Divorce en musique

I found Lady Be Good to be a refreshing, surprisingly intelligent and upbeat musical with great songs and dances. The story is about a married song writing team who divorces. The story starts with Ann Southern explaining the story and follows on from there. The script is incredibly witty, and there is some great physical comedy. Some of the of the best music of all time written for this movie, including "Lady Be Good" which always gets in my head and the more famous "The Last time I saw Paris". The Gershwin's are incredible. So a combination of a witty script, great acting, great music and great dancing makes this a wonderful musical - a stand out from the rest! A truly lighthearted and entertaining musical.

I found this musical with not many (or any) big production numbers until the end rather dull, despite the involvement of the great Busby Berkeley. It was a little odd to see Eleanor Powell shuffled off to a second-banana, gal-pal role, though she does eventually get her big dance number. MGM could load on the "more stars than there are in Heaven", couldn't they? Lionel Barrymore and Red Skelton have relatively minor roles in this one. I had to roll my eyes when Ann Sothern and Powell have just gotten back to their place straight from divorce court, and Robert Young calls, and they're like giddy teenagers. I mean, you just got divorced ten minutes ago and you're already trying to figure out how to win him back? Only in the movies ...

Eleanor Powell must be the greatest female dancer of all time. The camera movement and stage settings are unbelievable. TCM movies own some wonderful gems and Turner is a genius.

The quality of the print seems perfect. I saw only the ending and per the other comment I was blessed with a great trigger. The dance was long and interesting from the beginning. When EP started it was very subtle but nonetheless fascinating. Little clicks and hand motions lead me to believe she was just window candy but she progressed into an amazing routine with such complexity that you forget how intricate it was by virtue of the simple start. A camera change revels a new perspective that plays perfectly into the remaining steps. It's ends beautifully.

A great deal of time was spent on the back story and not enough concentration on the music, so much so that I was reminded of the 40's radio show, "The Bickersons". It was a comedy show centering around a continuously arguing couple played by Don Ameche and Frances Langford. This picture centers around a continuously arguing couple, played by Robert Young and Ann Sothern. They marry, divorce, remarry, etc... this is not musical comedy but musical drama.

On the whole, though, I liked it. The picture has so much to recommend it that I could overlook the infighting scenes because the music was great. Not a lot of it remains from the Broadway musical, just "Fascinatin' Rhythm" and the title song. But the song that put the movie over for me was "The Last Time I Saw Paris", sung to perfection by Ann Sothern. It won a well-deserved AA for Best Song. Then there was Eleanor Powell with a couple of terrific dance numbers, The acrobatic Berry Brothers, Red Skelton and Lionel Barrymore, who increases the stature of any movie he is in.

I thought Young and Sothern played off each other well and were true troupers, doing the best they could with peculiar material. The picture was about 15-20 minutes too long, dwelling too much on marital strife, but this was an MGM musical and in black and white, no less - made me think no one did musicals like Fox.

I have to give this film an eight simply because The Berry Brothers appeared in it (I love them - what incredible talent) which was pretty unusual for a 1940's "white" film, AND also because of the incredible, breathtaking, amazingly choreographed and executed dance sequences at the end of the film.

The film also has sublime bits throughout, such as the tap dances that includes Eleanor Powell tap-dancing with "Blackie," a captivating black and white terrier-mix dog, "Miss Deadpan" (Virginia O'Brien) who delivers her own style of comedic twists to the songs she sings in the film and, of course, Robert Young and Ann Sothern contribute their own charm to enrich the film.

TIVO the film and fast-forward to the song and dance numbers - they are worth the wait!