Watch The Ice Follies of 1939 For Free

Best movie of this year hands down!

The Worst Film Ever

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Plot descriptions for this film online seem to vary wildly. This is not a drama about two partners breaking up over a woman nor does Lew Ayres' character at any time fall for Joan. Actually this may be one of the few Joan Crawford movies from the '30s where there is no love triangle and nobody is unfaithful to anybody else. Instead, it's a story about a couple (Jimmy Stewart and Joan Crawford) who have problems because the wife becomes a big movie star while the husband is a nobody. Except he really isn't a nobody, he's the "brilliant" creator of the Ice Follies.Earnest performances from Stewart and Crawford but it just won't go. Jimmy in particular gets some painful lines of dialogue. One speech he gives comparing his relationship with Joan to the stars in the heavens is supposed to be profound, with weepy violins playing over the scene, but it's just cringeworthy. Joan gets her clunkers, too. Her Cinderella speech is a rambling mess. Ayres was spared any awful speeches. Of course, he was spared because he has a thankless part with nothing to say or do.Technicolor finale is worth seeing for rare color footage of Joan when she was still young and attractive. Apparently this whole film is just a big promotion for the International Ice Follies. I can't imagine it did much to help with that. It's not a very good movie but not the complete disaster some have claimed. It's mostly just dull and a waste of star power. Still it has a strong curiosity factor going for it. Give it a shot and judge for yourself but keep expectations low.

I can only imagine that when Joan Crawford,then a reigning star at MGM was handed this script, she asked,"Seriously,LB?" Let's face it, the only reason this awful mess was made was GREED. LB Mayer wanted to cash in on the millions being made by Darryl Zanuck at FOX with the skating pictures Sonja Henie was doing. Joan Crawford and Jimmy Stewart as a couple (no way) of skaters(no way) that get married and end up temporarily separating because she becomes a BIG MOVIE STAR within moments of meeting a movie mogul! Boy,those studio contracts must have been iron-clad because nobody in their right mind would have read this horrible script and decided to make this film unless there were dire consequences to not doing so! Miraculously, this pile of manure didn't kill her career and later in '39 she made The Women. Fortunately, Jimmy Stewart also survived this horror.The color sequence at the end is interesting because it was the first time Crawford was seen in color, and the actual Shipstad-Johnson skaters are good,but the God-awful blue gown she was in almost ruined that.Maybe,I'll try to dig up some actual critic reviews from 1939 of this film. It will be interesting to see what they thought of this train wreck.

Ice Follies of 1939 involves a trio of professional skaters, Joan Crawford, James Stewart, and Lew Ayres who have some creative differences and the act breaks up temporarily. So do Crawford and Stewart who are a romantic item.This was Stewart and Crawford's second film together, the first was The Gorgeous Hussy in which Stewart was only a supporting player. It's too bad that neither of them got anything better. I also can't put this any better, the three of them look plain ridiculous on skates and they probably felt just as ridiculous.This film was the brainchild of Louis B. Mayer who looked green with envy over at 20th Century Fox and the money that Darryl F. Zanuck was making with Sonja Henie. I say 'with' and not 'off of' Sonja Henie because Ms. Henie was a star before she signed a contract with Zanuck and Zanuck paid her dearly for her services. Something I'm not sure Mayer was prepared to do.To gloss over the trite backstage story, MGM did import a whole load of the top ice acts circa 1939 other than Sonja Henie. Interesting to see them and Sonja and compare them to Nancy Kerrigan or Johnny Weir or the infamous Tonya Harding.Fortunately the next films for Stewart and Crawford were, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and The Women. The future was going to get better for both.

This MGM musical was one of the reasons Joan Crawford was labeled box-office poison in the late 30s. After two other big flops "The Bride Wore Red" (1937) & "The Shining Hour" (1938), she starred in this dry and tiresome musical, with her playing ex-skater who becomes a famous Hollywood actress. Look out for the peculiar Technicolor finale on ice! Two stars here.