The Ice Follies of 1939 (1939)

Released in 1939--that golden year of Hollywood cinema--"The Ice Follies of 1939" was up against some really great films. What a shame it turned out to be a clunker.Take Joan Crawford and Jimmy Stewart as a married couple who spend little time together due to separate careers. Give them a dialogue that does little to create romantic tension, and feels like a collection of scenes strung together. Add some ice skating scenes that lack a star like Sonja Henie to draw the viewer into the action. And what you get is disappointment. (By the way, the skating is proficient for its time, but very dated by today's standards.)At the end of the film is a transition from B&W to Technicolor. It is nothing more than a gimmick, unlike the use of color in "The Wizard of Oz", which would be released about five months later. The ending also features a cringe-worthy "no place like home" sellout by the Joan Crawford character, who abandons her career with nary a second thought.

I can only imagine that when Joan Crawford,then a reigning star at MGM was handed this script, she asked,"Seriously,LB?" Let's face it, the only reason this awful mess was made was GREED. LB Mayer wanted to cash in on the millions being made by Darryl Zanuck at FOX with the skating pictures Sonja Henie was doing. Joan Crawford and Jimmy Stewart as a couple (no way) of skaters(no way) that get married and end up temporarily separating because she becomes a BIG MOVIE STAR within moments of meeting a movie mogul! Boy,those studio contracts must have been iron-clad because nobody in their right mind would have read this horrible script and decided to make this film unless there were dire consequences to not doing so! Miraculously, this pile of manure didn't kill her career and later in '39 she made The Women. Fortunately, Jimmy Stewart also survived this horror.The color sequence at the end is interesting because it was the first time Crawford was seen in color, and the actual Shipstad-Johnson skaters are good,but the God-awful blue gown she was in almost ruined that.Maybe,I'll try to dig up some actual critic reviews from 1939 of this film. It will be interesting to see what they thought of this train wreck.

I really like the Lew Ayres character in "Ice Follies of 1939." His hapless "Take-it-on-the-Chin" wisecracker adds needed dimension to an abbreviated screen play of the "Rags-to-Riches Coney Island" plot.There are really no great "Lessons to live by" here, as we may find in other films of this ilk and during this period. Seems as though MGM had decided to film a skating show featuring performers who do not act, and to modify it with a fill-in plot centering around actors who do not skate.Why not star resident beauty Joan Crawford with the up-and-coming James Stewart and young veteran actor Lew Ayres? - seems the reasoning of the moment. After all, she had done struggling performers in the past, and so a behind-the-scenes show within a show ought to prove right up her alley. Joan could then do at least one customary weeping scene, while James could add his token "Yippie!" routine, which seems mandated of his 1930's appearances."Ice Follies of 1939" may work a little more readily than it seems to do if its plot weren't as overdone as it were during its release decade. On top of this, it's abbreviated with one shortly-cut scene after another and practically devoid of plausible emotion in the process.We rarely find Joan and James sharing the same train of thought here; when she is up, he is down. We don't know why these two care for each other, but Lew generally conveys his character's feelings through his bouncing around a room--most of them very small here, at least for him.In at least two regards, "Ice Follies of 1939" seems dramatically incorrect: first in respect to the studio contract handed to Joan's character and response to her announcement one year later. The film proceeds from there, launching from black & white into Technicolor, which signifies that 1939 may have lasted longer than 12 months, according to this.On a couple of additional positive notes, this film contains interesting figure skating routines by "The International Ice Follies" and, especially, its male solo skaters. Some of its cinematography during the sequences on ice proves outstanding, affording the film audience with reflections and contrasts. And, of course, Joan Crawford looks radiant throughout in appearance and fashionable wardrobe.

This patched-together pseudo-musical-on-ice isn't even fun as camp; it's just a deadly dull example of MGM assembly-line junk. As always, the production values are excellent: this film is just as well-mounted as any Metro "A" product, with the added bonuses of a lavish Technicolor sequence and pleasing ice performances by the Shipstad-Johnson Ice Follies. But, it's heavy going as the miscast stars are shoved about in a silly plot in an underwritten script, and no amount of MGM gloss can compensate for the audacity of casting three non-skating actors as skating stars! Especially jarring is the sight of Joan Crawford in a jet-black Hedy Lamarr "do"; this is one instance where Joan's Madonna-like talent for following trends misfired.(She very nearly achieves a Carolyn Jones-as-Morticia look!) JC fans do get a consolation prize in the color sequence, in which Joan's natural coloring is seen to lovely advantage. Viewer Alert: watch Sonja Henie on Fox instead!!