OVP: The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)

Film: The Barkleys of Broadway
Stars: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Oscar Levant, Billie Burke
Director: Charles Walters
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Cinematography)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

The films of Astaire and Rogers have never known for what one would consider particularly compelling screenwriting.  No one went to these films, which inevitably had the two playing dancers of some sort who fall in love or re-fall in love, because the plotting was particularly wonderful.  They went because these were two spry and gay performers, quite adept at musical comedy, and of course they went to see the dancing.  This is true even for their last outing (and their only picture where they weren't at RKO), but I will say that the film does veer a bit more into the fine acting sphere than I was expecting.  Perhaps because Rogers wasn't the first choice for the role (Judy Garland was, but she was fighting off her first major round of demons and losing multiple major roles at the time) the film touches on some more interesting plotting in between your standard Astaire-Rogers storytelling.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is the story of a wildly popular husband-and-wife musical comedy team who have different views about where their careers should head.  Josh (Astaire) is fine where they are, while Dinah (Rogers) wants to try something a bit different, and is wooed by a french director into playing a young Sarah Bernhardt on-stage.  The two fight over this, and eventually break up, with Josh having a solo act and Dinah struggling with turning into a dramatic actor.  Eventually Josh realizes that Dinah is struggling, and doing a French accent, coaches her over the phone while imitating the director and she becomes a smash success.  Dinah learns that Josh has been coaching her and she runs back into his arms, happily ever after.

The film may have been written with Judy in mind, but it weirdly mirrored Ginger Rogers' life in reality.  Rogers, by most accounts, was tired of playing opposite Astaire in only musical comedies at the end of the 1930's and wanted to be taken seriously as a dramatic actress.  She succeeded in this venture, even earning an Oscar for Kitty Foyle, but by the time 1949 rolled around her career had subsided a bit and she needed a jolt, which re-teaming with her old dancing buddy surely seemed like it could be.  Her work here is fascinating in some ways-she's clearly a bit out-of-practice in terms of dancing (Astaire gets some of the harder aspects of the numbers), but she's quite good at selling her dramatic scenes in a way I haven't seen before from Ginger Rogers-I loved the way that she seems sort of distant and informed when flattery turns to insults.  It's a strong piece of work from an actor who admittedly isn't one of my favorites.  Astaire, on the other hand, seems a bit on autopilot here (though he's still marvelous in the dancing numbers, particularly the green-screen assisted "Shoes with Wings On,"), and isn't as exciting as Rogers.

The film received one Oscar nomination, for Best Cinematography.  It's obvious to see why-it's not just the joy of seeing Astaire and Rogers in-color (this was their only film not in black-and-white), but it's also that the film knows to use larger, richer colors for the Technicolor palette.  The nomination is helped by being for legendary cinematographer Harry Stradling, who won two Oscars and 14 nominations in his career.  I will say that it doesn't have the naturalistic sensibility of some of the outdoor films of the time (the lighting seems a bit staged), but it's still quite beautiful.

Overall, though, I will say that the film was fine but not good-the script itself has interesting touches, but is too routine to reward the actual picture instead of just the leading lady.  Therefore I'll go with two-stars, though if you're a fan of musicals or Ginger Rogers in particular this is worth your time.  If you've seen it (or if you have a favorite Rogers/Astaire musical), pipe up in the comments!