SLAUGHTER on 10th AVE (1939 film)

Here’s the complete ballet from the 1939 film starring Vera Zorina and Eddie Albert. This is quite different than the version he choreographed in 1968 for Suzanne Farrell and Arthur Mitchell, although the broad strokes are there. For example, I was the boy who gets “bumped off“ in the beginning in the 1968 NYC Ballet production, and it’s exactly the same. This was edited down for the film version from the original 1936 one in ON YOUR TOES. In this version Balanchine uses Zorina’s backbends to great effect, but in the Farrell version he mainly uses her high kicks. Also Eddie Albert was not a dancer, so all the Tap sections are mostly shot from the waist down; using a professional Albert moves rather well in the other long shots. The camera angles are very inventive so I’m sure Balanchine had a big say in that. The sets and costumes are mostly identical in both this film and in the NYCB for Farrell’s which were much more revealing.