Monday, December 11, 2017

Rosalie (1937), 6+

West Point cadet Dick Thorpe falls in love with a girl, who turns out to be a princess from an European kingdom.
(123 min) Released 1937-12-24
Director: W.S. Van Dyke (as W.S. Van Dyke II)
Stars: Nelson Eddy, Eleanor Powell, Frank Morgan, Edna May Oliver, Ray Bolger, Ilona Massey, Billy Gilbert, Reginald Owen.
Albertina Rasch ... dance and ensembles created by / dances and ensembles staged by
Dave Gould ... dance director: cadet routines (uncredited)

Genres: Drama | Musical

This is on a Warner Archive disc, so no scene menu, and chapter stops are at 10 min intervals. 

I can't believe they didn't make better use of Ray Bolger here. He doesn't have a full song to dance, just a seated bit at 1:23:30.

Just the significant Dancing:
  • [not] Who Knows? by EP & NE, other couples; just social dancing
  • 21:00 I've a Strange New Rhythm in My Heart, Sung and danced at Vassar dormitory by Eleanor Powell (dubbed by Marjorie Lane) with solo singing sections by others; **ugh! the director shoots EP dancing with only a closeup of her upper body! Not for all of it, but enough to aggravate me. 
  • 54:30 brief tease; Danced by the Albertina Rasch Dancers at the festival (impressive large number of dancers)
    • 59:30 Polovetsian Dances, Borodin
    • 1:07:10 (?)Caucasian Sketches, Op.10, Ippolitov-Ivanov 
    • Second Movement (Allegro con grazia), Tchaikovsky
  • 1:09:00 Rosalie by EP on giant drum-decorated platforms; impressive ending with all the AR dancers from the numbers above; looks like hundreds of moving humans in 1 shot; horrible camera platform shaking as they do very high-angle tracking away from the scene
  • 1:48:40 The Stars and Stripes Forever, Marched by Eleanor Powell and cadets at West Point, and danced by EP
The credits list 3 male specialty dancers. I didn't determine where they danced. Nor what the Parade was where the AR dancers were listed.

This is a Cole Porter score, but only this one stands out: 1:18:00 In the Still of the Night by NE, and I don't love his rendition: too stiff/operatic.

This reminds me of a Warner military school pic, with NE (b. 1901) even more ridiculously too old to be a senior in college than Dick Powell (b. 1904, and his last college student pic was in '35; so he was younger, had more of a baby face, and sang pop tenor instead of operatic baritone).

Recommended only for EP's dancing in the second hour, and this film is too long to recommend it for those minutes. However, the large group shots are not to be missed, including the final scene (which isn't a dance).

MGM, dir. Van Dyke; 6+
Posted by at