JohnHowardReid Copyright 21 August 1943 by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Palace: 2 September 1943. U.S. release: 17 July 1943. Australian release: 23 December 1943. 8,285 feet. 92 minutes. (This version which contained both Astaire's Trestle Dance and the Morse Victory Garden Song was released only in Australia. In the U.S. the movie was cut to 89 minutes. Needless to say it is the U.S. version which now plays worldwide on TV)NOTES: Harline was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture, losing to Ray Heindorf's This Is the Army. "My Shining Hour" (but not "One For My Baby") was nominated for Best Song, losing to "You'll Never Know" from Hello, Frisco, Hello.Negative cost: $871,000. Initial domestic rentals gross: $1,410,000. Initial foreign rentals gross: $775,000. Net profit after deducting distribution expenses: $625,000.VIEWER'S GUIDE: Although the adult themes are handled with such subtlety they will pass over the heads of children (as indeed they did over many adult reviewers), this movie is definitely adult fare.COMMENT: In his perceptive commentary on The Sky's the Limit in Astaire Dancing, John Mueller calls it a "dark comedy". An apt description, for this is the closest Astaire ever came - at least in his musicals - to playing an unsympathetic character. In fact the qualities we usually like about Astaire's screen persona - the brash charm, the smooth self-assertiveness, the unnerved confidence, the manly competence - are here cleverly inverted to serve something other than their usual noble ends.One of the problems with the film as Professor Mueller is quick to point out is that few people really appreciate it for what it is. We expect the usual Fred Astaire frothy comedy interspersed with musical high-jinks, so that except for an entertaining wisecrack here and there we tend to disregard the script, to see it simply as so much marking time between songs. This is a mistake that most people (including me) have made so that The Sky's the Limit has rarely been appreciated for the richly bitter human comedy it really is.Let's get the plot straight first. It's about an airman, a captain in the Flying Tigers, on leave from China to do a ten-day goodwill publicity tour in the U.S.A. He skips out from his buddies on the junket and thumbs his way to New York. The only thing he has on his mind is pursuing and bedding a girl. He could tell her he's a Flying Tiger but he wants to re-assure himself he still has the old charm. He wants to seduce her as a "nobody". Half the fun is in the successful pursuit. He sets his sights on a pretty photographer. He only has ten days so he gives her the rush act. He has plenty of money. He doesn't care what he does or what he says to achieve his objective. His only problems are his two buddies who try to muscle in. He tries to buy them off. Ryan bitterly rejects the offer. "What's money? Just lettuce. We got a date in the Pacific next week and the Japs don't eat lettuce." He manages to ditch his buddies, but by then alas he has a terminal problem: He's fallen in love with the girl.When you examine them closely few of the characters are sympathetic in the usual Hollywood sense. They're remarkably well-rounded characters and they have faults. Even the girl has a not particularly winning streak of personal ambition. She like so many of the others sees the war as a career opportunity. Of course no matter how brilliant the script the raison d'etre of a musical is the music. And here fortunately there is no let-down. In fact both lyrics and music are nothing short of exceptional. Ginger Rogers was originally considered for the heroine, but Joan Leslie (borrowed from Warner Bros) suits the role better dramatically and is able to keep up with Fred in the duets more than adequately. (According to the records, Miss Leslie was only 18 when she made this movie. I don't believe that. She looks older and wears a large amount of make-up. I'd say she was 22 at least. She's also not as flatly and/or blandly photographed as in her home studio movies - and comes across all the more vividly for it). I really enjoyed Freddie Slack's numbers too.Both director Griffith and producer Hempstead contributed some appealing script ideas on the set, as well as Fred Astaire himself. Griffith has directed with many a sure touch, whilst Hempstead has supervised the production with a comparably artistic hand.The absolutely top-notch performances from the two principals are rounded out by a group of marvelous support players led by Robert Benchley (the victim of a couple of witty inside jokes), Elizabeth Patterson ("I haven't seen Mr Fisher for fifteen years" - "Lucky fellow!" - "Did you say something?") and Eric Blore ("If I weren't such a gentleman's gentleman, I could be such a cad's cad!")In short, an unsung masterpiece.

Doghouse-6 Very much in the Fred Astaire canon of the 30's-40's (Fred meets girl, Fred exasperates girl, Fred wins girl over on the dance floor), THE SKY'S THE LIMIT - although uneven - contains some of Astaire's best and most unusual moments on film. It's worth getting past a few jarring notes to access them.In almost every one of his musicals, Fred plays some extension of the same character: the lovestruck, earnest but insouciant sophisticate, and for some reason the standard formula required Fred to annoy the object of his affection upon their initial meeting - and often for some time after. This picture frequently carries the gimmick to inexplicable extremes.The recipient of Fred's love at first sight is magazine photographer Joan Leslie, who although not quite a triple-threat (her singing voice is courtesy of Sally Sweetland, but she could dance and handle both comedy and drama; call her a two-and-a-half threat) is generally up to the task, and projects a maturity far beyond her 18 (yup: 18) years. Supplying able assistance is Robert Benchley as Joan's editor and would-be suitor, who has moments hinting at more depth as an actor than he was usually given an opportunity to display.With Fred portraying a Flying Tiger ace who skips out on a PR tour to enjoy a few days of fun before returning to duty, there are elements of wartime morale-boosting, but only around the edges, and in what sometimes is an almost subversive vein. After enduring a discourse on "how to win this war" from the man who has given him a lift to town, Astaire's only response is, "What's your classification?" "4-F," the man answers, to which Astaire replies, "That's what I thought."In an odd bit of casting, Robert Ryan appears as one of Fred's Air Forces buddies, but takes the script's intended mischief a bit too seriously. In scenes that call for him to merely tease, he practically drips with menace. That quality would serve him well in subsequent films, but here it's one of the aforementioned jarring notes.There's still plenty of fun along the way, and the script is sprinkled with in-jokes, such as references to some of Astaire and Leslie's costars in earlier films, or Benchley's series of celebrated two-reel shorts for MGM in the 30's (Joan tells of a wedding proposal from him that digressed to a lecture about "the sex life of a polyp"). Indeed, Benchley delivers one of his trademark disorganized addresses at a fete honoring an industrialist, and while it brings the story to a halt for a few minutes, you won't really mind if you're a fan. The crown jewel of THE SKY'S THE LIMIT is one of Astaire's best vocalizations of one of the best songs ever written for him, "One For My Baby (and One More For the Road"), along with one of his most adventurous dance solos, in which a night of bar-hopping after a falling-out with Leslie culminates in an explosive choreographic release of frustration and fury, at the posh nightspot where they first met.This may not become one of your favorite Astaire pictures, but there are rewards if you can overlook a few rough spots.

Rob-120 Fred Atwell (Fred Astaire), an Army pilot and former Flying Tiger, is on a national War Bonds promotion tour. While on leave in New York, he "courts" a fashion photographer and nightclub singer, Joan Manion (Joan Leslie). But his idea of courting seems to be following her around and p-ssing her off, while pretending to be an arrogant draft dodger and freeloader. Apparently, this works much better than, oh, say, telling her that he is a respectable war pilot and hero, and treating her like a lady.There are the usual masterful dances by Astaire, a few good songs by Harold Arlen (notably "My Shining Hour" and "One For The Road"), and a fairly good appearance by Robert Benchley. But this is not one of Astaire's better musicals.

fresne Very few people have heard of it, but this is really one of my favorite Fred Astaire movies. In part because Fred does one of the best angry dance scenes that I've ever seen. He stumbles drunken, singing One More for my Baby, and smashes glass with his feet. He sways to the rhythm and leaps up on the metal bar to tap smash shattering glass. If you're lucky enough to see this movie keep in mind, that's real glass, not sugar glass like you normally see in movies. This was during WWII and sugar was rationed. Fred and Joan Leslie have a number of lovely romantic dance scenes. The background plot of WWII provides, well, a plot. By turns funny and bittersweet, a great dance movie.