| Femme Fatale Anthem.... Thank you, Ms. Gray |
"Thanks a lot..."Now, die under my pretty feetThis number from the movie It’s Always Fair Weather is one of the classic femme-fatale performances of any kind — and my nominee for the Femme Fatale Anthem of the ages. Yes, it’s a musical. If you suspend your disbelief, and read the subtext of the routine, you will find that seeing it is an amazing experience. It’s often viewed as being funny and campy but it also can have a rather intense erotic component as well. Dolores Gray is perfect for this number. She’s glamorous in her platinum curls and diamond earrings. She adorns a tight dress that displays her compact waistline, ample curves, plus a high thigh side slit that presents generous amounts of silken skin. She’s a powerful singer and she slinks across the floor with a smooth, seductive gait. As the song begins, Dolores greets her many dancing suitors by name as they tumble and slide around her. You get the feeling that she is in control and that her femininity is her key to power. It’s so much so that you recognize that she’s unattainable by her admirers. Her hand gestures, subtle but real, are suggestive of those of a marionette — a slight move by her, producing gymnastic feats by her puppets. 
One suspects that the imaginative minds at MGM created the choreography in a way that appeals to the thigh-leg fetish of men. Dolores repeatedly stalks and poses with her legs seductively slipping through the slit in her dress. Her hand occasionally caresses her upper thigh. The leg show shifts into high gear as she dispatches with her first round of male suitors, shoving them through trapdoors into the erotic and symbolic nether-world. For good measure, when one tries to peep out, she stomps a door onto his head. RIP, fella. It’s slow, sexy, and it's overkill. It elicits a strong male response. A male viewer cannot resist watching her such as the male dancers cannot resist pursuing her. Her legs are a stimulus to male lust and they become a weapon of dominance that she uses against them. In almost every frame, the slit in her dress is toward the camera. The sequence is relentless in its purposive eroticism. The song continues with four dancers tumbling around Dolores. She pulls out a pistol and shoots them dead. They crumple to floor almost faster than gravity would permit. One of the dancers expires with his feet pointed upward as if his arousal is all that remains of him. Dolores is exultant as she throws away the gun. She then steps into a closing shot with an astonishing view of her beautiful cleavage. She strides towards three more dancing suitors who are left stupefied and paralyzed as she draws them in. A dynamite plunger appears in the frame. Dolores glides up to it and happily jams the handle down. The dancing suitors get blown through the roof. All this teasing and vamping is too much to stand. The dancing suitors are driven to the point that their personal survival does not matter to them. Dolores's rejection is irrelevant and their desire for her drives them on. For the male viewer, the excitement is intense. It’s impossible to look away now. 
As the performance comes to its finale, Dolores stands before a crowd of kneeling, worshipping males. A large pull crank rises from the floor beside her. She rejects the males for the last time. Symbolic of her dominion over manhood, she heaves mightily on the stout, erect crank. It opens a huge trapdoor where they all fall away. “Thanks a Lot But no Thanks”. During this performance the male viewer may yield as he succumbs to the carnal, psychological torture. His sexual tension is released as he accepts the power of the feminine over his own. He feels lucky in his shared symbolic identity with the onscreen male prey. In the end the female has comprehensively decimated the males. It’s like they have become willing sacrifices to the “Goddess of Glamour”. She stands triumphant after claiming so many victims. I think this is a large part of the appeal of the number. Executing the men was so very easy and enjoyable for Dolores to do. They didn’t stand a chance. Dolores... thank you!
Other great femme
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