This madcap musical from 1935 about an American dance star visiting London swirls effortlessly back into cinemas, with classic songs from Irving Berlin
Like a Shakespearean marriage comedy with a spoonful of Feydeau farce, this madcap musical from 1935, from screenwriters Allan Scott and Dwight Taylor and director Mark Sandrich, saunters back for a re-release. It features Fred Astaire as Jerry, the American dance star visiting London, a city seen in almost surreally weird back projections – and Astaire incidentally does an intentionally terrible Cockney accent when he pretends to be a hansom cab driver. (It is one of the rare times he does not appear in faultless evening dress.) Irving Berlin’s classic songs Cheek to Cheek and Top Hat, White Tie and Tails are great, and Astaire swirls on a forward-tilting gyroscopic axis with his spindly arms and legs effortlessly orbiting him like Saturn’s moons.
Playing opposite him – and of course,...
Like a Shakespearean marriage comedy with a spoonful of Feydeau farce, this madcap musical from 1935, from screenwriters Allan Scott and Dwight Taylor and director Mark Sandrich, saunters back for a re-release. It features Fred Astaire as Jerry, the American dance star visiting London, a city seen in almost surreally weird back projections – and Astaire incidentally does an intentionally terrible Cockney accent when he pretends to be a hansom cab driver. (It is one of the rare times he does not appear in faultless evening dress.) Irving Berlin’s classic songs Cheek to Cheek and Top Hat, White Tie and Tails are great, and Astaire swirls on a forward-tilting gyroscopic axis with his spindly arms and legs effortlessly orbiting him like Saturn’s moons.
Playing opposite him – and of course,...
- 4/5/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Stars: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Victor Moore, Helen Broderick, Eric Blore | Written by Howard Lindsay, Allan Scott | Directed by George Stevens
Dazzling dancer “Lucky” (Fred Astaire) steps off stage and straight into his wedding outfit. But his colleagues don’t want to lose their star player to some dame, so they find ways to stop him. Lucky’s lateness triggers a fit of rage in the father of the would-be bride, and he issues an ultimatum: Lucky must go to New York, build a fortune, and return only when he earns the status (i.e. money) to marry his daughter.
Moments later, Lucky is in the Big Apple, where he falls in love with literally the first girl he meets. In classic rom-com stalker style, Lucky pursues Penny (Ginger Rogers) against her wishes. He chases her into a dance studio, where he masquerades as an amateur in order to humiliate...
Dazzling dancer “Lucky” (Fred Astaire) steps off stage and straight into his wedding outfit. But his colleagues don’t want to lose their star player to some dame, so they find ways to stop him. Lucky’s lateness triggers a fit of rage in the father of the would-be bride, and he issues an ultimatum: Lucky must go to New York, build a fortune, and return only when he earns the status (i.e. money) to marry his daughter.
Moments later, Lucky is in the Big Apple, where he falls in love with literally the first girl he meets. In classic rom-com stalker style, Lucky pursues Penny (Ginger Rogers) against her wishes. He chases her into a dance studio, where he masquerades as an amateur in order to humiliate...
- 7/8/2019
- by Rupert Harvey
- Nerdly
Swing Time
Blu ray
Criterion
1936 / 1.33 : 1 / 103 Min.
Starring Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers
Cinematography by David Abel
Directed by George Stevens
The image of a tuxedo clad Fred Astaire hopping an empty boxcar sums up the double-edged appeal of Swing Time, a transcendent musical-comedy in which Fred and Ginger meet the depression head-on – Runyonesque sentimentality is avoided thanks to George Stevens’ no-nonsense direction and the clear-eyed love songs of Dorothy Fields and Jerome Kern.
Astaire plays a down-on-his-luck hoofer named Lucky who catches sight of a beautiful dance instructor named Penny and naturally falls in love (those too-perfect names will hang over the movie like a curse). The smitten hoofer trails her to the studio where she coaches would-be romantics in the art of… being Fred Astaire. Penny does her best with the supposedly flat-footed interloper but only succeeds in getting fired by her bad-tempered boss played by Eric Blore.
Lucky...
Blu ray
Criterion
1936 / 1.33 : 1 / 103 Min.
Starring Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers
Cinematography by David Abel
Directed by George Stevens
The image of a tuxedo clad Fred Astaire hopping an empty boxcar sums up the double-edged appeal of Swing Time, a transcendent musical-comedy in which Fred and Ginger meet the depression head-on – Runyonesque sentimentality is avoided thanks to George Stevens’ no-nonsense direction and the clear-eyed love songs of Dorothy Fields and Jerome Kern.
Astaire plays a down-on-his-luck hoofer named Lucky who catches sight of a beautiful dance instructor named Penny and naturally falls in love (those too-perfect names will hang over the movie like a curse). The smitten hoofer trails her to the studio where she coaches would-be romantics in the art of… being Fred Astaire. Penny does her best with the supposedly flat-footed interloper but only succeeds in getting fired by her bad-tempered boss played by Eric Blore.
Lucky...
- 6/18/2019
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Fred Astaire ca. 1935. Fred Astaire movies: Dancing in the dark, on the ceiling on TCM Aug. 5, '15, is Fred Astaire Day on Turner Classic Movies, as TCM continues with its “Summer Under the Stars” series. Just don't expect any rare Astaire movies, as the actor-singer-dancer's star vehicles – mostly Rko or MGM productions – have been TCM staples since the early days of the cable channel in the mid-'90s. True, Fred Astaire was also featured in smaller, lesser-known fare like Byron Chudnow's The Amazing Dobermans (1976) and Yves Boisset's The Purple Taxi / Un taxi mauve (1977), but neither one can be found on the TCM schedule. (See TCM's Fred Astaire movie schedule further below.) Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals Some fans never tire of watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing together. With these particular fans in mind, TCM is showing – for the nth time – nine Astaire-Rogers musicals of the '30s,...
- 8/5/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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