A decade after their RKO glory days, Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers had a serendipitous reunion when Judy Garland ankled on this admittedly sub-par Betty Comden & Adolph Green script. It's about a bickering stage couple, half Molnar & half KISS ME KATE which covered similar terrain on B’way just the year before in ‘48. It has more enjoyable bits then you remember, helmer Charles Walters remains an under-valued commodity, but it adds up to less than the sum of its parts. And while Fred would get to expose another French intellectual phony in FUNNY FACE/'57, Ginger would never again dare to parlez vous on screen. Oscar Levant seems to be having a grand time as their platonic pal & Ginger at least looks swell with her hair down, hoofing w/ Fred. But the emotional tug of seeing them have a proper go at Gershwin’s "You Can’t Take That Away," (first heard, but not danced to in SHALL WE DANCE/'37) is sadly mitigated by Ginger’s exposed shoulders which have lost their willowy line. File this one in the "be careful what you wish for" folder.
No comments:
Post a Comment