1h 28min | Musical, Romance, War | 11 April 1944
Director: Frank Woodruff
Stars: Belita, James Ellison, Walter Catlett
Dave Gould ... choreographer
Michael Panaieff ... choreographer
Warner Archive release of a Monogram film? Not restored, but far better quality than the usual YouTube Monogram film.
JE played Andy Mason in The Gang's All Here ('44). Something about his voice sounds unnatural: it's overtrained or something. The war is eventually mentioned, and JE enlists. We get a montage of combat footage interspersed with Belita skating and ads for her increasing success.
28 custom chapters (average length 3 min), but no menu.
There is dancing (adagio/ballroom, ballet, including bluesy ballet) or skating (sometimes tapping on skates) in these chapters (some of it ensemble or comedy): 8, 11, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 26, 28.
I was disappointed not to find Belita's earlier film Silver Skates ('43), so I'm glad to have this one. She didn't make many performance films; only 11 films total, 5 music/als. At least 1 more performance is in this quest: Invitation to the Dance ('56), and she plays Vera in Silk Stockings ('57). She's not a good actress here, so I'm surprised to see so many dramatic parts for her.
Production values are higher than my impression of Monogram (but again, Monogram prints are usually horrible, so it's hard to tell). But the ice rinks they use here are much smaller than most of Sonja Henie's at Fox. I would bet B is at least 3-4" taller than SH, and would love to see what she could do with more space. SH was good at building up some speed in the big rinks, and having lots of ensemble skaters.
Interesting from her IMDb bio: Belita placed 16th at the 1936 winter Olympics at age 12, and went pro 2 years later. 1936 was also Sonja Henie's last Olympics, but she won the gold. Some of the leaps and a spin that B does in her finale look more modern than Sonja Henie's skating; she does at least 5 axels (I think) in a row.
Monogram, dir. Woodruff; 6-
