Review of Swing Time

One of the most enduring complementary stars of Hollywood's Golden Age era, were the graceful, energetic duo of Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers. They dance their way to our hearts, with films like 1934's 'The Gay Divorcee', 1936's 'Follow the Fleet' & 1937's 'Shall We Dance'. Nonetheless, many of critics & fans have said, that 1936's motion picture, directed by George Stevens, 'Swing Time' is their favorite, because it has the most advanced foot moves from all the Astaire & Rogers musicals. Is this movie really their greatest work? Dancing. Maybe yes. Story. For me, I don't think so. The story of a gambler, John 'Lucky' Garnett (Fred Astaire) taking a bet to earn enough money for a wedding, in the big city, was all over the place. Originally written by Erwin Gelsey and revised by screenwriters, Howard Lindsay and Allen Scott, the story didn't really seem to have much focus. It tend to have a lot of filler between dance sequences that really doesn't advance the story, much, mostly with a tiresome running gag involving pants. Scenes like Lucky trying to get a tuxedo off a drunk man to wear to an audition should had been cut. After all, he still able to gain, another audition, regardless of what he wears. As for the scenes where Lucky stays & picket out of front of a love interest, Penelope 'Penny' Carol (Ginger Rogers)'s hotel until she gives in and forgives him. It wasn't really cute nor funny. It's rather disturbing to see. How can I put this into perspective, Lucky had malicious intent to ruin Carol's reputation, by publicly saying, she's mistreated him, when in truth, it's him that cause the duo to miss out on a key opportunity. It's false accusations, and we, the audience is supposed to take his childish stalking resentful intimacy-seeking behavior as harmless. I'm sorry, but that's not normal. Not even for 1930s. Who in their right mind, would find this guy, attracted? I really couldn't buy into the idea that the duo were in love; despite Rogers & Astaire's well chorography dancing chemistry says they were. The film already has way too many weak breakup & unrealistic makeup scenarios with mediocre acting, up to this point. Each one of them, including the stolen quarter sequence was pretty awkward, lame & tacky. Not only that, but the conflicts were implausible resolves, just a little bit too neatly. One such example is the awful ending with the multiply weddings. None of them, honestly, makes no sense, if you think, deep about it. Quite, honestly, why was Penny willing to marry a scumbag, she doesn't like, such as Ricardo Romero (Georges Metaxa), just because she found out that Lucky was trying to marry another woman? What happen to her feminist leanings? It's weird to see this conventional and dependent side of her, come out. It seems like single career life was doing her, quite well. It's illogical. Films like this, really have some dated values. Believe it or not, settling down is not the raison d'être for all women. It's annoying highly clichés. It is one thing, the film could had also scraped. What the film really did needed, was some depth. It could had explore the dangers of gambling addiction in show business. Instead, the troupe dancing doesn't intermixed well with the card games. Despite that, the music & the bopping in this film were fine. For example, the choreography for the 'Never Gonna Dance' musical sequence was surreal dreamlike. I like the body language of the dancers in this piece, it express the character's sense of lost & despair, very well. Way, better than the first dance, 'Waltz in Swing Time', that suggest no movements of physical passion. Not only that, but there is really good camera work, during this sequence. Most of the dance is done without halting, cutting away, or splicing another take into the sequence. We saw the dance exactly as it was performed on the set, even if it 29 takes in total to get it right, which cause Roger's feet to bled. It's so poetic. Another brilliant sequence is the class room scene. I love the rhythmed, the two performers had with each other, while dancing to the song, 'Pick Yourself Up' by Jerome Kern, with lyrics written by Dorothy Fields. Nonetheless, it's a bit jarring to hear this song, outside of the more infamous, but popular prison scene from AMC 'Breaking Bad' TV show. However, not all the dancing in this movie has aged well. The blackface number, "Bojangles of Harlem" is very squirmy to watch, today. Don't get me wrong, I know the minstrel-like show sequence invented by dance choreographer, Hermes Pan with the three background silhouettes dancing with the main character was an obvious tribute to the great tap dancer, Bill Robinson. However, in a story, standard, the scene with the amazing special effects didn't need to be there, even if it was well filmed & performed. Much in the same way, the lost cut footage of the "It's not in the cards" sequence didn't need to be there. As for the singing sequences like 'A Fine Romance' and 'The Way You Look Tonight'. They were great to hear. No wonder, why the latter won the Academy Award for Best Original Song that year. As for the humor. It was a hit and miss. I will give the movie some credit. They indeed took some risk with the mouthing cursing joke. That was kinda cool to see in a 1930s movie. However, in the end, the dance numbers were a lot more entertaining than anything else in the film. As a whole, "Swing Time' is just alright enough to watch. Check it out, if you want to. Just note, it's not 1935's 'Top Hat'. That's for sure. Now that's a movie, worth tapping into.