Come Dance with Me! (1959) User Reviews

Gorgeous BB w/Cool Dancing Scenes in Murder Plot!

[shepardjessica-1 · 7/10 · 17 February 2005]

Brigitte Bardot lights up the screen (while keeping her threads on mostly) as a wife who plans to clear her husband's name while working at a dance studio..and she can really mambo. Very complicated plot, but well-paced. Hits some night spots which few films did at the time (cross-dressing) with overall decent acting and beautiful color.

A 6 out of 10. Best performance = BB. The guy who played BB's husband (the dentist) died right after this. He was married to Michele Morgan, I believe. Brigitte is sexy, intelligent, fun, dilligent, and focused in this surprising little gem (without being art). Dawn Addams is an added treat. The DVD copy I watched was clear as a bell which many of Ms. Bardot's film transfers are not. Seek it out for an interesting and fun surprise.

The movie may be mildly entertaining, but Bardot is fantastic!

[bensonmum2 · 6/10 · 20 November 2005]

Virginie Dandieu (Brigitte Bardot) finds her husband standing over the corpse of the dance instructor who had been blackmailing him. Convinced of his innocence, Virginie lands a job at the dance studio to investigate the murder and clear her husband. Between the police, the suspects in the dance studio, and her family, Virginie's got her work cut out for her.

Come Dance with Me is at worst a mildly entertaining mystery with bit of humor mixed in for good measure. You'll never fall out of your seat laughing out loud, but a few scenes did bring a smile to my face. The mystery elements suffer a bit because it's the kind of movie where you know everything will work out in the end.

This was my first experience watching a Brigitte Bardot movie. And it certainly won't be my last. Bardot had a screen presence that's hard to beat. She is the center of every scene in which she appears regardless of what she's doing or not doing. It's impossible to watch a scene and not have your eyes glued to her every movement. I can't wait to discover more of her films.

Brigitte Bardot's sex-appeal justifies an otherwise forgettable movie

[pzanardo · 6/10 · 4 October 2000]

"Voulez-vous danser avec moi?" intends to be a light-minded humoristic thriller. As a matter of fact, it is very easy to realize "who done it", and the humor of the script is rather poor. Moreover in the plot one finds several flaws, too evident even for a movie with no pretension of likelihood.

Well, the preceding remarks have no relevance at all. Indeed, here we have a twenty-five-years-old Brigitte Bardot, folks! In Italy "Voulez-vous danser avec moi?" was entitled "Sexy Girl", a coarse and totally unsuited choice, we all agree about it... but... but in the movie Brigitte IS a sexy girl, you can bet your head on it. The film is just a long (and very welcome) promotion of her earthquake-like sex-appeal: among uncountable instances, look at her dancing...

After all, it is interesting to see a movie like "Voulez-vous danser avec moi?" to realize why, despite the low quality of many films featuring BB at the beginning of her career, people fought to get tickets to see Brigitte on the screen. And when she showed herself in flesh... according to BB's auto-biography, there was an explosion of riots, in France and in Italy and in Spain. See this movie and you will easily trust this statement of the French screen-legend.

A due final remark: also Dawn Addams gives a relevant contribution of beauty and charm to the bliss of the audience. All this considered, 90 minutes to view this movie are not wasted at all.

Detective Brigitte

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 16 June 2008]

After a discussion with his spoiled wife Virginie (Brigitte Bardot), the playboy dentist Hervé Dandieu (Henri Vidal) goes to a bar where he meets the sexy dance teacher Anita Flores (Dawn Addams). She invites Hervé to dance with her and while dancing, his father-in-law arrives in the place and Hervé sneaks out with Anita. Hervé drives Anita home, and she invites him to have one last drink; Anita seduces him and they kiss each other on the sofa, while her hidden partner takes pictures of the intimacy of the couple. Hervé leaves Anita without having sex, but is blackmailed by her. She schedules a meeting with him in the dance school, but Virginie listens to their conversation and believes that Hervé is cheating her. Virginie is snoops Hervé in the dance school, and he finds Anita dead and becomes the prime suspect of the police. Virginie asks for a job in the dance school and decides to investigate the case by her own.

The silly and naive "Voulez-vous Danser Avec Moi?" has a predictable screenplay and is supported by the charm and beauty of Brigitte Bardot. Dawn Addams has a minor participation, but she is astonishing with her blues eyes and beauty. In the end, forget this flawed story and enjoy Brigitte Bardot acting like a detective and Dawn Addams that you will have a nice entertainment. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Quer Dançar Comigo?" ("Do You Want to Dance with Me?")

good, but not a BB-vehicle

[wvisser-leusden · 7/10 · 3 August 2009]

"Voulez-vous danser avec moi?" (= French for 'do you want to dance with me?'), shows competent acting in a well-built crime plot.

Set in color in the late 1950-s, this film openly deals with the Paris homo & travesty scene. Which was pretty groundbreaking for the staunch Roman Catholic France of those days.

Brigitte Bardot's appearance in "Voulez-vous danser avec moi?" shines all the way down. Showing off her dancing talents (you may know Brigitte qualified at the Paris conservatory as a classical ballet dancer). While shooting this film, Brigitte was pregnant with her only child -- according to some this shows off in her advantage as well. The third show-off is made by Brigitte's dress in a cross-striped pattern - known to this day in fashion as the 'Brigitte Bardot - design'.

In spite of her dazzling appearance, one cannot escape the conclusion that Bardot plays the wrong part here. Apart from being beautiful, Brigitte has a definite talent for light comedy. Acting crime & mystery just isn't her trade.

My last words should be for male lead Henri Vidal. In December 1959, aged 40, he died from a heart attack. This happened shortly after the completion of "Voulez-vous danser avec moi?".

Not bad......

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 15 September 2010]

This film begins with Brigitte Bardot falling in love with a dentist (Henri Vidal) and they soon marry. Soon after, he is seduced by a lady and goes back to her apartment. He begins to undress her and stops himself--he can't allow himself to cheat on his bride. He immediately leaves--not knowing that she is a blackmailer and her lover was photographing them in some very compromising positions. This begs the audience to wonder if any man can be THAT stupid and self-destructive, as at the time, Bardot was probably the most beautiful woman in the world (and, yes, I know there ARE men who cheat on their loving wives all the time--even if it makes no sense).

Soon, the lady blackmailer shows up at the Dentist's office and demands money for the photos. A sane man would come clean to his wife right there and then, but this would also make for a VERY short film, so he agrees to meet her later at her dance studio. The poor husband plans on killing the woman but before he can, she's already dead--apparently she has created a lot of enemies! Brigitte arrives soon after him, as she'd overheard the two talking earlier and wondered what was happening between them. Both Bardot and her hubby flee to avoid the police.

Bardot believes her husband when he tells her what happened. However, someone saw him at the studio and the police have a good description of him. So, to save her dumb husband, Brigitte decides to go undercover--and goes to the dance studio to ask for a job. Perhaps someone there knows what happened or was responsible for the killing. And, as this is only about thirty minutes into the film, you can safely assume that SOMETHING will occur sooner or later! This part of the film seemed well-suited for Bardot, as she was an exceptional dancer in real life.

Where the film goes next is pleasant but there aren't too many surprises. Plus, while I like Bardot, this film seemed only okay--nothing special but also not bad in any particular way. The writing is decent, the acting just fine but apart from the role played by a gay transvestite, the rest of the film just seemed ordinary. Non-Bardot fans can skip this one--it's just among her best.

By the way, like many French films of the era, this one if pretty frank about sex and sexuality. You will see some nudity it's obviously quite different from the sort of fare coming out of Hollywood at the same time!

good, but not a BB-vehicle

[wrvisser-leusden-nl · 7/10 · 4 June 2004]

This well-made movie just has one flaw: Brigitte Bardot is not suited for playing a crime plot. As her talents are with light comedy, she is not able to carry out the necessary mystery, horror and suspense here.

For this reason I think 'Voulez-vous danser avec moi?' not entirely convincing. But apart from that, it's quite entertaining. It is shot well, its acting is good, and its story catches the viewer's interest from beginning to end. Of course your special attention for the scenes in the dance-school, fully displaying Brigitte's excellent dancing skills.

This movie also seriously deals with homosexuality, back in 1959 a groundbreaking issue. For this reason I guess Paris must have been the only location possible.

Gainsbourg Master Mind

[lotus611 · 8/10 · 15 March 2006]

I just want to take note of the great Serge's Gainsbourg stunning appearance, short but classic! "L'homme a la-Tete-De-choux" enters with class, sets his line, and the rest is history...Check out Gainsbourg the artist: jazzman, musician, singer, poet, provocateur, precursor of rap, pop idol, eighties cult, through his musical career. Not to mention Brigitte Bardot in all of her splendor, a must see for any BB fan (check out the song "Bonnie and Clyde" for another Bardot/Gainsbourg collaboration). Good stay-at-home and somewhat suspenseful movie. Worth watching. I found this movie very enjoyable, definitely not a classic, but reminiscent of the pre-60's French thrillers.

There are far worse ways to spend 90 minutes

[Neal · 6/10 · 4 May 2000]

The murder mystery plot is pretty limp, but Bardot is at her ripest and performs a joyous mambo. The gay subplot would have been unthinkable in a Hollywood film of the time; here the treatment is relatively casual and benign. The title song is a finger-snapping delight; how could it have escaped Bobby Darin's attention?

Tribute to Brigitte

[suchenwi · 8/10 · 23 May 2010]

I agree with most of the other reviewers that this film is somewhat a mixed bag - mild comedy, mild thriller (I liked the commissaire), some (for its time) sensational scenes of gay/transvestite entertainment..

..and then there is Brigitte. What a cute, lovely, exciting actress! No wonder she was a top star back then, with her disarming smile (or, elsewhere, her equally fascinating pout). The film is a celebration of her in every scene she is in - beginning with the very first, the backdrop to the initial titles, where she just tries in vain to make a phone call, deposits coin, dials, waits, hangs up.. 3 times, for more than a minute. Sounds boring, but if you have Brigitte Bardot to watch, it's an electrifying scene with minimal props.

The rest of the film I'd rate around 7, but this gem of an opening made me make it 8 :^)

Save the last dance for B.

[dbdumonteil · 6/10 · 31 August 2006]

"Voulez-vous danser avec moi" is really weird:it's not a comedy,but it looks like one sometimes,it's not a thriller ,but it looks like one sometimes.It includes murder,blackmail,transvestites ,a dancing school,an old "gothic" house,a dentist's office and a gay club ("le fétiche bleu"!!).PLus BB.The French Catholic Office of Cinema :thumbs down!I quote them: "showing such a tragedy as male homosexuality in a movie made for entertainment is intolerable!To avoid." But gays watching this movie have also good reasons to be infuriated .I'm not so sure that the 1960 audience leaving the theater did not heave a sigh of relief: " Those people are not like us.Look what they did here!"(remember what happened with "silence of the lambs" and " basic instinct") That said,the screenplay was written with care,BB acts naturally and she is a feast for the eye.She is given good support by Henri Vidal,the most handsome man of the era,singer Dario Moreno,Philippe Nicaud as a drag artist-singing Edith Piaf's "Mon Manège à Moi" - Georges Descrière and Maria Pacôme.

COME DANCE WITH ME (Michel Boisrond, 1959) **1/2

[Bunuel1976 · 6/10 · 24 January 2010]

This and another early Brigitte Bardot vehicle, UNE PARISIENNE (1957), had been available for rental at a local DVD store for a long time but I kept postponing getting to either, believing them to be minor frothy affairs; however, having just acquired and being on the point of watching a similar effort of hers – Marc Allegret's MADEMOISELLE STRIPTEASE aka PLUCKING THE DAISY (1956) – I thought I might as well check them out too while I am at it. Anyway, I opted to start with this one being ostensibly a thriller and, while I was expecting it to involve some nudity from the star (which technically there is none), I was surprised – especially when considering the film's essentially light touch – at the amount of sleaze on display (from explicit situations and dialogue to a subplot involving gay bars and drag queens!). The premise, in fact, revolves around the Police investigation into the murder of blackmailing dance teacher Dawn Addams; incidentally, the Inspector on the trail of the assassin is Luis Bunuel regular Paul Frankeur and Serge Gainsbourg, popular yet controversial singer/songwriter and later film-maker, makes an early appearance as the victim's accomplice (photographing her in compromising positions with wealthy patrons). Their latest victim is dentist Henri Vidal (whose last film this proved to be, expiring from a heart attack at the young age of 40 – he was married to star Michele Morgan, having met on the set of his best-remembered movie i.e. the Italian spectacle FABIOLA [1948]); Bardot is his wife, whose father (Noel Roquevert, from a number of H.G. Clouzot titles) is an industrialist. Vidal had run into Addams at a nightclub after a row with his bride: she even goes to his clinic, where Bardot works as his assistant, and supplies him with incriminating photos of their dalliance. On his part, not intending to pay, he visits Addams at her studio and causes a scene – but then relents and makes an appointment for the next day at the same place; when he arrives, Vidal finds the woman dead and is then surprised in the room by Bardot who had followed him there! Of course, he has to confess everything and though Roquevert does not readily believe him, Bardot does and determines to establish his innocence (since his description was given to the Police by Addams' dance colleagues) by finding the real killer. To this end, she takes a job as a dance teacher there and even ingratiates herself with Frankeur; incidentally, it appears that the killer could not have exited the room before Vidal's entrance as there is no other way out: this actually reminds Bardot of the Gaston Leroux novel "The Mystery Of The Yellow Room" (whose 1930 film adaptation by Marcel L'Herbier, along with its sequel THE PERFUME OF THE LADY IN BLACK – nothing whatsoever to do with the atypical Italian giallo from 1974 – I have also just gotten my hands on!) and from here on in, as the saying goes, the plot thickens. Despite the generic and downright misleading title, this is a fairly enjoyable picture (especially easy to take in pleasant color); mind you, the suspense reaches no great heights (given that the murder method is given away all too soon and the motive emerges to be characteristically weak) – and, yet, the viewer's attention is engaged throughout and one is genuinely curious to discover the guilty party's identity (what with the variety of suspects being fingered along the way).

Not much

[gridoon · 6/10 · 18 July 2005]

"Come Dance With Me" was probably meant as an airy mystery-comedy, but it's mostly stage-bound and talky. What's more, I guessed who the killer was (though admittedly not his motive) 15 minutes into the film, and if you've ever read even one Agatha Christie story before, you'll have no problem guessing it, either. This being a French film, it is slightly more sexually explicit than most American films of the period: we see a woman's (no, not Bardot's) bare nipple, and (heavy SPOILERS follow) the killer turns out to be a transvestite. Bardot's "amateur detective" role is somewhat of an acting stretch for her (her character has more functions than simply looking pretty and teasing men), but I still feel that for many viewers her scenes in a revealing black dress will be the most memorable ones. (**1/2)

bardot wow !

[petersjoelen · 7/10 · 24 February 2024]

Bardot was the sex symbol of France in the 50s and 60s, and internationally I think, if you watch this film you will understand why that is the case.

She can shine in this light-hearted crime film and attract all the attention, which she accomplishes effortlessly.

This is of course not a serious crime film, the tone is too light for that, but that lightness still works quite well, Bardot can steal the show in the mean time with her wonderful lighthearted femininity.

The plot is not special, but it is well constructed and it leaves you as a viewer in the dark until the last moment.

You could almost say it's a successful crime comedy.

Bardot at 24 was a stunner!

[bonfirexx · 8/10 · 1 December 2007]

Brigitte Bardot was so completely feminine, playful, beautiful, and witty, she couldn't miss connecting with the male sector of any movie-going audience. And the women must have hated her, or at least envied her to tears.

Bardot's face is so luminous, focusing upon it is more stimulating than seeing close-up, revealing body shots of her contemporaries such as Eckberg and Lollobrigida. She could take a mediocre, or in this case, convoluted plot, and save a film which would have been a dud with just about any other female star.

The film is fast-paced, and suspenseful, in so far as the futility of trying to guess the culprit's identity, prior to the odds and ends being tied up neatly, in the end. And it far surpasses Bardot's collaboration with director Michel Boisrond, in "Mme. Pigalle," produced three years earlier. That one is filled with artifice and "mannerisms." such as fake auto rides, background landscape fakery, lip-synch singing, fake piano playing, and the stereotypical bumbling, "moronic cops" syndrome, so prevalent in films of the time. This film contains no artifice, or editing "tricks," whatsoever, and while it lacks for substance, it is entertaining, and the Bardot charisma at this most appealing stage of her life, stays with one, long after the curtain rings down.

Henri Vidal, in his final role before his untimely death at age 40, is well-cast, as Bardot's husband who is being blackmailed by femme fatale Dawn Addams, herself a red-headed stunner who exits the film much too soon to suit the male voyeur contingent.

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