A Damsel in Distress

Fred Astaire, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Joan Fontaine. A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS (1937) may seem like a curiosity piece, but it's really a great, lesser-known movie. It's a fun comedy/musical in the vein of the Astaire/Rogers films of the decade. You can't really go wrong with a Fred Astaire movie, particularly from the black & white days. Astaire was so likable and charming on-screen. He was great at comedy, he could carry a tune, and brother could he ever dance.

The romance plot is set up with Astaire playing an American dancer traveling abroad and Joan Fontaine playing a young noblewoman who doesn't want to marry the eligible bachelors at home. The two meet and through a series of misunderstandings, Fred comes to believe that Joan is in love with him. She isn't at first, but if you've seen enough of these light-hearted Hollywood rom-coms, you know what happens. Fontaine's servants have bets on who she will marry, and they try to influence the romantic outcome in their favor.

George Burns and Gracie Allen are comedy legends. They're not known for their feature films, but they really sparkle in this one as Astaire's sidekicks. Their comedy bits are golden and they even join Fred for some dancing.

The rest of the supporting cast is great, particularly Reginald Gardiner and Montagu Love. Joan Fontaine, very early in her career, is absolutely lovely.

The music is from George and Ira Gershwin and is pretty good, if not as memorable as some of the music from the Astaire/Rogers flicks. I recognized "Nice Work If You Can Get It" and "A Foggy Day". There are a few wonderful dance sequences, including a wildly inventive fun house scene with Astaire, Burns, Allen, and a crowd of extras. There's also a tremendous solo routine where Astaire tap dances and plays a drum set-- with his feet.

I caught this gem on TCM and I'm glad I did. I'm a huge Fred Astaire fan and this movie fits right in with his others. Plus it's got the added comedic bonus of George Burns and Gracie Allen. The movie is a lot of fun and it's got a nice little love story. It's time well spent if you're a classic movie fan. I just wish this forgotten treasure was more readily available.

A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS (RKO Radio, 1937), directed by George Stevens, stars Fred Astaire in his first starring musical without his famous and most frequent co-star, Ginger Rogers. From a story by P.G. Wodehouse, which was originally filmed in the silent era of 1919, this update, with song and dance in the Astaire tradition, reportedly failed at the box office. Even for a flop, the film benefits highly for its grand tunes by George and Ira Gershwin; Hermes Pan's well deserved Academy Award winning dance direction for "The Fun House Number," and fine comedy support by George Burns and Gracie Allen, then on loan-out assignment from Paramount. Who's got the last laugh now?

The plot revolves around Jerry Halliday (Fred Astaire), an American entertainer vacationing in England accompanied by his publicity agent, George Burns (George Burns) and stenographer, Gracie Allen (Gracie Allen). Then there's Lady Alyce Marshmorton (Joan Fontaine) of Totley Castle, on her way to London for a secret rendezvous with Geoffrey, a young American she met in Switzerland a year ago. To lose the following Kegs (Reginald Gardiner), her family butler, and Albert (Harry Watson), the page boy, Alyce hides inside the backseat a cab where she encounters its passenger, Jerry. Misunderstanding occur when both Kegs and Albert mistake Jerry for Alyce's Mr. X. As for Jerry, he comes to the conclusion the young lady's in distress. Upon Alyce's return home, her Aunt Caroline (Constance Collier) confines her to the suburban estate, while her easy-going father, Sir John (Montagu Love), who's habit is gardening, feels his daughter should follow her own impulse. As Jerry cancels his upcoming trip to Paris, he, along with George and Gracie, rent out a nearby cottage by the castle to see what he can do to help this damsel in distress. Other members in the castle are Ray Noble as Reggie, Aunt Caroline's stepson, trumpet player and orchestra leader, gets his share of Gracie antics, ("Right-o"), and Jan Duggan billed as Miss Ruggles, one of the Madrigalist singers of "The Jolly Tar and the Milkmaid."

Song interludes include: "I Can't Be Bothered Now" (sung by Fred Astaire); "The Jolly Tar and the Milkmaid," "Put Me to the Test" (instrumental dance with Astaire, Burns and Allen); "Stiff Upper Lip" (sung by Gracie Allen/danced by Astaire, Burns and Allen); "Things Are Looking Up" (sung by Astaire/danced by Astaire and Fontaine); "Nice Work If You Can Get It," "Ah Chi A Uoi Perdini Iddio" from the opera MARTA (performed/voice dubbed by Reginald Gardiner), and "Nice Work If You Can Get It" (reprise, drum solo/ dance by Astaire). Fascinating Rhythm.

For an Astaire musical, there isn't much dancing, but when there is, it makes up for some dull spots. Aside from brief dance solo by Astaire on the foggy London streets, and another with drums, his two with George and Gracie comes as a surprise for anyone familiar with Burns and Allen as a comedy team - for that they can dance, too. Their first is a comedy dance segment involving a suit of armor. The next comes shortly after-wards at an amusement park that leads into the now classic ten minute "Fun House" number with Gracie singing pleasingly without stepping out of character. This segment alone is worth the price of admission which indicates Gracie more than just the scatterbrained partner to straight man George Burns. In every Astaire musical, his female co-star gets to have at least one dance with him. Joan Fontaine does just that, only slightly for the film's best song, "Things Are Looking Up." It's no threat to the classic dance numbers Astaire did with Rogers, but this one with Fontaine waltzing through the estate to soothing score is quite satisfactory. Shall we dance?

As with 1937 theater goers, I didn't particularly care for A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS when I first watched this on commercial television (New York City's WOR-TV, Channel 9, during its weekly Sunday night showcase, "When Movies Were Movies" hosted by Joe Franklin) in November 1970. After watching Astaire and Rogers in THE GAY Divorcée (1934) and TOP HAT (1935) earlier that year, I was expecting more of the same with climatic song and dance finish. Though the mistaken identity plot gets some replay, I couldn't help but feel strange it was watching Astaire with a different leading lady, how annoying little Albert can be at times, especially with his phony crying outbursts for one scene. After repeated viewing, however, I have grown to enjoy this one. Looking more like a throwback to those reproduced filmed Broadway musicals of the early talkie era, with leading man and pretty co-star, accompanied by secondary couple for comedy relief purposes, the scoring at times has that 1940s feel to it of swing, and slow tempo scoring of the big band era. Though Astaire reunited himself with Rogers in two additional musicals for RKO, he proved himself acceptable opposite different leading ladies for years to come, while both Rogers and Fontaine would win Academy Awards in 1940 and 41 respectively for their dramatic performances. Things are looking up.

When presented on American Movie Classics prior to 2001, audio for A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS was in desperate need of restoration. However, current prints shown on Turner Classic Movies is much better in both visuals and audio. Distributed to home video in the 1980s from Nostalgia Merchant, A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS is also available on DVD. And be sure not to miss Astaire's attempt in duplicating Leonard's Leap. Nice work if you can get it. (***1/2)

First of all, in defense of JOAN FONTAINE, it must be said that Ginger Rogers would have been terribly miscast as Alyce, the young British lady who has the title role. Fontaine makes a fetching picture as the heroine here, but her acting inexperience shows badly and her dancing is better left unmentioned. Fortunately, she went on to better things.

But here it's FRED ASTAIRE, GEORGE BURNS and GRACIE ALLEN who get the top billing--and they are excellent. Fans of Burns & Allen will be surprised at how easily they fit into Astaire's dance routines. Especially interesting is the big fun house routine that won choreographer Hermes Pans an Oscar. They join Astaire in what has to be the film's most inventive highlight.

Unfortunately, not much can be said for the slow pacing of the story--nor some of the stale situations which call for a lot of patience from the viewer. It must be said that some of the humor falls flat and the usual romantic misunderstandings that occur in any Fred Astaire film of this period are given conventional treatment. Only the musical interludes give the story the lift it needs.

Some pleasant Gershwin tunes pop up once in awhile but not all of them get the treatment they deserve. The nice supporting cast includes Reginald Gardiner, at his best in a polished comic performance as a conniving servant, Constance Collier and Montagu Love (as Joan's father mistaken as a gardener by Astaire).

It's a lighthearted romp whenever Burns & Allen are around to remind us how funny they were in their radio and television days. Both of them are surprisingly adept in keeping up with Astaire's footwork.

Director George Stevens makes sure that Joan Fontaine's hillside dance number with Fred is filmed at a discreet distance but clever camera-work cannot disguise the fact that she is out of her element as Astaire's dance partner, something she seems painfully aware of.

Disregard the plot and enjoy Fred Astaire doing A Foggy Day and several other dances, one a duo with a hapless Joan Fontaine. Here we see Astaire doing what are essentially "stage" dances in a purer form than in his films with Ginger Rogers, and before he learned how to take full advantage of the potential of film. Best of all: the fact that we see Burns and Allen before their radio/TV husband-wife comedy career, doing the kind of dancing they must have done in vaudeville and did not have a chance to do in their Paramount college films from the 30s. (George was once a tap dance instructor). Their two numbers with Fred are high points of the film, and worth waiting for. The first soft shoe trio is a warm-up for the "Chin up" exhilarating carnival number, in which the three of them sing and dance through the rides and other attractions. It almost seems spontaneous. Fan of Fred Astaire and Burns & Allen will find it worth bearing up under the "plot". I've seen this one 4 or 5 times, and find the fast forward button helpful.

There's a perfectly good reason why Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers made nine films together between 1933 and 1939 – the pairing worked! Astaire's toe-tappin' class was complemented perfectly by the light-hearted comedic charms of his female co-star, and that he and Rogers never overshadowed each other was crucial to the success of their collaborations. 'A Damsel in Distress (1937)' sees Astaire, for the first time since his debut, momentarily set adrift from this celebrated partnership. It's a pleasant and enjoyable musical comedy, but it doesn't entirely work because Fred is clearly the main attraction, creating an imbalance of tone that feels somehow unsatisfying. Joan Fontaine, in an early role, fills in as the primary romantic interest; she's not particularly convincing here – but, geez, she's gorgeous! – and her charms would carry her along sufficiently until her superb star-making performance in Alfred Hitchcock's 'Rebecca (1940).' Husband-and-wife vaudeville duo George Burns and Gracie Allen provide most of the welcome comic relief, which is basically an extension of their popular stage act.

'A Damsel in Distress' was directed by George Stevens {who had previously worked with Astaire in 'Swing Time (1936)} and adapted by P.G. Wodehouse from his own 1919 novel. Jerry Halliday (Astaire) is a famous American dancer, frustrated by all his publicity, who falls in love with the beautiful Lady Alyce Marshmorton (Fontaine), whom he believes has inexplicably fallen in love with him. What Jerry doesn't realise is that Lady Alyce has actually fallen in love with a different (unseen) American, and that he is being misled by the staff at Tottney Castle, who have placed bets on who their mistress will eventually marry. Reginald Gardiner hilariously hams it up as Keggs, the scheming butler who apparently can't resist belting out an opera when the appropriate music starts playing. Burns and Allen provide the necessary supporting back-up (even matching Astaire step-for-step in the "Fun House" musical number), with the latter playing the ditsy eccentric with perfect composure, utilising more cringeworthy puns than Groucho Marx in 'Duck Soup (1933).'

George Gershwin played a significant role in getting Stevens' film made in the first place, and his songs were completed before script-work actually began. Tragically, the composer died from a brain tumour before production was completed. There were not quite as many musical numbers as I had expected, and very few stood out in my memory like Astaire's greatest tunes. Nevertheless, the "Fun House" number was an elaborate, precisely-orchestrated dance sequence, making superb use of reflections, moving sets and confined spaces. Most memorable of all was Astaire's rendition of "A Foggy Day (In London Town)," performed as the actor traipses gracefully through a fog-ridden forest. Joan Fontaine was the first actress to admit her insufficient capacity to play a convincing terpsichorean, and so she only attempts it once, and, all things considered, she doesn't embarrass herself all that much. She is, of course, always a joy to watch, but her character's "I love you… now I hate you… no, wait, I love you again" routine is overdone and unpersuasive.