1h 49min | Comedy, Musical | 4 May 1949 | Color
Director: Charles Walters
Stars: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Oscar Levant.
Robert Alton ... musical numbers staged and directed by
Robert Alton ... choreographer
Hermes Pan ... dance director
Alex Romero ... assistant choreographer (uncredited)
In the Tap! Appendix for Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers.
Songs performed (28 chapters with menu):
- ch1. Swing Trot, Sung by an off-screen chorus, Danced by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
- ch4. Sabre Dance by Khachaturyan, Performed by Oscar Levant on piano
- ch6. You'd Be Hard to Replace, Performed by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
- ch8. Bouncin' the Blues, Danced by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
- ch10. My One and Only Highland Fling, Performed by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
- ch11. Week-End in the Country, Sung by Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and Oscar Levant
- ch15. Shoes with Wings On, Danced by Fred Astaire
- ch19. Concerto in B-flat Minor for Piano by Tchaikovsky, First Movement Performed by Oscar Levant on Piano with Orchestra
- ch20. They Can't Take That Away from Me, Sung by Fred Astaire, Danced by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
- ch22. La Marseillaise, Recited by Ginger Rogers in French (no music)
- ch25. You'd Be Hard to Replace, Later sung by Fred Astaire on a record
- ch27. Manhattan Downbeat, Sung by Fred Astaire and Chorus, Danced by Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers with Chorus
In this film, which was supposed to star FA & Judy Garland, Fred & Ginger are married and bicker/argue endlessly. I don't like that. But some of the old magic is repeated: they convey having fun in the ch8 dance (pre-breakup). And after they separate, he re-seduces her by dancing (ch20) to a Gershwin song first credited on film in their Shall We Dance ('37).
Although FA is "only" 12 years older than GR, he's (b. 1899) started to look old already. She (b.1911) looks fine, but definitely older than their prior pairing a decade ago. I'm much more aware of their age difference now; I never thought about it in the 30's.
I don't love the gimmicky ch15 dance. First off, it's supposed to be onstage in a live show. So all these shoes dancing without a human occupying them is more preposterous than B.Berkeley taking us to a stage more enormous than would be contained on a single soundstage, much less a B'way stage. And seeing dancing feet alone, without bodies, is one of the things FA fought against in his early days of film; he's the one who insisted the full body, head-to-toe, must be shown during the whole dance. The shoes do a lot of the dancing in the number, so it just makes my head shake "no."
Then again, latter day A&R, with all the film's flaws, is still better than most musicals I've seen.
MGM, dir. Walters; 7+
