Independent Films, Film Profiles

Swing Time (1936 film)
by George_Stevens

Swing Time (RKO) is a 1936 Hollywood musical comedy film set mainly in New York and stars Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Helen Broderick, Victor Moore, Eric Blore and Georges Metaxa, with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Dorothy Fields. The film was directed by George Stevens.Swing Time is considered by Croce,Mueller[2] and Hyam[3] to be Astaire and Rogers' best dance musical, featuring four dance routines that are each regarded as masterpieces of their kind. "Never Gonna Dance" is often singled out as the partnership's and collaborator Hermes Pan's most profound achievement in filmed dance, while "The Way You Look Tonight" won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and went on to become Astaire's most successful hit record, scoring first place in the U.S. charts in 1936. Kern's score, the second of three he composed specially for Astaire, contains three of his most memorable songs.[4]But while it is considered to be one of Astaire and Rogers' greatest films, the film's plot has been criticized as has the performance of Metaxa.[1][2] On the plus side is a particularly fine acting and dancing performance[6] from Ginger Rogers who, it is believed,[2] had an affair with director Stevens during the making of the film. Rogers herself, credited much of the film's success to Stevens: "He gave us a certain quality, I think, that made it stand out above the others."[2]Swing Time also marked the beginning of a decline in popularity of the Astaire-Rogers partnership among the general public, with box office receipts falling faster than usual, after a successful opening.[7] Nevertheless, the film was a sizable hit, costing $886,000 while grossing over $2,600,000 worldwide and showing a net profit of $830,000. Still, the partnership never again quite regained the creative heights scaled in this and previous films.[8]In 1999, Swing Time was one of Entertainment Weekly's top 100 films. In 2004, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In the new AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) it has been added at #90.John "Lucky" Garnett (Fred Astaire) is a gambler and dancer who, after showing up late for his wedding to Margaret (Betty Furness), is told by her father that he must earn $25,000 in order to demonstrate his good intentions. He and his friend "Pop" Cardetti (Victor Moore) hitch the first freight train to New York, where Lucky meets Penny (Ginger Rogers), a dance school instructor, and immediately falls in love with her. They prove successful together in the casino and on the dance floor. After raising the $25,000, he decides to marry Penny and beats off competition from dance band conductor Ricardo Romero (Georges Metaxa) to secure his bride.