Swing Time
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Movie Reviews of Swing Time
Movie Review: Amazing Dance Performances!
Summary: 5 Stars
Swing Time really swings, both in basic plot and awesome dance numbers!
First Impressions & Thoughts:
Through Netflix I picked up the DVD of this 1936 swinging hit, complete with a short subject (not that great) and a cartoon (cute Fritz Freilang feature). Also included is the theatrical trailer and a great featurette with choreographers actually talking about and dancing some of the numbers that Astaire and Rogers made famous in this film. Really impressive DVD set.
OK, so I've seen Top Hat and The Gay Divorcee and must say that Swing Time is better and in many respects that can be true but is a matter of taste, really. As I recall Top Hat had more of a story and had a lot more songs and who can beat George Gershwin? Though not as funny as Top Hat and the storyline a bit weaker thanks to the absence of Everett Horton, the dance numbers and the intense emotion from these performers is just astounding!
Another Look!:
But Swing Time really swings! There are six great songs and I remember these as sung by Frank Sinatra years ago. The Way You Look Tonight and Start All Over Again are both romantic and fun.
The film is a romantic comedy of sorts but what sets it apart are the dance numbers. There is a certain dance step that is repeated over and over as the two characters get to know each other more and more.
There is the first dance number that is fun and comedic. There is another where the couple may have to split because of other fiancé's and so on, and this is sad and dramatic -- almost unwilling to touch each other.
And the melodies of two songs blended together near the end is fun.
Stars and Comedy:
Victor Moore does well as the comedic foil, much as Edward Everett Horton had done in other Astaire/Rogers films. He had a laid back attitude, almost a dull, dry wit that takes some getting used to.
And as in the other films I've seen, we have the Latin lover who is out to get Rogers and Astaire (as Lucky) tries to interfere.
Racial Stereotyping:
The only part of the film that is really cringe-worthy is Hollywood's Black stereotype which some may find offensive in the present time, though in the 1930s having a Black man saying "Dem's the way it be, boss" was quite acceptable.
The Shadow Dance was quite a gimmick -- Fred is superimposed with three shadows "shadowing" his every move. This was quite cool in many ways. He wore black face, much as Al Jolson did in the old film The Jazz Singer, and is supposed to be a homage to a Black toe-tapper named Bill Robinson, which Fred Astaire does in a way that is praiseworthy and not racist in tone, which I appreciate. Mr. Bojangles, let's swing!
Bottom Line:
Except for the above examples, the play runs nicely, if predictably. The Way You Look Tonight, done with a haunting melody, sends chillls. Just chills, really!
It's a five star movie but I have to take a star off for Hollywood's continual Black stereotypical writing of the script. It's great that Astaire wanted to pay homage to Black entertainers. And Ginger Rogers is gorgeous as always. Eric Blore plays a short part as the head of a dancing school where Ginger's character works, and he plays the comedy quite well. He is extremely funny, but in Top Hat he was funnier.
An Academy Award winner, Swing Time is fun to watch!
Cast
* Fred Astaire - John "Lucky" Garnett
* Ginger Rogers - Penelope "Penny" Carrol
* Victor Moore - Pop
* Helen Broderick - Mabel Anderson
* Eric Blore - Mr. Gordon
* Betty Furness - Margaret Watson
* George Metaxa - Ricardo Romero
Crew
* George Stevens - Director
* Pandro S. Berman - Producer
* Allan G. Scott - Screenwriter
* Bernard Newman - Costume Designer
* Carroll Clark - Art Director
* Darrell Silvera - Set Designer
* Dave Abel - Cinematographer
* Dorothy Fields - Composer (Music Score)
Other Items of Interest:
TCM Greatest Classic Film Collection: Astaire & Rogers (The Gay Divorcee / Top Hat / Swing Time / Shall We Dance)
Dreaming of Fred and Ginger: Cinema and Cultural Memory
Puttin' On the Ritz: Fred Astaire and the Fine Art of Panache, A Biography
Movie Review: La crème de la crème.
Summary: 5 Stars
You cannot go wrong with any of the Fred and Ginger movies, but this one is la crème de la crème.
Why? As Eric Blore says, for the sheer heaven of the "Pick Yourself Up" number, as you watch their feet fly across the dance floor, with Fred in trademark formal attire (in the morning my dears but it fits the lighthearted plot!)and Ginger in the pert black and white knee length dress that lets you see with your very own eyes what an incredibly nimble partner she was for the incomparable Astaire.
This is the ultimate in their "we are making it up as we go along" dances. Fred - who is supposed to be having his first dance lesson of his life - bowls over Ginger and dance school owner Eric Blore by his fancy footwork to demonstrate just how much Ginger has "taught him" and thereby gets her job back for her. Ginger proves to be quite the quick study, as she more than holds her own with Fred.
The number displays many of Fred's concepts about how such dances should be filmed--with one camera that can pan but does not move, with three different tempos to keep things lively, and with action that moves the plot forward. By the end of the dance, Ginger has changed her mind about Fred, and has fallen in love, even though she will change her mind several more times before the final scene.
This is what dancing is meant to be. Watch Ginger watch Fred (which in addition to her agility on the dance floor is the secret to their on screen chemistry).
Why do other dance teams not get that? You aren't on the dance floor to show off how great you are to others; you are there to connect with your partner. That is why Fred's later dance in another film with Eleanor Powell, "Begin the Beguine", while a tour de force, in the end, doesn't work romantically. Powell is the best female dancer, but not the best PARTNER, that Fred ever danced with. She is way too into her own dancing to make us believe that she cares a fig for Fred or anyone else for that matter.
(As an aside, Powell is more believable romantically in her playful scenes with Jimmy Stewart in "Born to Dance"' perhaps she was less intimidated by his reputatin than by Fred's?)
In contrast, every time Ginger looks at Fred, we know that the world has become just the two of them and the rest of us are chopped liver.
If the couples in modern ballroom dance competitions would allow themselves to look at each other in this way, it would ratchet up the things, considerably.
Watch also how Ginger allows an air of frivolity and nonchalance to flash toward the camera.
Later in the film... No one ever looked as good shampooing her hair as does Ginger "Just the Way You Look Tonight". It is whipped cream by the way, not Fells Naphtha.
They dazzle us again in the lovely "Waltz in Swing Time." This time, we get to see a dance that, according to the plot, they had prepared ahead of time. It is a great combination of intricate steps, incorporating some of what they "made up" in "Pick Yourself Up". They end the dance by exiting off stage in a whirl of light and shadow, assisted by Venetian blinds, another Fred and Ginger trademark.
And no set in any movie before this was ever as gorgeously black and white as the grandly reopened 'Silver Sandal', in which they dance their adieux in "Never Gonna Dance"--the number famous for so many takes that it was the wee hours and Ginger's pumps were blood soaked by the time they finished it. They go up and down the double set of stairs, as the black-floored set sparkles all around them.
Enjoy the banter over "cuffs or no cuffs" and the remarkable change that comes over Betty Furness' father and household when they learn that Fred has a knack for making money. This is, after all, still the Great Depression.
But who would ever guess it, as Fred (in the part of Lucky Garnett) wins enough at gambling to make the stars and their costars Helen Broderick and Victor Moore look like a million bucks, as they motor off to the New Amsterdam in an open Dusenberg in the snow. Yes, only in Hollywood!
As the snow continues to fall, Fred and Ginger sing about their "Fine Romance" which makes it seem like they are never going to manage to sort out their differences, but wait for it, there will be a happy ending, this time in the form of a laughing finale.
This is just about the best medicine you can buy without a prescription. Enjoy!
Movie Review: The Penultimate Astaire and Rogers Film
Summary: 5 Stars
"Swing Time" is the best of the 7 Astaire and Rogers films: the seamless integration of songs into an interesting and funny plot, a cast perfectly fitted to the their musical comedy roles, witty and droll dialogue, dazzling art deco sets, and of course the most delightful and artistically satisfying choreography-dancing ever captured on screen. If that sounds overblown it is not. This film should be considered one of the top 10 movies of all time. It didn't happen overnight. Fred Astaire, choreographer Hermes Pan, Ginger Rogers and a great team of musicians and artists at RKO lead by producer Pandro Berman worked together over several years and five earlier movies to reach the heights of musical comedy perfection with this film as their crowning glory.
Although famed comic straight man Edward Everett Horton is not in this movie "Swing Time" has many strong comic moments care of the always wonderful Eric Blore, Helen Broderick (Mother of Broderick Crawford), and Victor Moore. Years on the Vaudeville stage (Eric of course was on the variety circuit in England) has polished the comic timing of this trio. Keep an eye out for the repeating pants gag. Don't miss the reactions of the dog, cat and painting of Grandfather over Lucky Garnett's missed wedding.
Jerome Kern wrote the score full of wonderful melodies but supposedly the orchestrations were punched up considerably with heavy swing influence by Fred (Astaire was an accomplished pianist...see his piano solo in "Follow the Fleet"), Robert Russell Bennett, and Fred's life long piano accompanist and arranger Hal Borne. Fred and musical team wanted the music and the dancing to show off the new swing-jazz style of big band music sweeping the nation. To this score add the heavy syncopated rhythms of Fred and Ginger's tap work and you have compelling and masterfully sophisticated musical numbers with a beat you can't get out of your head. The peak of the swing theme is Fred's BIG dance tribute to the jazz-dancing of Bojangles. Fred's tap work and the "tacky" piano are the writhing rhythmic spine of this supremely creative number where Fred partners with 30 girls at once and out-dances even his own shadow. Contrasting with these swing-jazz numbers are the 3 love songs in the film. Two of these are famous pieces: "The Way You Look Tonight" delivered by Fred, which pulls Ginger and the audience to him like a magnet and the cleverly sarcastic " A Fine Romance" duet. Just listen to the sublime glockenspiel and tubular bell intro to "Fine Romance". Both songs do more to move the plot along than an hour of dialogue and are more marks of the greatness of this musical. The third song is the less known "Never Gonna Dance" with charming but somewhat nonsensical lyrics by Dorothy Fields although there is the ingenious convergence of the `lucky' coin theme in Lucky Garnett's singing of the loss of Penny. Fred's delivery is truly heart wringing.
The songs all masterfully set up the dance routines which also move the story forward as no other dance numbers in the history of Broadway seem able to do. There is a re-occurring theme in the three Fred and Ginger dance duets. Most everyone recognizes the hopping waltz step appearing in each routine but the hauntingly beautiful choreography of "Never Gonna Dance" also repeats the `learning to walk' intro to "Pick Yourself Up" but this sultry and sentimental reprise is a bluesy butterfly metamorphised from the earlier number. The piece finishes with Lucky and Penny headed towards the door just as they ended the first two dances, but this time Lucky halts at the threshold unable to follow Penny.
With all good musical comedies guy gets girl and Fred and Ginger sing interlaced renditions of "Just The Way You Look" and "A Fine Romance" finishing and fading out just as they kiss. Which reminds me that in the middle of the film we see Fred and Ginger's very first screen kiss (after 5 movies together). And no one can sell the effects of that blissful moment better than the beautiful and intensely thrilled Ginger Rogers in a dress and body to die for.
If you were unhappy or depressed when you sit down to watch this film you will feel, at the end, at least for a little while, as if you too could dance on clouds.
Movie Review: What a fine romance this is.
Summary: 5 Stars
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers teamed for the sixth time in "Swing Time"(1936), one of their best films.
This time the director was George Stevens, who would later direct such classics as "Gunga Din", "Giant", and "Shane". This was his only musical, and he did an excellent job.The outstanding score was by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields. Some of the songs they wrote for this movie wound up on the hit parade in its time.
Fred is a gambler and dancer named Lucky (of course), who gets Penny (played by Ginger) fired from her job as a dance teacher after a series of misunderstandings. He gets her job back by impressing her boss,Mr. Gordon (Eric Blore) with how mich he "learned" in a short time. Mr. Gordon arranges for them to audition at the Silver Slipper nightclub, where their carrers take off, and they start to fall in love.
Things get complicated by Lucky's previous engagement to the girl back home (Betty Furness), his gambling problem, and Penny's other love interest, Ricardo (Georges Metaxa). Comic relief comes from Lucky's friend Pop (Victor Moore) and Penny's friend Mabel (Helen Broderick, from
"Top Hat").
All of this is enjoyable, but needless to say, the songs and dances are always the highlight of Fred and Ginger's movies.
"Pick Yourself Up" is a funny comedy-dance routine. "The Way You Look Tonight", which won an Oscar for Best Song", is sung by Fred while Ginger shampoos her hair. This song shows her just how much he likes her, and she stars to become smitten herself."Waltz In Swing Time" is lovely and romantic. "A Fine Romance", another comic highlight, takes place in the snowy outdoors. "Bojangles of Harlem", with Fred in blackface, is a tribute to Bill Robinson. Today, we know why blackface is offensive, but the spirit in which it was intended was not. When things seem to be going wrong for Lucky and Penny, this leads to "Never Gonna Dance", perhaps the most emotionally moving song and dance in a any Astaire-Rogers movie. The implication being that if they can't be together romantically, they would rather not dance with anyone else professionally. This being a comic love story, guess how it works out in the end.
"Swing Time", one of the best in the Astaire-Rogers series, usually is on any list of classic movies, musical or not. Roger Ebert even included it in his book, "The Great Movies", in which he notes how much Fred and Ginger's love of performing,involving countless hours of rehearsal, shows on screen.
The DVD includes a noteworhty commentary by Asataire biographer John Mueller, a cute cartoon spoofing Bing Crosby, and a musical short subject. There is also a short film about the making of "Swing Time". I own all of the Fred and Ginger series on DVD, but this is one ranks with the best discs out there.
Movie Review: Stepping Lively
Summary: 5 Stars
Growing up, I never was interested in the song and dance movies. There were aspects of the genre that I enjoyed in other movies such as "The Wizard of Oz". However, the "boy meets girl, boy dances with girl, the two fall in love" plot was never very compelling, at least as far as I'm concerned. However, I decided to take a chance and see one of the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movies I'd heard so much about. I'm glad I chose "Swing Time" for my first impression.
My initial impressions were that the movie itself was just as predictable as I expected. The plot doesn't really need to be explained because it isn't the reason anyone would watch this movie. However, the song and dance portions were really worth watching. In fact, several of the numbers, alone, made for an overall excellent movie. I wasn't aware that "The Way You Look Tonight" debuted in "Swing Time". I liked the way the producers respected the song enough to weave the melody in and out after Astaire introduced it. I enjoyed some of the preliminary dances (and suffered through an unimpressive song or two). However, it was the dance routine honoring Bojangles that really impressed me. The dance includes a number of finely choreographed aspects including a well-coordinated evolving chorus line. However, it was Astaire dancing with three shadows that really impressed me. At first it seemed like it was three well-placed lights that created the apparent effect of Astaire dancing with himself. However, the slight and subtle differences made me realize that Astaire was dancing with the shadows of three others; perhaps himself recorded earlier and replayed against that back drop. This sequence, alone, makes it the movie worth watching. I also appreciated the slowly evolving reconcilliation dance of Astaire and Rogers towards the end of the movie. Although it quickly sprang into a lively routine, the beginning was quite touching in its' emotional expression.
I don't think that I am ready to spend a lot of time watching the old dance movies but I know I'll watch some more from time to time. It isn't such an outdated genre after all considering the more recent examples of "Saturday Night Fever", "Dirty Dancing" and "Fame" to name a few. However, watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers helped me appreciate how it all began.