The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)

Good reunion

"The Barkleys of Broadway" is an excellent vehicle to reunite Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. The merits are excellent colour and the stars themselves, mature and well cast and recreating their magic both in dance and in their obvious warmth and rapport. The drawbacks depend on whether you like MGM musicals or not. For me, the film has that overproduced and pretentious quality which was typical MGM. Oscar Levant is his usual tiresome self and there is one very high camp bit when Rogers recites the "Le Marseillaise" in a bid to demonstrate within the plot that she is a great dramatic actress. It is hard not to laugh.

The DVD has a good choice of variable extras. The short film "Annie was a Wonder" is a sentimental and corny tale of a Swedish girl becoming an American citizen and hard to watch. The cartoon is another MGM dud with Droopy, the dog. The theatrical trailer for the film is included but best of all there is the last part of a series of documentaries about Astaire and Roger's legacy. Astaire's daughter appears and the doco captures all one would possible wish to know about how the reunion occurred.

The DVD is OK value but better if purchased as part of one of the Astaire /Rogers collections. June 30, 2008

Why We Loved Them

"The Barkleys of Broadway," a musical comedy/romance, (postwar, 1949) was, unexpectedly, the tenth and last film Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers made together. It finds Astaire 50 years old, and Rogers, 38, and was made, after a ten-year hiatus, during which they each did their own things, and Rogers won an Oscar for her serious work in "Kitty Foyle." Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios made it, rather than the pair's original studio, Radio Pictures(later RKO). Famed MGM producer Arthur Freed, working in his prestigious music unit, gave it a no-expense spared gloss; it's the dancing couple's first and only picture together in color, full, saturated Technicolor, no less.

The somewhat slow, stagebound script was by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and it is witty: at one point, Astaire says, "I've been sneezing and coughing like a Model T." As is widely known, Astaire, having stepped successfully into the dancing shoes that were meant for Gene Kelly in "Easter Parade," and worked happily with Judy Garland, was expected to reteam with Garland here. But Garland had been fired, she was ill, although she was apparently well enough to show up on the set, without invitation, and harass Rogers, who had been invited to take her part. Most sources say that Comden and Green therefore had to rewrite the part for Rogers. Most sources also point out that the scriptwriters somewhat followed real life, in that Astaire wanted to be the best song and dance man ever, whereas Rogers yearned for the respect given a serious actress, see "Kitty Foyle." However, let's remember that Garland also yearned for the respect given a serious actress, and eventually made "Judgment at Nuremberg," and "A Star Is Born." So whose life were the scriptwriters really thinking about, from the beginning, anyway?

At any rate, this movie differs from the stars' previous work in that they start out already married, (they are quite middle-aged by now) and bickering, rather than courting, and they are portrayed as being already at the height of their careers, enjoying a Broadway hit. They are Josh and Dinah Barkley in this one, and Rogers is tired of being made to feel that Astaire has been her Svengali; she wants a hit of her own, preferably a serious one. The script also differs from their other work in that it provides them with no individual foils. Instead we have the talented piano player and acerbic wit Oscar Levant as their mutual best friend, and Billie Burke in her usual scattered society hostess role. Charles Waters directed; Cedric Gibbons art directed, giving the film its lively look.

Nobody knows quite what to make of Rogers' way over the top, out of the blue, reading of "La Marseillaise." My only theory is that perhaps it was meant as a homage to the then fairly recent wartime "Casablanca." If you can stop crying long enough during that film's "Marseillaise" scene, you'll notice that it, too, is a bit overwrought. However....

The film's original music was composed by the well-known Harry Warren, with lyrics by George Gershwin, (Ira Gershwin had died, shockingly young), and most agree the music's nice, but not up to the dancers' earlier great material. However, the pair get a spirited, entertaining, rhythmic workout to "Bouncing The Blues." Their Scottish "Highland Fling" number is enjoyable. "Manhattan Downbeat" just doesn't work. Astaire's favorite, famed choreographer, Hermes Pan, comes back to work on the big, well-known "Shoes With Wings." But the evocative, emotional highpoint of the film has to be the reprise of "They Can't Take That Away From Me," from "Shall We Dance," on which both Ira and George Gershwin worked. It reminds us of every reason we loved the earlier pictures.
December 15, 2007

Fine Film - Poor Print

Beware. While this is one of those Astaire/Rogers films with some wonderful dance numbers, the color print put out here by Warner Brothers is terrible. The transfer is so dark as to be sometimes unwatchable. Compare the fabulous tap number here by these two that's found in That's Entertainment and you'll see that this print is like looking through a dark filter. I bought this DVD to have the Shoes With Wings On number and, in my opinion, the best dance ever done by this pair - They Can't Take That Away From Me. Warners may have done all right with the early Fred and Ginger black and white pictures but this transfer isn't up to par with the fine job done by MGM on their musical gems from the golden era. Let's hope for a special edition issue someday for these great dances done by the greatest dance team of all time. October 1, 2007

A Very Good Print of a Suprisingly Cheap Production

We are great Fred & Ginger fans. We now have all their movies. Considering the Talent all around -- including Comden & Green on dialog -- we must conclude that this effort was limited by a very small budget. For example there is only one big, complete, musical, production number. The dialog is so limited, it forces the actors to be wooden. The color is great. June 22, 2007

Great

The barkley's of broadway is a fabulous film of fred astaire and ginger rogers!
Buy it! April 11, 2007

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