Let's begin by saying that Fred Astaire is watchable in ANYTHING such is his charisma, vocal and dancing ability but having said that this vehicle needs all the help it can get. Maybe in 1940 Paulette Goddard was considered leading lady material but even Joan Fontaine (who co-starred with Astaire in A Damsel In Distress) was better than this. It's possible also that back in 1940 moviegoers wouldn't have questioned two middle-aged guys who keep deliberately flunking courses in order to stay in College and play in a band - BUT, did no one wonder about the OTHER band members? Theoretically the band would change personnel every year given that the average College degree takes four years to obtain and presumably when the band was founded it contained members from Freshman, Sophomore, Junior and Senior Classes. On the plus side there is, of course, Artie Shaw, who ran one of the Greatest bands of the Swing era and far outclassed Benny Goodman as a clarinettist. It's one of the few pictures where Astaire has no real excuse to dance - by which I mean the storyline makes no mention of him as a hoofer as is often the case in his movies - so that the few dances have to be contrived and even then they pale by comparison to his hoofing in other films. If you're an Astaire completist you'll want to see this but there's not an awful lot to make you want to own it.
Review of Second Chorus
