You'll Never Get Rich
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Movie Reviews of You'll Never Get Rich
Movie Review: Astaire and Hayworth are great together, "So Near and Yet So Far" is a fine Cole Porter song, but the movie has many weaknesses
Summary: 3 Stars
If you are a committed Fred Astaire fan and, with his movies, an Astaire completist, you'll want to have You'll Never Get Rich. It's the story of Robert Curtis (Astaire), a Broadway choreographer and dance star, who gets involved in the love-nest machinations of his married producer, Martin Cortland (Robert Benchley), and a chorus girl, Sheila Winthrop (Rita Hayworth). This results in Sheila and Robert mixing up each other's motives, Robert going into the Army and then spending the rest of the movie in boot camp. There's one romantic misunderstanding after another, visits from Sheila, two comic side kicks and an exasperated top sergeant. There also are six Cole Porter numbers and a romantic resolution that has Robert and Sheila tap dancing in wedding clothes on top of a white tank. The movie only takes 88 minutes and, I'm sorry to say, it seems twice as long.
What it has going for it, of course, are Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth. Astaire was an extraordinary dancer, a uniquely gifted singer and had a winning personality. Hayworth was a gorgeous creature and, as a dancer, was one of the best around. Based on talent, personality and just plain grace, she probably was Astaire's best partner
The screenplay of this 1941 service romantic-comedy, however, is simply not very funny and not very romantic. The movie's comic relief is provided by two fellow recruits, played by a double-talking comic, Cliff "Swivel Tongue" Nazarro, who sounds like an incomprehensible Joe Pesci, and Guin "Big Boy" Williams. The two just don't bring much to the party. Nazarro's shtick gets tiresome quickly. Two genuinely funny actors follow along in their trail, Donald MacBride as the exasperated sergeant, and Robert Benchley as Cortland. Considering Cole Porter's phenomenal output of luscious melodies and clever lyrics, his work in this movie is just workmanlike. He was incomparable when writing sophisticated songs for clever people, and part of his genius was in making these songs so attractive to everyone else. But when he tried to write "soldier" songs, as he did in the early Forties, or "hip" songs, as he did in the Fifties, in an effort to stay contemporary, I think his instincts sometimes failed him. In my view, of the six songs in this movie only one begins to reach what Porter was capable of.
With an Astaire movie that features Cole Porter songs, what do we have?
--"Boogie Barcarolle." Here Astaire works briefly with Hayworth to show her some steps, then leads all the dancers in a rehearsal of a big number. It moves from fast tap to awkward ballet and back to tap. Astaire was one of the best tap dancers around, perhaps the best, and anything that has his feet moving fast is worth watching.
--"Shooting the Works for Uncle Sam." Astaire is at Grand Central Station waiting for the train that will take him to boot camp. Suddenly, all the dancers arrive in taxis, throw off their coats, form up and start marching in this send-off number. Astaire leads them in the dance and sings the song.
--"Since I Kissed My Baby Goodbye." Astaire is in the brig. A group of soldiers plays and sings this easygoing song of longing, then Astaire picks it up with a fast tap routine that, for me, doesn't quite match the tone of the song.
--"A-stairable Rag." Astaire, still in the brig, does one of the fastest extended tap routines he ever filmed.
--"So Near and Yet So Far." Astaire and Hayworth perform this lovely song of romance with a latin beat. Astaire sings it to Hayworth and off they go into an expert dance where the two are matched perfectly. It should have had a much better production background than it receives.
--"The Wedding Cake Walk." This is the finale to the movie and to the show which Cortland has brought to boot camp and Robert, now out of the brig, and Sheila headline for the soldiers. The song isn't much to speak of, but it provides lots of opportunities for the dancers. It finishes in an endearingly awkward Hollywood idea of love and patriotism, with Robert and Sheila in their formal wedding attire tapping away on the movie designer's idea of a tank turret.
For an Astaire fan, any of his movies is worth having. I even have a VHS tape of him and Betty Hutton in Let's Dance. If in doubt about this one...go ahead and get it. And be sure to get the second and last movie Astaire and Hayworth co-starred in, You Were Never Lovelier. It's a gem.
The black and white DVD transfer is first rate. There are no extras.
Movie Review: Hayworth seems a bit too "grand" for Astaire's self-effacing style...
Summary: 3 Stars
Released shortly before America's entry into the war, Columbia's "You'll Never Get Rich" is one of Fred Astaire's better films during the relatively dry period that extended from his last RKO film with Ginger Rogers to his first films at MGM...
Since leaving RKO and Ginger Rogers, Astaire had danced with Eleanor Powell in "Broadway Melody of 1940" and with Paulette Goddard in "Second Chorus."
In "You'll Never Get Rich," he had a new partner in Rita Hayworth: a lushly beautiful redheaded actress who was being prepared for stardom in mostly low-budget films... She was a talented dancer who had worked with her family for many years in a vaudeville act called the Dancing Casinos...
"You'll Never Get Rich" cast Astaire as Robert Curtis, a Broadway dance director who is drafted into the army... He becomes involved in an on-again, off-again romance with Sheila Winthrop (Hayworth), a beautiful chorus girl whose fiancé is a captain in the army... The not-very-interesting plot is often interrupted for musical interludes... Astaire and Hayworth dance together twice--to the sensuous Latin beat of "So Near and Yet So Far," and in "The Wedding Cake Walk," a military finale which has a chorus of war brides and soldiers, plus the two stars, dancing atop a huge tank...
Astaire and Hayworth make an attractive dance team, although Hayworth seems a bit too formidable, too "grand" for Astaire's self-effacing style.... Astaire also has several numbers without Hayworth: most notably, a dance in a guardhouse to the song "Since I Kissed My Baby Goodbye," in which he combines several kinds of dazzling footwork...
"You'll Never Get Rich" is lightweight but amiable entertainment, and it kept Astaire dancing...
Movie Review: BETTER LOOKING THAN A LOT OF COLUMBIA "CLASSICS"!
Summary: 3 Stars
"You'll Never Get Rich" is the first of two musicals Fred Astaire made with Columbia's resident bombshell - Rita Hayworth and although it's light, breezy and brimming to the ceiling with comedy and music - ironically, there's not much for the lovely Ms. Hayworth to do, except tap one solo and dance all too briefly in a contrived song with Astaire. The plot focuses on Astaire's employer - Robert Benchley, whose roving eye gets him in perpetual hot water with his wife. Currently, his eye is on Sheila (Hayworth). But an unlikely affair begins, then stops, then starts up again when Sheila realizes she's falling in love - not with Benchley, but Astaire. How's it end? - with music, fun and good humor; all main staples of the Hollywood film musical at its zenith.TRANSFER: Well, considering the pure garbage Columbia has been giving classic film buffs of late (Talk of the Town, You Can't Take It With You, The Awful Truth) this DVD is looking pretty snappy! The gray scale is accurately rendered - though several scenes look as though second or third generation film elements were used instead of an original camera negative. There is a definite grain structure to this presentation. Apart from that, the usual aliasing, edge enhancement and pixelization that has accompanied many Columbia titles is thankfully absent herein. The audio is MONO but very nicely balanced and - for its vintage - natural sounding.
EXTRAS: ONLY A COUPLE OF THEATRICAL TRAILERS!!!
BOTTOM LINE: The follow up to this movie (You Were Never Lovelier) is far more engaging musical entertainment but this film showcases Astaire's tapping at some of its very best and it's refreshing to see the lovely Ms. Hayworth in fine comedic and dancing form! Recommended.
Movie Review: You'll Never Get Rich
Summary: 2 Stars
This is not one of Fred's better efforts, the dancing is so so and Rita Hayworth is among his poorest dance partners. Lacks the glamor and sex appeal of the Astaire/Rogers films. In spite of these shortcomings the film is worth watching.