SWING TIME: Blu-ray (RKO, 1936) Criterion

It has been said of Fred Astaire, he danced as intuitively as the rest of us breathe; a notion Mr. Astaire would have likely disputed, if only to denote the hours of intense work, belaboring a rehearsed gesture or constructing what came before or after a pivot, precisely to make it all look as though anyone with feet could do as he had. “I just put my feet in the air and move them around,” Astaire once commented, “I have no desire to prove anything by it. I have never used it as an outlet or as a means of expressing myself. I just dance.” Choreographically, there is nothing anyone has done before or since Astaire, that Astaire himself had not first trademarked. Even so, his style is not about pure exhibition or athletic prowess. Rather, it springs forth, almost as inborn inflection, a part of his very being; as though, only when nothing more that could not be expressed in dialogue, had to give way to that awe-inspiring graceful finesse in motion. Many fine dancers have tried to emulate the Astaire style. Some have come close. Others have gone their own way. Yet, all owe Astaire an eternal debt of gratitude, for ascending the weary pose, technically proficient – perhaps, but under Astaire’s lithe command, transformed into a rarified exemplar of the bon vivant in his top hat, white tie and tails.   

Even more famously, it has been written Ginger Rogers did everything Astaire did, only backwards and in heels. Katharine Hepburn’s astute remark rings truer still, “Fred gives Ginger class and she gives him sex.” Whatever the truth, the passion and poise Astaire and Rogers radiated on screen incontrovertibly modernized the movie musical at a time when America and the world at large were struggling to keep hope alive, and, find meaning in the unfathomable hardships of life through escapism. The RKO musicals costarring Astaire and Rogers remain a tonic to this today. Beyond our never-waning marvel at Astaire/Rogers’ on-screen chemistry, we can still revel in all those impossibly diverting screen paradises, existing in a parallel universe on earth, a la art director, Van Nest Polglase: gleaming white art deco facades, pure fantasy juxtaposed with the harsh realities of the Depression era. And with Astaire’s perfectionism on tap, assisted in his choreographic pursuits behind-the-scenes by Hermes Pan and, of course, on the floor with Rogers’ uncanny ability to pick up even the most intricate step, employing almost instant recall, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were destined to enter the history books as ‘one for the ages.’ There was absolutely nothing they could not do together.

And, as though proof were needed, director, George Stevens’ Swing Time (1936) offers it up in fist-full, achieving what is likely their best movie musical ever. While lacking the elephantiasis afflicting the production design of their previous outings, Swing Time derives its sheer joy from our observation of Astaire and Rogers, toiling as one, decidedly, well-oiled machinery – six pictures into their 9-picture tenure, and, so utterly comfortable with one another that the bloom - for some critics, already rubbing off the ‘cheek’ in their cheeky cheek-to-cheek repartee – is resplendently on display herein. Swing Time, while successful at the box office, signaled the beginning of the end for this memorable screen team. In hindsight, what eventually sank RKO’s most lucrative partnership was its inability to change or even mature with the times. Basically, Fred and Ginger were making the same picture over and over again; an impromptu ‘cute meet’ followed by an infectious, silly and charming bits of misdirection to delay their inevitable happily ever after – accomplished, most vivaciously - not with an impassioned kiss, but gentle embrace and colossally magnetic swirl around the dance floor. Swing Time also benefits greatly from a faintly more invested and intimate story, while still finding opportunities for RKO’s stock company of players, including Helen Broderick, Victor Moore, Betty Furness, Eric Blore and Georges Metaxa to inveigle themselves into our hearts.

On this outing, the whole affair is buoyed by the melodies of Jerome Kern, with lyrics by Dorothy Fields. Astaire and Rogers always worked with the best songwriters of their day. Indeed, Astaire – of whom Dean of American music, Irving Berlin once commented he would rather have than anyone else to introduce his popular songs, would, in fact, debut more chart-topping hit parade singles during this period than any other singer from their generation – even, Bing Crosby!  And Swing Time possesses one of the all-time great scores in movie musical history, with the exuberant, ‘Pick Yourself Up’, and the melodic love ballad, ‘The Way You Look Tonight’, instantly becoming standards, endlessly to be revived thereafter.  Astaire and Rogers best moment together is likely ‘Waltz in Swing Time’, a fantastic display of their toe-tapping proficiency, set inside an uber-posh nightclub, with large windows just beyond, revealing a magical snowfall. For sheer playfulness, the pair also acquit themselves nicely of ‘A Fine Romance’ – predictably, ‘with no kisses!’  Astaire’s nightclub solo, ‘Bojangles of Harlem’ – performed as homage to another great artist, in blackface, is an infectious tribute. And finally, ‘Never Gonna Dance’ – the sublime moment when Astaire captures Rogers’ heart in a spellbinding clinch and twirl about the shimmering showroom of another multi-tiered nightclub after hours and quite easily, takes her breath away. Originally, Swing Time was to have included another number, ‘It’s Not in the Cards’, sung and performed by Astaire and Rogers. Although the number was recorded and shot, it was excised – presumably for running over the allotted time of a typical Astaire/Rogers’ outing, and, has never been seen or heard since.

For anyone who has seen more than one Astaire/Rogers movie musical, the machinations in Howard Lindsay and Allan Scott’s screenplay (cribbing from a story by Erwin S. Gelsey), with contributions by Ben Holmes, Rian James, Anthony Veiller, and, Dorothy Yost, is sweetly familiar. Astaire is John ‘Lucky’ Garnett – a professional gambler/dancer set to wed Margaret (Betty Furness). On his wedding day, his drunken groomsmen delay the inevitable and Maggie’s dad phones to call off the wedding. As his fair-weather friends get this message, but Lucky does not, they bet him he will not be getting married – a wager he wholeheartedly agrees to – then, predictably loses. Margaret's father informs Lucky that the only way to his daughter’s heart now is to earn $25,000 – a dowry and proof enough to the family of Lucky’s good intentions. Lucky and his best pal, ‘Pop’ Cardetti (Victor Moore) attempt to hightail it out of town by train. But Lucky’s friends confiscate their money – owed them for Lucky’s lost bet.  So, Lucky and Pop hobo-hitch a freight to New York. Flat broke, they aimlessly wander around town until Lucky’s chance encounter with Penny (Ginger Rogers), a quick-witted dance instructor. He asks her for ‘change’ for a quarter – a ‘good luck’ piece Pop desperately tries to get back. In no mood to deal with these penniless pretenders, Penny inadvertently drops her purse, scattering its contents everywhere. In the process of helping her collect her things, Pop sneakily steals back the quarter. Predictably, Penny thinks Lucky did it.

To set the record straight, Lucky tails Penny to her work. As she refuses to see him. So, he pays for a dance lesson – feigning clumsiness until he can make his humble apology.  Penny’s boss, Mr. Gordon (Eric Blore), is outraged when he overhears Penny tell Lucky to ‘save his money.’  With her job on the line, Lucky now reveals himself to be a dancer extraordinaire, claiming it is only on Penny’s expert tutelage he is able to sashay her around the rehearsal hall in a series of complicated steps that leave Gordon breathless and marveling at their proficiency together.  Not only does Gordon promise not to fire Penny, he sets up an audition with the owner of a local nightclub. Now, Lucky and Pop check into the same hotel as Penny. Unable to afford the cost of a tuxedo, Lucky attempts to ‘borrow’ one off a drunkard, but winds up losing his own clothes instead. Missing the audition, Penny gets angry with Lucky all over again. Undaunted, Lucky arranges another opportunity; then, pickets, along with Pop, outside Penny’s hotel room until she relents and agrees to partake. Regrettably, the audition is cancelled, as the club has lost its band leader, Ricardo Romero (Georges Metaxa), to the casino. Attending Club Raymond, Lucky gambles and wins enough to woo Ricardo back to the club. Meanwhile, Ricardo declares his love for Penny. Lucky delays winning the original $25,000, proving he no longer wishes to wed Margaret, but win Penny’s heart instead. The club owner bets Lucky double or nothing for Ricardo’s contract. Suspecting the owner of cheating, Pop cheats as well and Lucky wins the contract.

Lucky and Penny become a sensation at the club. But Lucky remains hesitant in pursuing her, as he still has not told Penny about Margaret. Penny, having fallen for Lucky, wants to unearth the reason for his unease. So, she and her best friend, Mabel Anderson (Helen Broderick) conspire to get Lucky and Pop out to the country. Pop lets it slip Lucky is engaged to Margaret. Knowing this, however, does not dissuade Penny from her true feelings. Even as Ricardo continues to woo her, Penny gets involved with Lucky. Margaret turns up and Penny, wounded at not being told directly about her by Lucky, now agrees to marry Ricardo instead. But wait, Margaret has had second thoughts. She calls off their engagement before Lucky can. With little time to spare, Lucky crashes Penny’s marriage to Ricardo. As everyone knows who the real lovers are, no one is particularly surprised when Penny forsakes Ricardo and falls into Lucky’s arms. Predictably, Lucky and Penny walk off together – all’s well that ends well.

Swing Time is irrefutably an Astaire/Rogers’ masterpiece.  Despite the chronic misdirection that barely holds the plot together, the picture features four of the pair’s all-time greatest dance routines, as well as the Oscar-winning ‘The Way You Look Tonight’ – never danced, but sung with genuine affection by Astaire, who could regard it as his most successful hit records, topping the charts in 1936. Ginger Rogers thought Swing Time the best of their collaborations, crediting George Stevens with most of the picture’s success. “I think, he gave us a certain quality that made it stand out above the others.”  Swing Time’s working title, ‘I Won't Dance’ – later changed to ‘Never Gonna Dance’ met with resistance from RKO’s management, concerned that it suggested a melodrama, instead of a musical.  For some time thereafter, the project proceeded with the understanding ‘Pick Yourself Up’ might become the release title.  Indeed, ‘Pick Yourself Up’, an enchanting, rhythmic polka/tap routine was conceived to recapture the spontaneity of the pair’s ‘I'll Be Hard to Handle’ number from Roberta (1935). Arguably, the standout for which Swing Time is best remembered, remains, ‘The Way You Look Tonight’ – a brightly nostalgic ballad with an underpinning of melancholy. Jerome Kern was originally paid $50,000 plus a percentage of the gross to write 7 songs for Swing Time; Astaire, expressly requesting at least 2, be legitimate ‘swing’ tunes – a style for which Kern’s song-writing prowess was not as secure. Kern then turned to Robert Russell Bennet for an assist, while Astaire preferred rehearsal pianist, Hal Borne. Borne wound up contributing to the arrangements. However, when it came time to give credit where credit was due, Kern absolutely refused to allow Borne to share it with him. Ultimately, Borne’s name would not appear in the film’s titles, although virtually all published sheet music for Waltz in Swing Time affords him honorable mentioned for both its construction and arrangement.  

Critics were gushing in their praise of Swing Time, particularly November 1936’s edition of American Dancer in which it was written, “Astaire's dancing can no longer be classified as mere tap, because it is such a perfect blend of tap, modern and ballet, with a generous share of Astaire's personality and good humor...Rogers is vastly improved...but she cannot, as yet, vie with Astaire's amazing agility, superb grace and sophisticated charm. With Astaire one feels, with each succeeding picture, that surely his dancing has reached perfection and marks the end of invention of new steps: and yet he seems to go forward with ease and apparent nonchalance.” Costing $886,000 (roughly $16,129,886 in today’s dollars), Swing Time grossed well over $2,600,000 worldwide; on RKO’s books, showing a net profit of $830,000. And yet, box office tapered rapidly after only a few weeks of distribution. Why? Well, for starters, audiences were likely growing tired of the formulaic contrivances, by now, all-too familiar to fans of the Astaire/Rogers franchise. As a matter of fact, Joseph Arnold Kaye of Dance Magazine pointed out as much in his 1936 review, adding “Astaire and Rogers are the picture; everything else seems to have been put in to fill the time between swings. Dance routines are fresh and interesting, dance is superb. But when Hollywood will learn to make a dance picture as good as the dancing, we cannot even guess.”  So too, was the first wave of grandiose movie musicals fast approaching its end run. In the 1940’s, movie musicals would endure, though becoming a far more intimate affair; the ‘boy meets girl’ plots harking back to the turn of the century with a longing for simpler times before WWI and II. The fantasy realms Astaire and Rogers populated was fanciful escapism, expertly tailored and uniquely suited to draw audiences out of the doldrums brought on by the Great Depression and Dust Bowl. Those gleaming white sets, highly lacquered for show, and, with their shimmering gypsum and asbestos snowfall as backdrop, represented a whimsical retreat into make-believe from reality. But movie genres come in waves, and by 1936, the movie musical had reached its level in market saturation akin to today’s proliferation of the super hero sub-genre. Point blank: audiences wanted something else. In the Astaire/Rogers’ franchise, Swing Time included, they were merely being offered more of the same.

Swing Time arrives on Blu-ray via Criterion’s third-party distribution alliance with Warner Home Video – the custodians of the retired RKO catalog. It is rather disheartening to see Swing Time make the leap to hi-def in what is being advertised as a ‘New 2K transfer’, yet, sporting virtually identical age-related damage as seen on Warner’s DVD release from 2009, with only marginal improvements made to the overall clarity and image sharpness. If this is, in fact, a ‘new’ master, its source has not been afforded similar clean-up. The image advances in textured grain. Contrast is ever so slightly more nuanced, minus the green tint that afflicted the DVD. But David Abel’s cinematography does not shimmer or shine as much as anticipated. And fine details throughout – except in close-up – are mostly wanting. We get a PCM mono track, with minor – and forgivable - imperfections inherited from the vintage sound recording. Dialogue is clear, but tinny and music cues burst forth from quiescent moments, giving no doubt as to their overdub in the editing room to maintain overall fidelity. Criterion’s goodies include an audio commentary by John Mueller, recorded in 1986. By far, Mueller’s copious knowledge is well worth a listen. There are all-too-brief archival interviews with Astaire and George Stevens Jr., plus Ginger Rogers, recorded between 1980 and 1982.  Hermes Pan is also on tap. New to this edition is a rather detailed interview with George Stevens Jr., the founder of the AFI and, of course, George Stevens’ son.  There is also a somewhat apologetic puff piece featuring Mia Mask, who critiques the use of blackface for ‘Bojangles of Harlem.’ Honestly, do we really have to keep apologizing for what was then considered a time-honored art form, harking all the way back to the turn of the century? The best of the newly produced extras is ‘In Full Swing’, a 40-minute program with Gary Giddins, Brian Seibert, and Deborah Grace Winer discussing the making of Swing Time, as well as its cultural significance. Last but not least, a nice little essay by Imogen Sara Smith. Bottom line: Swing Time remains the high-water-mark of the Astaire/Rogers’ RKO film musical franchise. They could have stopped right here and ended their union on a note of supreme excellence, impossible to top by any barometer one may choose to quantify greatness. Swing Time is delicious entertainment – real food for the hungry of heart and world-weary souls yearning for a little flight into fancy. ‘Someday…when I’m awfully low…’ – indeed! Very highly recommended!

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

5+

VIDEO/AUDIO

3.5

EXTRAS

4.5