Romancefest 16: Swing Time

I can't believe I've made it this far in life without seeing a movie starring the legendary duo of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

Reading up on SWING TIME, I keep seeing again and again that it's considered the best of their many collaborations. It's a delightful romantic comedy with lots of great singing and dancing and some memorable tunes, most notably "The Way You Look Tonight."

Astaire stars as a dancer and semi-professional gambler who wants to raise enough money to be worthy enough to marry his fiancee. He travels to New York with his bumbling sidekick, Pop (Victor Moore) to try to strike it rich. There, he meets young dance instructor Penny (Ginger Rogers). As the two of them strike up a money-making partnership, taking the night clubs by storm, Astaire's character starts to fall in love with Rogers' and decides maybe he doesn't necessarily need to rush back to his fiancee, after all. Meanwhile, Rogers isn't sure about Astaire's intentions and is courted by a tall, dark, handsome and exotic band leader (Georges Metaxa).

This set up leads from one set of gags to another, interspersed with sweet romantic singing and dancing interludes. The real joy of the movie is in the dancing, of course, famously shot in long takes showing the dancers' full bodies to avoid any camera tricks. But, the movie also works as a pretty funny farce, as both Astaire and Rogers, as well as their background players, prove to be adept comedians, and the screenplay is wittier than it has to be. For instance, I liked the way Rogers was dared into kissing Astaire, and then bashfully backed out at the last second, awkwardly blurting, "Do ya like my dress?"

It's the balance between class, sweetness and humor that makes this movie work. Somehow, Astaire and Rogers are both down to Earth and kind of magical at the same time -- there's nothing funny about their dancing, but there's nothing serious about the plot. Even the sweetest scenes work as long set ups to punch lines, like the scene where Astaire plays "The Way You Look Tonight" while Rogers is washing her hair. She's so swept up by the romance of the moment, she forgets she has a head full of shampoo. But, somehow, the moment still ends up being beautiful. On one hand, the plot contrivances creak along pretty loudly, drawing attention to themselves, but on the other, seeing the whole thing work itself out is kind of part of the fun and innocence of it all.

As for the supporting cast, I especially liked Victor Moore's performance as Pop. It's kind of a one note comic relief role, casting Pop as a kind of oblivious clown, but somehow Moore makes it realistic. I guess it's the understated way he says things -- he's never manic, more befuddled and just kind of going along with things. I liked his devotion to Astaire and his chemistry with Helen Broderick's character.

The notion at the center of the film is the idea that Astaire and Rogers love dancing together so much, their lives would be basically meaningless without each other. Sure, they'd still have lives to live, but there wouldn't be any point to dancing if they couldn't dance with each other, and not much beauty in living if they can't dance. This works as a metaphor for the working relationship of the stars of the film, but also as a metaphor for every relationship in general -- if you find someone things really seem to work out with, why bother trying to work things out with anyone else?