(82 min) Released 10 March 1939
Director: Reinhold Schünzel (as Reinhold Schunzel)
Stars: Joan Crawford, James Stewart, Lew Ayres, Lewis Stone.
Frances Claudet ... skating choreographer
Val Raset ... skating choreographer
Genres: Drama | Music | Romance
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031470/
Watched online, excellent print.
I love Jimmy Stewart (who doesn't?), but dislike Joan Crawford, and her name is huge on this poster for a reason: she is the focus of the film.
I love Sonja Henie films, and we've had 4 by now. Her skate sequences are brilliant, even when she skates alone, but especially when they have an ensemble blading around her.
Here we get 2 major skate sequences: one in b/w (start ~41 min, lasts 12.5 min), and the finale (start ~68 min, lasts 14 min) in color. They are very dull compared with SH sequences, which are usually shown in a performance venue with an audience. Here, the b/w number had an "audience", but the most you saw of them was a few moving heads immediately adjacent to the rink; mostly you don't see them at all. It's probably not the audience itself that's important, but the camera angles used. SH is often shown from afar, and she moves well and quickly across a lot of space. Some venues add architectural interest; some have ramps that add the potential of spectacular entrances at any moment. Here I feel the confines of a sound stage, and the skaters move slowly (except one barrel jumper; just watched his part again: he does some fast skating before he jumps, but the camera moves with him, and he's in a bright spotlight with darkened surroundings, so you get very little idea of how fast he's moving). When you compare SH with current Olympic champions, her routines can seem tame. But when you compare her with the skating in this film, you recognize an innovator and a champion.
Wow, current IMDb rating is 4.9, with 576 votes, 79 of them are 1's; women (4.3) like it less than men (5.1), and those aged 45+ hate it the most. That's not how the ratings for JC films go; more than half of them have 6^, more than a fourth are 7^.
I'll be curious to see if I ever feel the urge to buy this. I certainly don't now.
MGM, dir. Schünzel; 6-
