Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Palaest recommended

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Smoreni Zmaj Have you ever seen a bad romantic musical comedy from the first half of the twentieth century ?! I haven't. Although many resemble one another, and after a while they melt together in my memory, they all carry joy of life that in the decades that follow slowly disappears from movies, and today it's almost nowhere to find. Among them stand out mutual films of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. Ginger's beauty is breathtaking and their mutual chemistry is magical. Story is light and fun, music and dance as always great, but although I really liked it, it did not particularly stand out from the masses of similar ones, and it's far below, for example, Top Hat. I have yet to mention, in my opinion, the best scene in the movie, where Astaire is followed by three huge dancing shadows. Joyful recommendation.7/10

ElMaruecan82 That's funny, I was very much aware of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers' legendary status in Hollywood's canon ever since I was a kid, probably at a time when I hadn't reached 5% of my current cinematic knowledge. But it took till my mid-thirties to watch one of these many cinematic partnerships. I guess it's never too late to discover a gem of Hollywood Golden Age. But to be quite honest, I didn't pick "Swing Time" because it's the most celebrated Astaire-Rogers film (or is it "Top Hat"?), I picked it because of its inclusion in the American Film Institute's Top 100 Movies (the latest edition). I had never heard about it so when I saw the title on the list, I was like "OK, but why not "Top Hat"?". Not that I've seen it either, but the film was listed in AFI's Musicals List and "Cheek to Cheek" among the Top 100 most iconic songs, not to mention that the dance sequence was a staple of Hollywood, used in many contemporary movies to define the Golden Age.But no, they picked "Swing Time" and I guess they had their reasons, and from what I read in the reviews, including Roger Ebert's (I always do that when it comes to movies I know a little about, so you can imagine for those I have zero awareness), George Stevens' 1936 romantic comedy is the best Astaire-Rogers movie, which means that it contains their best dance routines. I second that. The dance sequences not only please and impress the eyes but I loved the way they were fitting in the story. In lesser musicals, they generally work as fillers, interludes, but here, they deliver more than scenes.And now it's time I deliver a little about the film. There's John aka "Lucky" a gambler who misses his wedding ceremony when he's conned by his friends into betting that he wouldn't miss it. The film starts with the usual set-up of a marriage we suspect will never happen. Lucky is summoned by his father-in-law-to be but slip through the net by telling he'll win enough money from to prove his good intentions. The way things revolve around winning money seems very contrived and repetitive but necessary to kick Lucky and his friend Pop (scene stealing Victor Moore) out of the town.Lucky comes to New York, he's broke (he lost his money on the marriage bet) and tries to con Penny, a modest dance teacher (Ginger Rogers) he crosses on street, one thing leading to another, he tells her he needs dance lessons, and I suspect it was more difficult for Astaire to feign lousy steps than any routine he had to play. But Rogers has quite a modern approach to her role, she's both invested and detached, a bit like Meg Ryan at her prime without distracting good looks, she's a real match for Astaire as you never doubt they're not having fun together. The first dance starts when Lucky wants to prove Penny's boss how good a teacher she is, and then the magic starts.There's an energy, a lightness, a glee of being and a cheerful complicity that never leaves any dance floor where these four feet operate together, and it's always catching with you. Although the film follows the formula of the screwball comedy to the letter, Astaire and Rogers seem to take it differently from the usual players (Grant, Gable, Russell...) where it's all about rapid-fire dialogues and outsmarting contests, the film is funny and you also enjoy the company of both Moore and Helen Broderick as Penny's friend, but you can tell the two actors are only talking circles when the real deal is the dance.The film is rich in romantic ballads "The Way You Look Tonight" which became Astaire's signature song and the "Never Gonna Dance" near the end that inspired the climactic dance sequence. So dancing is the real star, along with Astaire and Rogers, forming a sort of holy trinity whose aura inhabit the film without ever overriding it. All these dances never last more than five minutes, even Astaire's 'blackface' tap dance in the middle is long enough to let you enjoy the humorous details with the three silhouettes dancing behind Astaire, but short enough to never let the excitement fade. So whether for jazz, tap dance or waltz, every emotion is beautifully conveyed by these magical steps. I'm no analyst or expert to judge them on a technical level but I found them so lively, so dynamic, so emotionally rich that it was just as if they were telling a story within the story and more than that, they were more than interludes. Actually, they were so good that they inevitably highlighted the little flaws, essentially, the script which was too predictable or formulaic. Like a critic of the time said "if only the story was as good as the dancing".Indeed, the dancing was so magical and integral to the film's appeal that it's quite ironic one of its most defining song is "Never Gonna Dance". I'm glad they didn't pick this as the title, although "Swing Time" doesn't do justice to the music either, the film does far more than swinging. Maybe they should have taken the French title, pretty poetic and beautiful, it simply says "Over the Wings of Dancing" and that's true with Astaire and Rogers, you could think they would literally fly over the dancefloor.

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . during SWING TIME, he knocks her down three times. Later, during Fred's infamous White Men Can't Dance number, a trio of Black Shadows behind a scrim seem to be Out-Hoofing him. But during a week in which a couple of America's Most Beloved 90-something gentlemen have passed away, seeing a guy Born Old--such as Fred--taking so many falls in SWING TIME sort of puts a lump in your throat. (Specifically, the USA's original "Help, I've fallen in my bathtub and can't get up!" role model--John Glenn--and the Heimlich maneuver dude, who choked to death a few days after Mr. Glenn expired.) One of the Housewives of New Jersey--Arlene--just turned 114, and she's been a widow for 54 years. Another widow, an Italian named Emma, had 117 candles on her birthday cake last summer, and is the only person still alive on Earth who was born in the 1800s (just think of the pressure on HER!). It's kind of sad to think of ladies such as Arlene, Emma and Ginger being left alone for so long, which helps to make SWING TIME so poignant despite all of Fred's pratfalls. Oscar Hammerstein once wrote "What's the Use of Wond'ring If the Ending Will Be Sad?" because it always is.

l_rawjalaurence SWING TIME contains the usual mix of ingredients characteristic of an Astaire-Rogers vehicle: a creaky script, slick one-liners, a slew of character-roles and above all the song and dance sequences. What makes George Stevens' film so memorable is the quality of the score with at least three Kern standards: "Pick Yourself Up," "The Way You Look Tonight," and "A Fine Romance."Astaire never had a great singing voice; he delivers Kern's gorgeous lyrics in an agreeable contralto, even though sometimes he tends to slide into the top notes. Likewise Rogers' vocal capacities are just above competent. However the two of them are quite magical in their dance-routines: mostly shot in a single take, they show the pair of them in perfect unison gliding across the dance-floor, while keeping the viewers' attention totally focused on their steps. No couple could ever perform with such style and grace as these two; even after nearly seven decades, their routines are unbelievable.Astaire has a solo routine where he performs in black-face as a tribute to Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson. To contemporary viewers, this sequence might seem offensive, but we have to view it in context. 1936 was the year when James Whale's SHOW BOAT was also filmed (with another score by Kern and Oscar Hammerstein III), with Paul Robeson's memorable vocal rendition of "Ol' Man River," a melancholy depiction of the African American's life in the pre-Civil Rights era. Black face routines were considered a legitimate component of vaudeville and/or musical shows.The supporting performances are memorable - as they always were in the Astaire/Rogers films. Helen Broderick and Victor Moore enjoy their opportunities to exchange banter, and are especially funny in one sequence where they start to laugh uncontrollably at Astaire's marital troubles. Eric Blore has a cameo role as a dance academy owner; he doesn't have much to do, but he at least has the chance to go through his range of exasperated facial expressions as he tries to maintain his authority over Rogers and Broderick. Georges Metaxa has a thankless role as the Latin lover Rocky Romero, who has to endure the indignity of his pants almost falling down at the end as he tries to conduct the orchestra.As with all the best Astaire/Rogers vehicles, SWING TIME is tautly constructed, with the plot zipping along at a cracking pace, while allowing plenty of time for dance routines. Forget the script, with its meaningful verbal introductions to the songs; just enjoy the dance.