USA 103m Dir: George Stevens Key Cast: Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
Swing Time is often regarded in dance circles as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers' best musical and I certainly preferred it to Top Hat.
The plot is somewhat convoluted. Lucky (Astaire) is due to get married but thanks to his ludicrously irresponsible colleagues misses his wedding. His possible father-in-law declares that he can only marry his daughter if he raises $25,000 so Lucky heads to the city with his friend Pop to do just that. There he meets dance-teacher Penny (Rogers) and gradually falls for her but is now in the position of trying not to earn too much money but also unable to get close to Penny because he is engaged to be married.
The plot works as a set-up and then quickly loses it's way once Lucky and Penny have met. There's very little narrative development after the first quarter of the film and all the conflicts just work themselves out naturally in the end.
Fortunately, the dance numbers here are utterly stunning. I thought they were pretty good in Top Hat but here they are at another level. Generally it's Astaire in the spotlight here with his tap dancing being stunning. Ginger Rogers certainly gets her time in the spotlight too with the pair together performing some superb ballroom numbers, my favourtie being to "Pick Yourself Up" which is a charming polka embellished with syncopated rhythms and with some added tap for good measure.
Whilst Ginger Rogers is always great, this film really highlights how incredible Fred Astaire is as a performer. The plot may be weak but there's some decent dialogue and Astaire is a really funny comic performer. But he's also an incredibly dancer and a decent singer too, making him the full package to lead this type of film. Without him, and to a lesser extent without Rogers, this would have been a terrible film which had long since been forgotten.
It may have a weak plot but actually that doesn't matter a great deal here because this is Ginger Rogers and especially Fred Astaire at the height of their dancing power.
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