Swing Time
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Actor: Eric Blore, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Helen Broderick, Victor MooreBrand: Swing
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, NTSC, Original recording remastered, Subtitled
Picture Format: Academy Ratio, 1.33:1
Running Time: 103 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-08-16
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: T6571
Studio: Turner Home Ent
Product features:
- It's Swing Time anytime Fred and Ginger slip on their dancing shoes. Here, Fred's a gambler with a fiancee back home.but one look at Ginger and all bets are off! He pursues, she resists, and it's all tied together by a series of breathtaking dances. "Bojangles of Harlem," a tribute to hoofer Bill Robinson, has Astaire tapping with three giant Astaire shadows. The sly "Pick Yourself Up" features G
DVD Reviews of Swing Time
DVD Review: Not to be carried away, but this is one of the best musicals Hollywood has ever produced
Summary: 5 Stars
"Listen," says exasperated dance teacher Penny Carroll to her two-left feet customer, Lucky Garnett, "No one could teach you to dance in a million years. Take my advice and save your money!"
We can't help smiling because Penny is played by Ginger Rogers, and the clumsy Lucky, who saw Penny on the street and was smitten, then finagled his way to the dance studio to meet her, is Fred Astaire. But Penny's boss overhears her comment and fires her on the spot. Lucky comes to the rescue. "Now, umm... how did you say that last step went?" he asks Penny. "Oh, yes!" And with that he swings her out to the dance floor and they launch into "Pick Yourself Up," one of the most expert and cheery fast tap polkas you'll ever hope to see.
Some say Swing Time is the best of the Astaire-Rogers movies. Other say that honor goes to Top Hat. I say, "Who cares?" Both are superb. For many, what sets Swing Time apart is the extraordinarily blending of the incomparable dancing and the rich Jerome Kern-Dorothy Fields songs. The book isn't much -- boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back. The usual suspects make up the comedy support, in this case Eric Blore as the dance studio owner, Helen Broderick (who was Broderick Crawford's mother) as Penny's best friend, and Victor Moore, who trails after Lucky.
For any musical to work, the leads must be special, the music must be extraordinary and the production numbers must be memorable. On any scale, in my opinion, Swing Time does it. Just look at the numbers. In addition to "Pick Yourself Up, there's...
"The Way You Look Tonight." If you can't hear the melody behind these words, you need to listen to more good music.
Someday,
When I'm awfully low
And the world is cold,
I will feel a glow just thinking of you
And the way you look tonight.
Yes, you're lovely
With your smile so warm
And your cheek so soft.
There is nothing for me but to love you
Just the way you look tonight.
With each word your tenderness grows,
Tearing my fear apart.
And that smile that wrinkles your nose,
Touches my foolish heart.
Lovely,
Never, never change.
Keep that breathless charm.
Won't you please arrange it, 'cause I love you
Just the way you look tonight...
Just the way you look tonight.
Astaire is at the piano singing this while Rogers is in the next room washing her hair, not feeling too beautiful and with suds all over her head. As a declaration of affection and love, it's tender, romantic and funny. For once the Academy Awards got things right. It won the 1936 Oscar for best song.
"Waltz in Swing Time" is a lush, romantic ballroom dream, with Astaire and Rogers showing their incomparable stuff on a nightclub dance floor. There's no song or words, just an incredible series of melodies built by Hal Borne from themes provided by Kern, Robert Russell Bennett and Borne. Even if you know nothing about dance, and I'm one, Astaire and Rogers are mesmerizing.
"A Fine Romance" is a rueful romantic comedy number sung by Rogers in the snow, while Astaire tries to discourage her affections.
"Bojangles of Harlem," danced in blackface by Astaire as a tribute to Bill Robinson, features incredible tap dancing. And it may be the only blackface number watchable today without flinching. Astaire gives it to us in three parts; a production tap number with a chorus line of dancers, a tap routine with Astaire and three of his shadows and then a single tap routine. In the last part, try to keep track of the syncopated, complicated coordination of shoe taps and hand clappers that Astaire manages without showing an iota of effort.
"Never Gonna Dance" is one of the great stories of broken romance told in dance. It's played out in bold steps and sweeps, up a dramatic stairway and across gleaming black floors. Here's that word again...extraordinary.
If I had to list the Hollywood musicals I like best they'd be Swing Time, Top Hat, Love Me Tonight, Singin' in the Rain and The Band Wagon. It's not surprising that Astaire has three of them. In a way, Swing Time and Top Hat give as good a view as anything of what Hollywood's Thirties sophistication was all about. This is a world where Fred wears a dinner jacket or tails as effortlessly as you or I might wear slacks, where Ginger has gowns that are memorably stylish (just look at the feathered number she wears dancing "Cheek to Cheek" in Top Hat), where fancy nightclubs feature brilliantined floors and apartments are all white and all Art Deco, where Ginger wisecracks and Fred charms. It's a world long gone, but at least we have Swing Time on DVD. It's one of the Fred and Ginger movies from the Astaire & Rogers Collection, Volumes One and Two, and can be bought separately. Swing Time looks first class on DVD and has some interesting extras. The commentary track is by John Mueller, the author of Astaire Dancing. It and Arlene Croce's The Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers Book are essential reading for fans of Astaire.
Description of Swing Time
A collection of musical films starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.Genre: Musicals
Rating: NR
Release Date: 16-AUG-2005
Media Type: DVD
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