Roberta 1935 RKO Studios

Roberta

RKO 1935

Roberta is the story of a Paris fashion designer and a song-and-dance band.  The script is a little thin, but it doesn’t matter.  It gets the job done with glorious music by Jerome Kern.  You may recognize several of the songs.  Also, the fashion design device allows for many, many beautiful gowns.  Some of these gowns are so dated that they are comical, while others could be proudly worn on the red carpet today. 

Like their first film together, this one has Astaire and Rogers (and Randolph Scott) in supporting roles, this time to Irene Dunne.  As much as I love the acting of Irene Dunne (and I do), she is just OK in this.  Astaire (as Huck Haines) and Rogers (as Lizzie Gatz) once again steal the film away from the top-billed star.

Now, Irene Dunne is a brilliant comic actress.  Her timeless films with Cary Grant are some of the funniest ever made (check out My Favorite Wife and The Awful Truth -- both are brilliant).  In this she plays a more serious part, and does some singing.  She was considered a great singer of her era.  Randolph Scott is fine.  He’s a big good-looking cheerful dude.  However, together they mire this film in the 1930s as an antique piece.

But Astaire and Rogers set it free to fly into the 21^st century in fine form.  They are ambitious and romantic and fun.  A&R’s singing voices sound more friendly to the modern ear than the twittery shimmery voice of Ms. Dunne.  But if you like Snow White’s voice, you’ll like Dunne’s.

Did you know that Fred Astaire is a great piano player?  True.  He plays in more than one film.  He plays beautifully in this film.  Enjoy and watch twice.  This guy is incredible.  Not even my Mom could honky-tonk this well, and that’s saying something.

It’s obvious that Ginger Rogers is by now an advanced dancer.  She’s been rehearsing with Fred Astaire for two years and it shows.  Her dancing in “I’ll Be Hard To Handle” is spectacular and appears to be on par with her celebrated partner.  This is definitely a watch-twice dance!  Watch it once to see the dancing, and a second time for the facial expressions.  Then watch it again just for fun.

My favorite moment:  During “I’ll Be Hard To Handle” you can hear them singing, talking, laughing and even yelling out.  Plus, GR’s hair gets messy.  And what about Fred’s belt?

There is a big fashion show at the end of the film.  Lucille Ball shows up as a blonde model.   She shows up in these RKO films in the 1930s, and her TV show was a hit in the 1950s.  She was neither a young woman nor a new actress (nor a redhead) when she achieved her unprecedented TV fame and popularity as a zany redhead. 

“Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” has been a hit song many times over the years.  It’s a haunting piece of music.  It floats in and out of two keys.  It rhymes “hide” with “deride.”  Awesome.

The finale of the film is an ethereal song and dance by A&R.  The music is a medley of “Lovely To Look At” and “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.”  Fred is in formal attire and Ginger is in one of the most elegant black gowns I’ve ever seen, adorned with an eye-popping piece of jewelry and a delicate sparkly snood over her hair.  It’s perfect.  It’s the one in the photo on this blog, but golly, you’ve just got to see the back of the dress!

This dance is marvelously choreographed to beautifully composed and arranged Kern music.  You might need to watch this one three times, but at least watch it twice. 

My favorite moment:  Fred gently puts his hand on Ginger’s head.  It’s a choreographed dance move, but it is so tender and romantic that we melt.