Watch Second Chorus For Free

Good movie but grossly overrated

A Masterpiece!

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

After Fred Astaire finished his RKO contract in 1939 with The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, he freelanced for the rest of his career. His first film under the Paramount banner was Second Chorus which had him co-starring with marrieds to be Paulette Goddard and Burgess Meredith and big bandleader Artie Shaw. There seems to be a consensus among the reviewers that this was Astaire's worst musical film and I'm not going to dispute that.Of course second rate Fred Astaire is better than most and he does have some nice dance numbers, but even they're not up to his usual creative genius. I think Astaire realized he was in a turkey and walked through it to collect his paycheck and move on to something better.Poor Paulette Goddard however. She was just beginning her career and she had gotten good notices for Modern Times and The Women. She had been in stage choruses before so it wasn't like she didn't have any musical training. The following year she was in another musical disaster, the independent United Artist film Pot O' Gold with Jimmy Stewart. That was with another bandleader, Horace Heidt. Something about Paulette and bandleaders. Anyway she got a long term Paramount contract for the Forties and much better parts including three DeMille films.As an actor, Artie Shaw was a great clarinetist and bandleader. Of course he joins other great contemporary thespians like Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, and Benny Goodman all who made Hollywood films at the time. His band has a few great numbers though I would have liked to have seen Shaw reprise his all time classic instrumental hit, Begin the Beguine.The film starts off kind of dumb to begin with. We're asked to believe that the 41 year old Fred Astaire and his pal Burgess Meredith are a pair of perennial college students who keep flunking courses to stay in college so they can advertise their band as a college orchestra. Even Jack Oakie didn't stay in college forever.After horror of horrors Meredith graduates they have to start looking for work and they keep trying to get a break with Artie Shaw. Of course it all works out in the end, but for those interested in seeing the film, I shan't say how.Charles Butterworth is on hand to play another of his droll eccentrics and he gets a few laughs. But unless you like Fred Astaire and/or Artie Shaw you might well skip Second Chorus.

This is an OK Fred Astaire movie. A couple of good dance sequences - one with Paulette Goddard, who is not impressive on the floor, and one where he's tap-dancing while conducting Artie Shaw's orchestra. The plot is dismal, Burgess Meredith as comic relief is faintly amusing at best, though in his defense the script gave him very little to work with.Fans of swing will want to see "Second Chorus", though, for the musical sequences. In particular, a five-minute fantasia that Shaw and the band (plus a string section) play. This piece has been scored and has been recorded several times under the title of Artie Shaw's Clarinet Concerto; but no other clarinetist, popular or classical, has brought the same excitement to the piece that Shaw did. It's worth renting for that sequence alone.It's a real shame that the director couldn't work out a sequence in which Astaire dances to Shaw's clarinet - playing, say, "Begin the Beguine", or "Frenesi", or "Traffic Jam", or any other his many other hits. A real shame indeed.

Let's begin by saying that Fred Astaire is watchable in ANYTHING such is his charisma, vocal and dancing ability but having said that this vehicle needs all the help it can get. Maybe in 1940 Paulette Goddard was considered leading lady material but even Joan Fontaine (who co-starred with Astaire in A Damsel In Distress) was better than this. It's possible also that back in 1940 moviegoers wouldn't have questioned two middle-aged guys who keep deliberately flunking courses in order to stay in College and play in a band - BUT, did no one wonder about the OTHER band members? Theoretically the band would change personnel every year given that the average College degree takes four years to obtain and presumably when the band was founded it contained members from Freshman, Sophomore, Junior and Senior Classes. On the plus side there is, of course, Artie Shaw, who ran one of the Greatest bands of the Swing era and far outclassed Benny Goodman as a clarinettist. It's one of the few pictures where Astaire has no real excuse to dance - by which I mean the storyline makes no mention of him as a hoofer as is often the case in his movies - so that the few dances have to be contrived and even then they pale by comparison to his hoofing in other films. If you're an Astaire completist you'll want to see this but there's not an awful lot to make you want to own it.

I originally bought this movie in 1980 at a bookstore that sold tapes along with books. In the process of packing for a move and I am converting all of the tapes to DVD and WAS this one ever a shock! It is NOT a b movie but really stands out as a wonderful film. Astaire sings and dances with this wonderful flair. Arte Shaw's music is great, and the Jazz numbers while perhaps unknown by today's standards should not be overlooked, Paulette Goddard from her loss 2 years before as Scarlett shows she is a fine performer, and Burgess Meredith 24 years before Batman and 35 years before Rocky, also demonstrated he is a really good actor.