Mordaunt Hall in the New York Times

March 21, 1931

Probably "Dance, Fools, Dance" is a good title as motion-picture titles go, but a metaphysician might exhaust his learning trying to reconcile it with the melodrama of newspapers and gangdom in which Joan Crawford is featured at the Capitol. Outside of that and a number of incredible turns in a strictly made-to-order plot, the new picture is a brisk and lively entertainment of its sort, and it brought scattered applause from a thin audience at its first showing yesterday. The scenes of a city room in a metropolitan daily are authentic.

The story draws for its drama on two high spots in Chicago's recent crime history—the shooting of Jake Lingle and the celebrated St. Valentine's day massacre. Miss Crawford, as Bonnie Jordan, goes to work as a cub reporter after her wealthy father loses his fortune in the market. Her brother Rodney, a shiftless youth, gets mixed up with a beer-running gang, and is the man at the wheel of the car from which a machine gun mows down seven members of a rival gang.

The star reporter, played without the aid of a banjo by Cliff Edwards, is put on the story, learns too much, and is murdered. The paper offers a $25,000 reward for the capture of the murderers. Bonnie is sent out to gain the confidence of the suspected gang chief, Jake Luva, and what happens thereafter is just about what four out of five will suspect at this point in the film.

The love motif presents Lester Vail as an heir to millions who regards Bonnie as an empty-headed playgirl, while she has money, and who discovers his love for her only after she has gotten along very well without his aid.

Clark Gable's characterization of the gang chieftain is a vivid and authentic bit of acting, and Mr. Edwards makes an interesting reporter. Miss Crawford's acting is still self-conscious, but her admirers will find her performance well up to her standard. William Bakewell never loses sight of the fact that his part calls for a hard-drinking young weakling. On the whole, Harry Beaumont, for his direction, deserves most of the applause for "Dance, Fools, Dance."

John Campbell in the New York Times (after a showing of DFD at a French film festival)

January 10, 1932

...Another film which has attracted attention in the past fortnight has been "La Pente." This is the dubbed version of "Dance, Fools, Dance" and marks the first of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films completed in Hollywood under their new system. It is also the first appearance of Joan Crawford and Clark Gable here in talking pictures for the French public, although several of their films have been released in small houses in the original versions.

For the first time the critics have been lenient with dubbing. Eleven out of fourteen recommended the picture, with the result that the box office records of the Folies-Dramatiques have been shattered.

One critic predicted that Gable would become an idol of such importance in France within eight months that he will soon be acclaimed the new Valentino. And it appears to be the presence of the two stars rather than the story of this film—considered by the French to be too brutal—that will make the picture a success throughout French-speaking countries.

Photoplay (1931):

    Again Joan Crawford proves herself a great dramatic actress. The story... is hokum, but it's good hokum and Joan breathes life into her characterization.

Harry Marshall of harrys-stuff.com (2003):

Dance Fools Dance is one of Joan's better early sound films. It starts out with Joan as a rich jazz baby partying on a yacht with other young ne'er-do-wells. It's easy to partake of the fun and the risque lingerie show. After the stock market crash, and Joan's dad's subsequent death by heart attack, Joan has to go to work as a newspaper reporter. Her brother gets a job with the mob.

Joan goes undercover as a dancer at a mob dive to get a story. She meets Clark Gable and sparks fly. Joan does arguably her best dancing in this film. She's young, sexy and fun. Clark on the other hand is menacing and a treat to watch. One of his molls, Natalie Moorehead, lights his cigarette and in gratitude Clark blows smoke in her face. But the tables are turned when Clark lights Joan's cigarette and she pays him back in kind by blowing smoke in his face.

I won't spoil the ending but Dance Fools Dance is worth 2 hours of your time. Joan's monumental magnetism comes through loud and clear and even overshadows Gable's much-ballyhooed magnetism. Rent it today. Or better yet buy the vid.