The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers ended their film association with this wonderful 1949 film.Their singing and dancing was marvelous as usual. The opening scene, while the credits rolled, was memorable. The Irish number was fantastic and no one can forget They Can't Take That Away from Me.Oscar Levant is in fine form as their friend and Billie Burke's voice is just what is needed as the upper society matron of the Broadway scene.A successful Broadway couple whose constant bickering eventually threatens their marriage, both Rogers and Astaire were in top form. Ginger aspires to go beyond musical comedy to the world of serious acting when she is cast to play a young Sarah Bernhardt.A lot of this film mirrored real-life when Ginger left musicals to become a serious actress only to cop the Oscar for 1940's "Kitty Foyle."

Possible spoiler here. Fred and Ginger were great in earlier films. Now they are middle age with a plot that would have been better when they were much younger. This would have been a good movie without the bickering. The musical numbers were very good for the most part. The dances showed a change toward more avant-guard styles emergent of the rebel movies of the 50's. Which, for middle agers looked very childish and the arguments were immature. She looked very tired. He looked like her father, with baggy eyes and all. What a shame that they didn't leave well enough alone. The best part of the movie was some of the music. Oscar Levant tried to steal some scenes. Not worth seeing again. Sell the video at a yard sale or donate it to a nursing home.

I love Fred and Ginger movies. Although the Hays Code made very sure to eradicate obscenity and sex from American movies, Fred and Ginger found other ways to express the crackling chemistry between them. I wonder that more people haven't noticed how overt the sexual attraction is between the two actors. For example, at the end of "Bouncin' the Blues,"(the big tap number where they're dressed like "Roberta's" Hard To Handle number) Fred takes a long leisurely look at Ginger from head to toe as she sashays towards him and says, "Oh, God, Ginger" as they move offstage. Since the music and taps are dubbed, you don't hear the real reactions of the actors as they're dancing (Ginger lets out a "pop!" as she hits a move), but I imagine Fred said it out loud, which accounts for the look Ginger gives him as they go offstage. On a side note, that "Hard to Handle" number from Roberta is all natural taps and music without overdubbing, so you can hear Ginger make a few suggestive noises and Fred laughs and hollers once or twice.As a married couple, Fred and Ginger are extremely believable. They're so familiar to each other by this time, and they exude this quality of utter honesty with each other. The fighting is GREAT, and only two people who love each other can yell at each other like that. The kisses are still very chaste and though there are two separate beds for Fred and Ginger (they're pushed together), reflecting the times, Ginger nonchalantly sheds her bra right in front of Fred while changing into pajamas. It comes off as a very easy and natural relationship.My favorite part of this movie is the fact that it's a chance for Fred and Ginger to give their own send-up of what people perceived their relationship to be. They're married, so their sexual involvement is implicit (people believed they either hated each other or had been sexually involved). They dance, just like Fred and Ginger. They're both extremely melodramatic, which lends a tongue-in-cheek atmosphere to their fights. Neither Fred nor Ginger were ever so over-dramatic in real life so the characters are, in a way, like fun-house versions of themselves.The dancing is exactly what should be expected from Fred and Ginger sixteen years after their first film; she's 38 and he's 50, and they can both still swing it. It seems Fred worked with the small changes to Ginger's figure (what was everyone complaining about? She looks stunning the whole movie), and every film they did before was represented in the choreography somehow: the fall in "Highland Fling" is the same kind of stunt (albeit scaled down a bit) as the fall from "I'm Putting All my Eggs in One Basket," the ultra-slow walk from "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" is seen at the end of "They Can't Take That Away from Me," as well as the dancing-while-nearly-kissing from "Change Partners." It's a nice blend and it shows off everything they can do.Every scene is well-played, and Ginger proves she is every inch the Oscar winner opposite Fred, whose own acting skills are deliciously natural and filled with affection for his leading lady. They have no compunction about getting in each others' faces, nor are they shy about expressing their attraction to each other. At the resolution of an argument, Fred grabs Ginger and kisses her. She apologizes and he kisses her again (a much more natural peck this time that's just cute), and one can hear him let out a "Hm," that sounds like even that little peck knocked him for a loop. Owchamagowch.Some people call Fred Ginger's Svengali. He wasn't, and it was nice to see "Ginger" asserting her independence from "Fred," which she had done so successfully in real life ten years before. They go through the breakup with real pain but it's evident they never stop loving each other. I love this movie and can watch it repeatedly. There are always new details to discover and it bears repeated viewings.

Though the least good of the Astaire-Rogers films, this is well worth watching--though leave the room before Rogers shows off her dramatic talent, a la Sarah Bernhardt, if you want to retain your sanity. But the highlight of the film is the wonderfully mordant, even morbid, Oscar Levant. He has a better part in The Band Wagon and An American in Paris, but here he is more of a welcome contrast to the mediocrity of the rest of the picture. Levant, who always played himself--a classical musician consumed with self-loathing and the loathing of all things phony and an enthusiastic consumer of drink and drugs--was a welcome touch of cynical Manhattan sophistication in the midst of sunshiny, happiness-crazed California. My favourite line of his of all time is in this picture--when Astaire and Rogers are striding heartily through fields and forests and things, he pleads, "Let's all stay in the house and take pills."