The Barkleys of
Broadway
MGM – 1949
MGM musicals in the ‘40s and ‘50s have a grand and colorful
look about them. This is one of
them. It reunites Astaire and Rogers,
both of whom have obviously aged gracefully 10 years. They are still beautiful, and their age is
worked into the script.
They are supposed to be a married couple of Broadway stars,
Josh and Dinah Barkley, who perform songs and dances together. Their behind-the-scenes home life isn’t as
perfect as they try to make it look to the public. They live a lovely life, yet they quarrel and
fuss.
There are several dances in this show, and A&R look
good. They might not fly around quite as
much as they did in the ‘30s, but they still have fast and fancy footwork and
tremendous style.
The opening credits happen over a theatrical dance number
the Barkleys are supposed to be performing on stage. Get rid of those credits! We want to see this dance! It’s great!
GR looks beautiful in a rather skimpy-top metallic-gold bubble-skirt
dress and matching shoes. Fred always
get the job done with such style.
Oscar Levant is a co-star in this movie. He was popular around my house because of his
piano playing. He was a concert pianist
in addition to being a comic actor and a pretty good singer. They give him plenty of screen time to play
breathtaking pieces on the piano. We get
Khachaturian’s Sabre Dance and Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto! Glorious!
It takes keyboard fireworks like that to command any attention
in an Astaire/Rogers movie. They keep
the talent bar set very high even in this film, at least ten years past their
zenith.
Ginger gets to display some of her acting chops (she is an
Academy Award winning dramatic actress, in addition to being the gorgeous
singer and dancer and comic). It’s a
silly aspect of the script, but she still gets to shine here.
This film depicts a married couple in their private
life. After so many years of watching
Fred and Ginger play cat-and-mouse flirtations, these last two films are
satisfying. It seems like their
characters have matured to have the real daily relationships of married
couples.
They do a funky little Scottish dance on stage. It’s fun and cute.
My favorite moment:
Seeing just how skinny Fred’s legs really are. He is in a kilt.
Fred and Ginger do a nice tap dance together, so that
audience itch is scratched. Ginger does
not appear to have spent the last ten years tap dancing as much as Fred, so
she’s a little simpler than she was between Roberta and Shall We Dance. But she’s still a screen legend and earns it
here, too.
Fred and Hermes Pan came up with a crazy dance idea that
Fred does solo. He dances with
disembodied shoes. It’s a strange
gimmick and a primitive special effect now, but it was innovative and exciting
and fresh in 1949. Bravo!
My favorite moment:
The ballet toe shoes dance right through Fred.
One of the best justifications for this reunion film was the
chance to finally actually dance to the Gershwins’ “They Can’t Take That Away
From Me.” Sure Josh sings to Dinah, but
it’s easy to feel that Fred sings to Ginger.
He seems to be saying goodbye to her and to their partnership. It seems definitely like more than just
what’s happening to Josh and Dinah, perhaps because this song is from another
A&R film. This song is linked to
Fred and Ginger, not to their characters.
The song is beautiful.
The dance is beautiful. The dress
is beautiful. The shoes are
beautiful. Her arms are still
beautiful. They dance together
beautifully. It’s not as athletic as
younger dances they did together, but it’s intricate and flowing and elegant
and romantic. It’s almost perfect and is
a very sweet way to bid them farewell.
Goodbye Fred and Ginger!
You changed our lives for the better.
You kept America dancing during The Great Depression, which might be one
of the reasons we survived it. My
parents met, went dancing together, married, and kept dancing during the hard
times, survived those hard times, and didn’t ever stop dancing.
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