Thursday, November 4, 2010

Broadway Melody of 1940

Small time dancer Fred Astaire has the opportunity to work with Broadway star Eleanor Powell, but through a misunderstanding the job goes to his partner, George Murphy. Astaire has to choose between career and friendship.

Powell is a good dancer, but there is not much chemistry between her and Astaire. She's no Ginger Rogers. Or Hayworth for that matter. Maybe the problem is there are no scenes to establish why Astaire has fallen for her. Time is wasted on some vaudeville acts that don't really have anything to do with the story. And to be fair, there are only so many variations you can do on this kind of stories, and the best ones were maybe done in the Astaire / Rogers films. All that is left is the tapdancing numbers that are fun to watch, and shown in long takes with minimal cutting - about as far away from MTV as you can get.

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