The Barkleys of Broadway
Directed by Charles Walters
Written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green
1949/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Amazon Instant
[box] Ezra Millar: Thank you. I’m touched, the piano’s touched, and Tchaikovsky’s touched.[/box]
I can only imagine how this reunion of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers affected 1949 audiences. I was sad just to think I won’t be watching them dance together anymore in my chronological journey through cinema.
Josh (Astaire) and Dinah (Rogers) Barkley are a famous husband-and-wife song-and-dance team on Broadway. Josh directs their shows and Ezra Miller (Oscar Levant) writes the music. Despite their constant bickering, the couple is clearly in love. One of Josh’s favorite taunts is that he taught Dinah everything she knows.
Then a Frenchman who has written a play called “The Young Sarah Bernhardt” tells Dinah he thinks she could be a great tragic actress. This goes to her head and after some classic misunderstandings, Dinah leaves the team to appear in the Bernhardt play.
When Josh eavesdrops on the rehearsals, he finds things are not going well for Dinah. So he disguises his voice and telephones her with tips, pretending to be the French director. Ezra tries his best to broker a reconciliation. This happens when, unbeknownst to each other, the two show up for the same benefit performance and are asked to dance with each other, giving the movie audience an exquisite ballroom dance to “They Can’t Take That Away from Me”. With Billie Burke as a society hostess.
As usual, the plot is an excuse for a bunch of musical numbers, all of them part of various stage performances or rehearsals. While this doesn’t match up to the pairs’ 30’s films, I liked it a whole lot. We have several good numbers for Fred and Ginger and the famous “I’ve Got Shoes With Wings On” number in which Fred spectacularly dances with a bunch of dis-embodied dancing shoes in a shoe shop.
This was the last of the ten films the stars made together and the first since 1939’s The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle. The movie was originally intended as a rematch of Astaire and Judy Garland following the success of Easter Parade. Garland’s host of personal problems led to the studio hiring Rogers instead.
Harry Stradling Jr. was nominated for an Oscar in the category of Best Cinematography, Color for his work on The Barkleys of Broadway.
Trailer
I liked this, but like you said, not as much as their best 30s films. The story within this one felt to me like a very thinly veiled knock on Rogers for the real world end of their films prior to this one – she wanted to be taken seriously as an actress.
One thing that was interesting was finally seeing the two of them together in color.
I thought it was nice that the story allowed Ginger to “act” toward the end even though I think she was not cut out to play Sarah Bernhardt.
I like this movie OK but it’s a bit of a disappointment compared to movies like Follow the Fleet and – my favorite – Shall We Dance.
But I do love the scene where Ginger (as Young Sarah) recites La Marsellaise! It’s just so weird and out-of-nowhere, but still very touching.
It’s probably my favorite Ginger moment where she’s not dancing.
I think Ginger is really underrated as an Actress even though she did win the Oscar for Kitty Foyle. It’s hard to pick between their 30’s films but if I had a gun held to my head I think I would go with Top Hat.
I really love this one, I must say – it reminds me a lot of ‘Easter Parade’, and it is such a thrill to see Astaire and Rogers together again, especially in ‘They Can’t Take That Away From Me’. While I agree their 30s greats are better, this one has a special charm too. And I love the fact that Josh recognises Dinah’s talent and changes his tune before getting her back.
I liked it way more that I expected based on some of the reviews I read. I should have known Fred and Ginger wouldn’t let me down!
I love those MGM trailers!
I just realized what you lose with Astaire and Rogers, you gain with Gene Kelly. That’s a relief.
Yes and Astaire would continue to be marvelous on his own.
We also have Fred Astaire, dramatic actor, to look forward to.