Swing Time

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were the most elegant of Hollywood’s dance teams during the Golden Age of American musicals and Swing Time (1936) marks the peak of their 10-film output. The plot is as absurd as anything from the era: Astaire plays Lucky Garnett, a dancer and gambler who needs to make $25,000 to marry his hometown sweetheart (Betty Furness), and Rogers is Penny Carroll, a streetwise dance instructor Lucky falls in love with along the way. Director George Stevens brings an almost effortless elegance to a film built out of ridiculous misunderstandings and silly comedy bits (much of it carried by the sidekicks, fumbling Victor Moore and sardonic Helen Broderick), coupled with beautifully integrated musical numbers. Not only does it feature some of the best dance scenes Astaire and Rogers ever performed but they also serve to illustrate the stages of their courtship, culminating in the lovely, bittersweet "Never Gonna Dance," in which they ostensibly bid farewell to one another in one last turn around an empty nightclub floor. The superb score by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields also includes "Pick Yourself Up," "A Fine Romance," and "The Way You Look Tonight." One of the great American movie musicals, Swing Time does have one sour note: Astaire dons blackface for "Bojangles of Harlem," which is an impressive tap number with art deco sets and props but slips into minstrel show clichés of the era. Extras include a 1986 audio commentary by author John Mueller, archival interviews (with Astaire, Rogers, and choreographer Hermes Pan), new interviews (with George Stevens, Jr. and film scholar Mia Mask), a featurette on the choreography and soundtrack, and a booklet with an essay by critic Imogen Sara Smith. Highly recommended. Editor’s Choice. (S. Axmaker)