★ 9 / 10
Fine duo, fine romance, really really fine film
John Chard
Fine duo, fine romance, really really fine film. Gambler and dancer John "Lucky" Garnett (Fred Astaire) is engaged to Margaret Watson, being of a care free…
Fine duo, fine romance, really really fine film.
Gambler and dancer John "Lucky" Garnett (Fred Astaire) is engaged to Margaret Watson, being of a care free mind, and not a little gullible, John is hopelessly late for the wedding. Margaret's father is furious and demands that John go out into the real world and earn $25,000 to prove he has enough wits about him to do credit to the impending marriage. John and his trusty sidekick Pop Cardetti hit New York City, pretty soon John meets Penny Carroll (Ginger Rogers, after a less than favourable earlier meeting) at a dance school. After the initial hostilities from Penny subside, it's apparent that both John & Penny are a dynamite dance act, it's also obvious that both of them are starting to fall for each other, just what will their respective partners think of that then...
I sat down to watch Swing Time and within five minutes I had a big smile on my face, that smile was to stay there right to the last second when the picture had finished. Rest assured here, Swing Time is most definitely a film to embrace and cherish. Of the ten musicals that Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers made together, Swing Time arguably leads the way as being the most magical of the bunch. Sure the likes of Top Hat may have more vitality, but Swing Time comes with seamless precision. From the wonderful numbers and routines, to the feeling that this couple were hatched from the very same egg, it really is a marvellous piece of uplifting cinema to witness a pair of performers so completely in tune with each other.
The plot set up is straight forward, and we of course lurch from one amiable plot turn to another, but we know that it's all coming together to entertain us via the presentation of its musical numbers. Music and lyrics come courtesy of Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields, and they be corkers - Pick Yourself Up, The Way You Look Tonight, Waltz In Swing Time, Never Gonna Dance and the brilliant A Fine Romance. Yet the crowning glory is, and a sequence that should rank high on any list of great cinematic moments, is Astaire doing Bojangles Of Harlem, with black face makeup on (no offencive caricature here), the sequence builds to a pinnacle that sees Astaire dancing in triplicate with rear projection versions of himself - utterly fabulous.
Wonderfully directed by George Stevens, whose real father appears in the film as Margaret's enraged father, and containing two great support performances from Victor Moore as Everett 'Pop' Cardetti & Helen Broderick as Mabel Anderson, Swing Time doesn't so much swing, it actually flows along like a perfectly formed ripple on a sea of joy. I feel sorry for those who have an aversion to musicals because they are sure to miss out, not only because of the wonderful artistry on show here, but also to feast on a film that can in a filmic sequence can lift you up out of your doldrums. 9/10
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★ 8 / 10
"No one could teach you to dance in a million years"
ackstasis
'Swing Time (1936)' is typically held as one of the finest Fred Astaire and Gingers Rogers musicals, of which nine were made between 1933 and 1939 {' The…
'Swing Time (1936)' is typically held as one of the finest Fred Astaire and Gingers Rogers musicals, of which nine were made between 1933 and 1939 {' The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)' would follow a decade later}. Directed by George Stevens, the film abandons the often-silly mistaken identity subplots of previous films, and presents a more credible love story, supplemented by some of the most remarkable dance numbers I've yet had of enjoyment of seeing. Replete with the usual stock of enjoyable comedic actors, 'Swing Time' is a professionally-produced film, and Astaire and Rogers, as always, bounce off one another exceedingly well. Though the storyline isn't quite as entertaining as in 'Top Hat (1935)' or 'Shall We Dance (1937),' the picture relies purely on its terrific dance routines to elevate it to such a high status. Jerome Kern provided the film's music, and Dorothy Fields wrote the lyrics, including the Oscar-winning song, "The Way You Look Tonight."
John "Lucky" Garnett (Astaire) loves home-town sweetheart, Margaret (Betty Furness), and wants to marry her
or, at least, he thought he did. After the master-gambler moves to New York City to acquire a $25,000 dowry for the wedding, he comes upon beautiful dance instructor Penny Carroll (Rogers), immediately recognising that she is the woman for him. Wasting no time to consider the logic of his actions, Lucky signs up for dancing lessons, and his incredible "progress" leads the pair towards considerable success. A promising romance begins to bloom, but Lucky cannot bear to tell Penny that he's already engaged to marry another woman; at the same time, he deliberately resists achieving success in his gambling activities, lest he win enough money to return home to Margaret. Pop Cardetti (Victor Moore) and Mabel Anderson (Helen Broderick), knowing members of an older generation, stand around to witness the pair's irregular romance, and form a close friendship of their own, though everything is thrown into turmoil when sleazy musician Ricky Romero (Georges Metaxa) attempts to coax Penny from Lucky's grasp.
The absence of Edward Everett Horton unfortunately detracts from the effectiveness of the film's comedy, though Victor Moore provides an amusing substitute; his tone and mannerisms are so ridiculously adorable that he could accurately be described as a real-life Elmer Fudd. Jerome Kern's musical numbers vary from lighthearted tap dance numbers ("Pick Yourself Up") to sarcastic quicksteps ("A Fine Romance") to a virtuoso, emotion-filled ballroom routine ("Never Gonna Dance"), perhaps the most stirring performance that Astaire and Rogers ever did. There's a certain indescribable desperation to the way in which the two dancers leap and twirl across the dance floor, their movements escalating almost imperceptibly from an idle walk, and Rogers' long dress twists and turns in the air behind her. In Astaire's continual search for creative perfection, his routines were filmed, wherever possible, in a single take, and this particular number was attempted no less than forty-seven times. Also notable is Astaire's frenetic tribute to Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, performing in black-face against three tall synchronised shadows on the wall behind him.
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