SWING TIME
US, 1936, 103 minutes, Black and white.
Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Victor Moore, Helen Broderick.
Directed by George Stevens.
Swing Time is one of the best of the Astaire- Rogers musicals. The dancing pair had made an impact in Flying Down to Rio and then made a number of films including The Gay Divorcee, Follow the Fleet. This film was directed by George Stevens, a director of more serious films including Penny Serenade, A Place in the Sun, Giant and The Greatest Story Ever Told.
The plotline is very slight, Fred Astaire playing Lucky, who was to marry Margaret (Betty Furness) but goes to New York to raise money and falls in love with a dance instructress played by Ginger Rogers.
There are touches of comedy, but the main emphasis on the dancing and the songs by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields which include the Oscar-winning ‘The Way You Look Tonight’ as well as ‘Pick Yourself Up’ and ‘A Fine Romance’.
1. An enjoyable popular musical? Considered one of the best Astaire/Rogers musicals? Impact in its time, now?
2. The appeal of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers? in the thirties? Their individual talents, combination? Part of a series of films to entertain people in the thirties, in the atmosphere of the Depression? The comedy style, musical styles? Black and white photography, special effects (the Bojangles sequence)?
3. How credible was the plot? The conventional material, characters, situations and coincidences from traditional musical comedy? Audience expectations from these conventions, their fulfilment? The sub-plot and the comedy routines? A fairy-tale story of wealth and luck in the atmosphere of the Depression? Luck, wealth, love and romance? The title?
4. The film as reflecting America in the thirties? America as the land of opportunity, the land of Depression? America and its luck? Easy fortunes, gambling, quick loss of fortune? Enterprise and success in this atmosphere? The film's comment, critique?
5. The personality and style of Fred Astaire as John Garnet? His opening dance routines and the introduction of him in his work, reputation? The comedy of the preparations for the wedding and his friends trying to impede his progress to the wedding, the various tricks they used, for example, the trousers, the phone calls? The conflict with his potential in-law family? His decision to go to New York? The humour of his fashionable appearance in New York and these appearances impressing people? Penny and the situation with the policeman, learning to dance, her losing her job, the manager of the dance instruction house? Penny regaining her job? John Garnet and his character, gambling? His ability to dance and the way this was worked into the plot? The relationship between Penny and Lucky? Pop and Mabel and their support? The comedy and farcical situations? the style of the thirties' screwball comedy? The necessary deceptions and the courting? The arrival of the fiancee and the ironic revelation of the truth? The appropriate happy ending? A successful man in the Depression?
6. Ginger Rogers and her style as Penny, her comic flair, dancing, her job, losing her job, the dancing lesson, her love for Lucky, the sequences of humour in rejecting him? Their songs together? Taking Rick on the rebound? The happy ending?
7. The characters of Pop and Mabel as echoing the principal characters? The humorous parodying of the dancers, the romance? Gambling?
8. Rick as the conventional conductor of a band in the thirties? The fact that his band could be gambled away? Rick as a rival for Penny? His almost marrying Penny and his gallant behaviour at the end?
9. The theme of gambling, picquet, the casino, the cards, the band? The jokes about money and trying to find enough to avoid going back to be married?
10. The farcical situations, the contrived, crises, emotional response from the audience and longing for the happy ending and reconciliation?
11. The famous songs: The Jerome Kern score, the dancing, special effects for the dancing? The quality of the film as a musical?
12. Light entertainment, presuppositions about happiness?
