can hear the Network executives, their lips close to the microphone....going "Yowza, Yowza, Yowza..."
Only now they whisper it.......while they sell you cars, body wash and a very special episode of the show that's on next.....
Think we're kidding here? Watch the movie.......4 stars (****)
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