After a chance find in a charity shop earlier this year of a five-disc Fred Astaire DVD box set, I’ve been on quite the Astaire jag, picking up a few other films, mainly chosen because they cost pennies or were in a cheap multi-disc set. So far I’ve watched (or in some cases revisited):
Top Hat (a firm fave)
Swing Time
Broadway Melody of 1940
You’ll Never Get Rich
You Were Never Lovelier
Easter Parade (another long time fave, I could watch this every other week)
The Barkleys of Broadway
The Band Wagon
Funny Face
Finian’s Rainbow (a bit ropey, but ooh look, it’s Pet Clark!)
I also have Holiday Inn, which I’m saving for December.
So chums, what others should I watch? Some are mega cheap on DVD, but others not so much, so streaming via amazon would be the other option. Ta in advance.
Here’s Drum Crazy, the first dance number from Easter Parade, to cheer you up.
Also, please feel free to post your fave Astaire clips.
No dancing, but it’s a cracking song.
I always spend that scene worrying about Ginger’s hair getting frazzled. Stop mooning over him and rinse, girl, quick!
Any you haven’t watched yet, would be my advice. You could start with Flying Down to Rio though.
If you gave me a pound for each moment I missed
If I got dancing lessons for all the lips I shoulda kissed
I’d be a millionaire
I’d be a Fred Astaire.
Take your Uncle Wrongey’s advice and watch ’em all: a few so-so ones in there but nary a duffer.
My own Fred fave is Royal Wedding… Jane is nearly as good as Ginger
I’m sure I will watch them all eventually, just wanted some opinions.
Love the clip. I must have have seen it in one of the That’s Entertainment films.
Bugger, I was about to post that clip myself… just 5 cuts in the whole sequence, and Fred is in full shot virtually throughout, nowhere to hide, fantastic… anyway, if you need another reason to watch Royal Wedding, there’s this classic sequence too…
Yes, I must watch it next. This “unwound” clip is fascinating.
takes 2
She came at me in sections….
…more curves than the scenic railway. ( a line borrowed from PG Wodehouse I believe.) and a plot from Mickey Spillane. Cool eh?
Very. The Band Wagon, fab movie.
Oh – I’m in love with Fred Astaire, I collect his films, his albums, books about him, anything I can find. Here are a few more tips of films you should see ASAP!
The Gay Divorcee and Shall We Dance are essential viewing (along with Royal Wedding of course, but everyone has said that already), Follow the Fleet is also very good, Flying Down to Rio is silly and only has Fred and Ginger in small parts, but it’s fun and he’s SO CUTE you’ll want to eat him with a spoon…
A favourite of mine that gets bad reviews for some baffling reason is Let’s Dance, with another favourite of mine – Betty Hutton – and funny songs by Frank Loesser.
I do have a soft spot for non-PC “sugar daddy meets sexy French orphan” comedy Daddy Long Legs, but it’s not because of the rather lame musical numbers, but because I’ve always had a girl-crush on Leslie Caron…
Roberta is an awful film, and the other actors are ghastly in it, but Fred & Ginger saves it – just fast forward through the other scenes!
Silk Stockings is the musical version of Ninotchka with Cyd Charisse in the Garbo part, it’s not one of his best but has its moments and a few great songs.
Um, can’t remember any other must-sees right now, but stay away from Second Chorus, it’s quite awful.
BTW – lot’s of old films are on YouTube to watch for free…(and I see that Let’s Dance is one of them) 🙂
EDIT: I forgot Damsel in Distress, I don’t have it but I remember it as being a lot better than I thought it would be when I watched it many years ago.
Excellent stuff, Locust, thank you! I thought that there must be a few duffers in his filmography, so thanks for all the pointers. I hadn’t thought of checking YouTube for whole films, but will definitely do this; a lot of the ones I’ve yet to see are quite expensive on DVD or just unavailable, and the thought of spending three quid to stream something just once brings out the Scrooge in me.
I think Royal Wedding will be first on the watch list this weekend.
I forgot to mention the king of the duffers: Yolanda and the Thief! I’ve tried to watch this one three times, but I never got further than the first twenty minutes or so. During the final try I dipped into the middle and the end of it as well, just to make sure, and YES; it’s awful all the way through! 😀
Noted!
He’s pretty good in On The Beach too.
Chris Rea or Neil Young?
Fred also made an impression in 1974 blockbuster The Towering Inferno and had a small part in Battlestar Galactica! Dapper as ever, even in outer space.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bF71r1NIy4s
Didn’t say much, did he?
Follow the Fleet for cameos by Lucille Ball and Betty Grable and the classic “Let’s Face the Music and Dance” (parodied by Morecambe and Wise with Angela Rippon). Shall We Dance for the many classics (Slap that Bass?) and Horton Everett’s trademark double takes in scenes with Eric Blore. I’m also a fan of Eleanor Powell’s dances with Fred in Broadway Melody of 1940.
This is my favourite Fred Astaire clip – the golf dance from Carefree:
Ta, will give that a play later. Am currently listening to an LP of his early recordings – who’d have thought that listening to tap dancing was so enjoyable? 🙂
I shall post anon on the wonder that is Crazy Ex-Girlfriend but this clip somehow seems appropriate right here..
https://youtu.be/ilztSh5Cr2E?list=PLcFhXyrmOaM1Ja29xTxSAp5YsnGwpRn8W
Oh all right then, only cos you asked for it..
https://youtu.be/jtb-ZPOkMyI