Dancing In the Dark is a 1949 Technicolor musical comedy film directed by Irving Reis, starring William Powell and Mark Stevens. This musical comedy stars William Powell as Emery Slade, an unlikeable actor who was once a major film star, but who has not worked in ten years. Slade tries to convince studio chief Melville Crossman (Adolphe Menjou) to give the female lead in the film version of a Broadway musical to an unknown, rather than the actress he was sent to New York to sign.