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The Worst Film Ever

Pretty Good

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

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.

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.

Well, looks like good ol' Nostalgia ruled the day on this viewing. I was wowed with their first color installment and mesmerized with the still beautiful Rogers. She was only 38 mind you but don't think she danced much for many years. The crazy shoe dance was fun trying to determine the special effects used and seeing Fred in a skirt was a hoot.I kept waiting for them to dance like they used to, face to face, but Fred held onto that cane for dear life. Could he not lift her anymore for that fabulous lift/twirl that immortalized the couple in "Swing Time" or maybe it was "Top Hat" or ??? Dang can't recall the exact title but you know the routine. However, in the last dance segment he did her a twirl with his back to the camera, a stand-in??? I enjoyed watching Oscar tickle the ivories in the Sabre Dance and Tchaikovsky's B Flat wild renditions. Sadly Dorothy was unavailable for the Wizard Dance but delighted to see my favorite dancers unite in harmony.High recommend for the last hurrah of the greatest duo of the thrillin' thirties musicals.

Though the least good of the Astaire-Rogers films, this is well worth watching--though leave the room before Rogers shows off her dramatic talent, a la Sarah Bernhardt, if you want to retain your sanity. But the highlight of the film is the wonderfully mordant, even morbid, Oscar Levant. He has a better part in The Band Wagon and An American in Paris, but here he is more of a welcome contrast to the mediocrity of the rest of the picture. Levant, who always played himself--a classical musician consumed with self-loathing and the loathing of all things phony and an enthusiastic consumer of drink and drugs--was a welcome touch of cynical Manhattan sophistication in the midst of sunshiny, happiness-crazed California. My favourite line of his of all time is in this picture--when Astaire and Rogers are striding heartily through fields and forests and things, he pleads, "Let's all stay in the house and take pills."