1h 34min | Music, Comedy | 14 October 1939
Director: Ray Enright
Stars: Vera Zorina, Eddie Albert, Alan Hale, Leonid Kinskey, Donald O'Connor.
George Balanchine ... dance direction
Watched online, ok print. When an official release comes out, buy it!
I just added Donald O'Connor (b. '25) to my list of Dancers who make their films worthwhile, complaining they cut away for reaction shots too much. He's only onscreen in the beginning of the film, since he plays Eddie Albert's younger self. The only dance direction credit is Balanchine's; who choreographed DO? In the Tap! Appendix for DO's dance.
I can't tell if Zorina is a good ballerina. I have not consumed much ballet. But she doesn't do ANY leaping here; she dances a ballet and Slaughter on 10th Avenue. I know women don't loft as high as men, but she did none. The choreography seems strained, like Balanchine is trying to be hip and modern, but doesn't really get it. Of course, I'm corrupted by the future version, danced by Gene Kelly and Vera-Ellen in Words and Music ('48).
Eddie Albert is definitely not making his bones as a dancer. They have a leg double for part of his dance in Slaughter, and that is good. EA hops around enough to fake it, but I'm watching for good dancing, so faking won't do.
We don't get enough of the supporting ensemble during Slaughter. They could have added real dance time to the show. Just noticed that Slaughter was filmed in color. This print, apparently taken from TCM, did NOT have a color sequence.
EA is also involved in an earlier number, the Princess Zenobia Ballet. He is deliberately comic here, because he's taking over at the last minute for a missing dancer, part of a quintet, and he doesn't know the dance.
I didn't like the low camera angle in the dance numbers, even DO's. It was set at about knee level. It was distracting, and I don't want to look up at the dancers' faces. Just give me waist-high, head-to-toe framing. Occasional odd angles for emphasis and disorientation, but not what they did. James Wong Howe was the director of photography. He has dozens of credits for photography dating back to '23, but this looks like his 2nd D.P. credit.
Back on the Goldwyn Follies (1'38) post, I wondered whether Zorina was a good actress (she was playing a bad one.) She is competent here. She was married to Balanchine 12'38-1'46. He choreographed GF too, and made the tap look ugly when he created Romeo & Juliet, set in American tenements.
Nice to see Erik Rhodes as the egotistical male ballet dancer. He doesn't dance well enough to pass as the character he plays, but he's very good at being pompous and demanding.
Richard Rodger music is wonderful. In addition to Slaughterhouse, the music of There's a Small Hotel is used again and again in the score, and jumps out at me. It's familiar because Frank Sinatra sings the song in Pal Joey ('57). But according to the Wikipedia article, the song originated with the On Your Toes stage play. That article also pointed out that no singing occurred in this movie. So Lorenz Hart gets co-credit for the story/book of the show, but lyrics were absent here.
Warner, dir. Enright; 6+
