The Illusion of Depth

Last week's film was The Gay Divorcee ; the second of nine films that Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers made for RKO between 1933 and 1939. This week's film is not one of the other eight. I should probably explain that. Following the release of the highly successful Shall We Dance , Fred Astaire was getting concerned that his entire professional career had been as one half of a dance partnership. On Broadway, he had been Fred & Adele (with his sister): ...and now in Hollywood, he was Fred & Ginger .  Fred & Ginger & Ginger & Ginger In 1937, he and Ginger decided to see what would happen if they took a short break from each other. Ginger teamed up with Katharine Hepburn and made Stage Door . Fred made A Damsel in Distress . A Damsel in Distress is based on a 1919 novel by P. G. Wodehouse (who also co-wrote the screenplay) and was adapted as a vehicle for Fred Astaire at the suggestion of the composer George Gershwin. The novel tells the story of an American co...

Those of you who have been frequenting our celebration of Depression-era comedy will have noticed that Ginger Rogers has been appearing quite a bit (on five separate occasions, thus far). We have seen her with David Niven and with Ray Milland. With Cary Grant, with Katharine Hepburn, and on one occasion with Walter Connolly. Astonishingly, there is one very important aspect of Ginger Rogers' film career that we have not yet explored in this current season.  Yes indeed; I think it's about time we showed a Fred & Ginger film! In order to do this, we're going to go back to 1934; eighteen years before she appeared with Cary Grant in Monkey Business . Fate is a Foolish Thing to Take Chances With. The Gay Divorcee is officially the second time Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers appeared onscreen together, but it's the first film in which they are given top billing. Flying Down to Rio (released a year earlier) had starred Gene Raymond and Dolores Del Rio, with Fred and Ginge...

As has been well documented by now, our current series is a celebration of comedies released during the Great Depression (creatively entitled Depression/Comedy ). Last week's film took us rather dramatically out of that particular comfort zone with Monkey Business , released in 1952.  The late date notwithstanding, Monkey Business is (ideologically, if not actually) a Depression-era comedy. It may have been made in 1952, but its heart belongs to the 1930s (very appropriate for a film about regressing to one's youth). Before we go back to the Depression, I want to dawdle in the 1950s for one more evening with a film that is very much of its time. After Monkey Business , I think it's worth seeing what movie making in the 1950s actually did look like. You See it Without Glasses! Last week I talked about the multi-threaded crisis that was overwhelming Hollywood in the early 50s. Film studios were in trouble, and most studio heads were of the opinion that new films would need ...

It's probably not surprising that a film series entitled Depression/Comedy would focus on films produced during the Great Depression (often with Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers in various combinations). Slightly more surprising is our next film, which is every bit the Depression-era comedy, except it was made two decades later. Trust me. There is a reason why the 1930s is often remembered today as the Golden Age of Hollywood. Not only was this a decade of intense creativity, it was also a time when the "studio system" was working at its peak efficiency.  Each studio employed a full-time roster of writers, directors, performers etc who were uniquely positioned to pump out film after film after film for a Depression-ravaged audience that was desperate for everything they could get. The system functioned extremely smoothly, and the quality of the product was very high. But nothing lasts forever. At the end of World War II, everything began to change. The Hol...