calvinnme Except this vehicle is nothing like their other films at RKO. This is a MGM musical in the big MGM tradition. The whole thing was an accident. Judy Garland was supposed to have Ginger Rogers' role, but her chronic illness made a replacement necessary. Rogers and Astaire have the same old chemistry even if it is a different studio. They play feuding song and dance team Josh and Dinah Barkeley who break up personally and professionally over Dinah's desire to do dramatic acting and Josh's jealousy over who the author of the play is - a flirty Frenchman, Jacques. At first Josh says he wants Dinah to fall on her face. But when he sees her actually stumble in rehearsals when he sneaks in to catch a peek, he blames it all on Jacques, who he says does not know how to direct her. So Josh comes up with a ruse in which he calls Dinah after rehearsals and pretends to be Jacques, complete with fake French accent, giving her cues on how to improve her performance based on what he has seen. Unfortunately it works too well. Dinah thinks even more of Jacques since he is helping her out with great tips, and Jacques is bowled over by Dinah's inexplicable improvement. How will this work out? Watch and find out.Of course MGM spared no expense in the late 40s with the Arthur Freed unit, which made this film. There is beautiful Technicolor, comedy and masterful piano work from Oscar Levant, a great piece of special effects work by MGM and dancing by Astaire in the number "Shoes with Wings On" in which Astaire seems to be dancing side by side with pairs of tap shoes, and a ballroom number in which Fred and Ginger dance to "They Can't Take That Away From Me". Fred sang it to Ginger but the two did not dance to it in 1937's "Shall We Dance". Finally, Ginger's recitation of "La Marseillaise" when she plays "Young Sarah Bernhardt" in Jacques' play is a (probably) unintentional camp classic. Fortunately the French are forgiving people.It was an unexpected reunion, but for fans of the big MGM musicals of the period and of Fred and Ginger in particular, I would highly recommend it.

mark.waltz Tired of being part of their musical comedy song and dance team, Dinah Barkley (Ginger Rogers) decides to pursue a career as a dramatic actress, disappointing her hoofer husband Josh (Fred Astaire) which leads to their separation. But as much as he resents her for deserting him, he can't help but interfere in her career, calling her up with a disguised voice and pretending to be her director to offer her "acting advice". This turns her career as a dramatic actress around but leads to the possibility of romance between Dinah and Jacques, the director whom Fred had been pretending to be with a "Cyrano de Bergerac" facade. It's obvious that these two will get back together, but how the scam is exposed is all part of the fun.In their first movie together in ten years, Fred and Ginger appear as if time had stood still. He's gone onto other partners, and she's mixed an infrequent musical with mostly comedy or dramatic parts. For what was supposed to be a follow-up for Fred and Judy Garland (after the smash success of "Easter Parade") came as the reunion that nobody thought would ever happen, and one of the most delightful re-teamings in film history. You can see the story being a continuation of "Easter Parade"; Josh Barkley tells his wife that he helped her learn everything she knows, which having seen "Easter Parade" just recently is a perfect way to continue the story. But without Fred and Judy, there's no need to continue that story, and even if Judy had been Dinah Barkley (not Hannah Brown), the connections would have been obvious.Adding color to the Fred and Ginger pairing enhances their stardom, although I certainly wouldn't want to see their 1933-1939 pairings colorized. But you certainly need color for the "Manhattan Downbeat", "My One and Only Highland Fling" and "Shoes With Wings On", one of the most creative of all of Fred's masterpieces. Fred has a beautiful solo he sings to Ginger ("You'd Be Hard to Replace") and the reprisal of "They Can't Take That Away From Me" is elegantly staged. Ginger's singing in "Highland Fling" is a bit off key, but she still dances beautifully.Oscar Levant provides some acerbic dialog, but when he plays classics on the piano during a few concert performances, it is absolutely grand. His best line is a comment about Fred's replacement dance partner, Gale Robbins, and is one she totally deserves. Carol Brewster made my ears ring as Levant's dizzy date, but nothing put me in a bigger tizzy than poor Billie Burke's almost unnecessary contribution as a befuddled matron who may provide excellent parties but provided an annoyance even to her society friends who all seemed to run every time they heard her screeching out their names.When Ginger recites the French National Anthem (very over dramatically), she sounds like she's imitating Blanche Yurka in "A Tale of Two Cities", appropriate for Madame La Farge, but certainly hammy for a rising Sarah Bernhardt to expect to get away with at the "La Comédie-Française". But that's the only embarrassing scene here, with her rehearsals for her straight play very much done like Hepburn's scenes in "Stage Door" where she must face her inadequacies as a dramatic actress until it hits her how she has to play each scene. It's a shame that with each of their careers still in full swing that this was their last movie together. They did present an Oscar together only a few years later, and at any event where they were together, it was like Elvis or the Beatles had taken the stage. More than 80 years after their first appearance together, Fred and Ginger strike magic more than pretty much any other couple. He may have given her class, and she may have given him sex appeal, but together, they sparkled like the stars in the sky and still make cloudy days a lot better.

ackstasis The on screen partnership of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers was among the most celebrated of the 1930s, and the pair co-starred in a total of nine films between 1933 and 1939. Following 'The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939),' the duo parted ways, and rumours were abound that their working relationship had turned sour, though both firmly denied this. An MGM film entitled "You Made Me Love You" was originally intended to re-pair Astaire and Judy Garland, as a follow-up to 'Easter Parade (1948),' but the actress' drug problems became both physically and emotionally overwhelming, and so producer Arthur Freed asked Ginger Rogers to take the part, reuniting her with Astaire after a ten-year hiatus. 'The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)' isn't quite up to the 'Top Hat (1935)' standards, but, with vivid Technicolor photography and the undiminished comedic chemistry of its two leads, Charles Walters' musical is certainly worthwhile viewing. The story wisely takes into account the ten intervening years since we last saw the stars, and, notably, they open the film already married.John and Dinah Barkley (Astaire and Rogers) are the toast of Broadway, the country's most beloved comedic musical performers. However, though their marriage seems watertight on the surface, the pair are prone to spiteful arguments over the most trivial of issues; Dinah, for one, feels as though she is taken for granted, and wants to prove that she can be a success even without her husband. When a suave French playwright, Jacques Pierre Barredout (Jacques François), offers Dinah the lead role in his "serious" play about great stage actress Sarah Bernhardt, she doesn't need much persuasion to jump ship, and John is left wondering if his wife still loves him. Oscar Levant provides much of the comic relief as Ezra Millar, a classical musician and mutual friend of both husband and wife, who, despite having a new woman by his side every night, is the epitome of a pessimist. Levant performs two classical pieces during the film, the most memorable being Aram Khachaturian's breathtaking "Sabre Dance."Throughout the 1940s, Ginger Rogers had successfully advanced past her foundations in musical comedy, and had won a Best Actress Oscar for 'Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman (1940).' In a way, 'The Barkleys of Broadway' is about Rogers' own struggles to break free from her "cinematic marriage" with Fred Astaire, and her successful bid to gain respect as a dramatic actress. The film's most memorable musical number, tellingly, is a nostalgic retread of George and Ira Gershwin's "They Can't Take That Away From Me" {from 'Shall We Dance (1937)'}, though, without the context and atmosphere of the original film, the number is still a lot less emotional than its predecessor. "Shoes with Wings On," a fun, special effects-driven comedy number, in which Astaire is hassled by an army of feet-less shoes, is also very impressive. Though 'The Barkleys of Broadway' couldn't possible rival the great musical comedies of the pair's golden period, the film provides plenty of enjoyable and undemanding entertainment, and works nicely as a bittersweet swan song to Astaire and Rogers' partnership.

T Y I'm a late-comer to the Astaire/Rogers canon, but I consider "Pick Yourself Up" from Swing Time to be one of the best dance moments I've ever seen on film. (I also find Fred Astaire gruesomely homely, and I'd prefer every camera to stay at least 20 feet from him, but that's another story.)All I wanted from this was to see Fred and Ginger social dancing (facing each other!) They keep singing these crappy songs ...in kilts ...about being in the country. I don't want Astaire & Rogers shoehorned into a typical musical. That's not where their talent lies. While I can take Oscar Levant's cynicism, I have no interest in hearing him sing anything.After the first long 45 minutes I'd say I finished this movie only as a technicality. (Falling asleep several times, volume muted for stretches, a concerto that's way-too-long, a horrible stageplay sub-plot to give the petty Rogers some nonsense "acting") I don't need some big set up to give me feelings or explain why Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers are dancing. It was extremely easy to look away from this muddled, overproduced misfire.