SYNOPSIS

Lucky Garnett is a member of a magic-and-dance troupe, and is also a compulsive gambler. He is tricked by his friends into missing his wedding ceremony, and the furious father of the bride tells him to clear out and not return until he has $25,000, proof that he's not a worthless layabout. Lucky travels to New York to make his fortune and bumps into Penny, a dance school instructor. Instantly smitten, he enrolls in her class and pretends to be a club-footed clod. The tactic backfires and gets Penny fired from her job. Lucky then proves to Penny he's a professional dancer after all and the couple proceed to audition in different clubs around town. Despite a rocky beginning, Penny begins to warm to Lucky's romantic overtures but she's also got another admirer, the bandleader Ricardo. On the sidelines, offering advice and wisecracks along the way are Lucky's friend Pop from the old dance troupe, and Penny's acerbic older friend, Mabel.

Producer: Pandro S. Berman
Director: George Stevens
Screenplay: Howard Lindsay, Allan Scott
Story: Erwin Gelsey - "Portrait of John Garnett"
Music: Jerome Kern
Lyrics: Dorothy Fields
Dance Director: Hermes Pan
Music Director: Nathaniel Shilkret
Orchestrations: Robert Russell Bennett
Cinematography: David Abel
Film Editing: Henry Berman
Art Direction: Van Nest Polglase
Gowns: Bernard Newman
Costume Design: John W. Harkrider
Photographic Effects: Vernon L. Walker
Sound Editor: George Marsh
Sound Recordist: Hugh McDowell, Jr.
Cast: Fred Astaire (John "Lucky" Garnett), Ginger Rogers (Penelope "Penny" Carroll), Victor Moore (Everett "Pop" Cardetti), Helen Broderick (Mabel Anderson), Eric Blore (Gordon), Betty Furness (Margaret Watson), Georges Metaxa (Ricardo Romero), Landers Stevens (Mr. Watson).
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WHY SWING TIME IS ESSENTIAL

George Stevens's Swing Time (1936) is the sixth pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Its story is simplistic (even for a 1930s-era musical), it is slowly developed (28 minutes go by before the first full dance sequence), and its title is a misnomer (there is not much in the way of genuine swing music in the film). In spite of all this, Swing Time is one of the great musicals of the 1930s, and many people's favorite of the Astaire-Rogers series.

The successful aspects of the film far outnumber the few weaknesses. The score by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields is outstanding. It yielded three songs which were hits of the day and have remained standards: "The Way You Look Tonight," "A Fine Romance" and "Pick Yourself Up." The songs are integrated into the story in very inventive and surprising ways. The dance numbers are also very carefully thought out to advance the story - specifically the romantic missteps, misunderstandings and misgivings of the leads. Routines brilliantly build on previous ones, containing slight returns of earlier-seen steps, they subtly echo the previous stages of the romantic relationship. Astaire, working with choreographer Hermes Pan, was inspired to create new and innovative dances, including the first trick photography used in an Astaire routine (the "Bojangles of Harlem" number). Swing Time was also the only Astaire-Rogers movie directed by the great George Stevens, a perfectionist known for shooting countless retakes until he got the scene he wanted. The main beneficiary of his shooting methods was Ginger Rogers, who gives a wonderfully nuanced performance in Swing Time, triumphing over the trite script while creating the haughty yet sympathetic character that the roller-coaster romantic plot demanded.

Swing Time is graced by a brilliant Jerome Kern-Dorothy Fields song score. Of the tunes introduced in the film, none is more timeless than the Oscar®-winner, "The Way You Look Tonight." Of Kern's music, Fields later said, "the first time Jerry played that melody for me I had to leave the room because I started to cry. The release absolutely killed me. I couldn't stop, it was so beautiful." To this Fields added a tender but conversational lyric:
Someday,
When I'm awfully low
And the world is cold,
I will feel a glow just thinking of you
And the way you look tonight.

The result is nothing less than one of the greatest of all romantic ballads. An indication of the charm of Swing Time is the setting in which this song is introduced - Ginger Rogers is not in a shimmering gown, but in a bathrobe with shampoo in her hair!

As wonderful as the songs were, and as cleverly as they were integrated into the film, they would not have had nearly the impact if not for the astonishing dance sequences. Even at the time, Kern's music was considered slightly old-fashioned, so much of the credit for adapting the music for the screen goes to the film's arranger Robert Russell Bennett, and by some accounts, to Fred Astaire's rehearsal pianist, Hal Borne. The music was clearly shaped for showcase dance numbers, and it is in this area that the film excels as few other films ever have, thanks to the otherworldly talents of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. There are three show-stopping duet dances with Astaire and Rogers in the film, and a brilliant solo number by Astaire. Astaire, naturally, is justly regarded as one of the greatest dancers ever caught on film, just as Rogers is regarded as his most beguiling partner. And Swing Time captures for all time some of their greatest routines, which continue to amaze even after repeated viewings.

by John Miller