Cynics may scoff, but there are some good bad films you just can't help enjoying and this one is pretty near the top of the list.

Failed hoofer Mavis Turner (Liza Minnelli) runs a dance class downtown in a church hall and has a motley class of no-hopers and a pianist (Shelley Winters) who looks like a bag lady.

Mavis has her own problems, as do her pupils; not half of them, however, measure up to those on the dance floor, and these are given a new edge with the 'opportunity' to perform in a charity show.

Thanks to Liza, one of the great wasted film talents of our generation, and her perfectly-cast oddball chorus line, which includes a wonderfully brittle Julie Walters, this proves to be a movie with heart.

Even a poor script and clumsy direction can't kill it; and the chances are you'll cry your eyes out on the night of the big show.

It's a triumph of talent and personality over everything else.