Let's Face the Music and Dance

A dance number by fourth and fifth billed Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the 1933 surreal musical "Flying Down to Rio" got the pair noticed. Starting with 1934's Gay Divorcee and ending with 1939's "Story of Vernon and Irene Castle", the two had a series of hit filmed musicals at RKO that are now part of the cultural history of the twentieth century.

This documentary episode was made in 1987, but the interviews were probably done some time before then, as Fred Astaire died in 1987. There are detailed interviews with Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and choreographer Hermes Pan.

There is lots of discussion on the creative process, the perfectionism and camera shyness of Fred Astaire, how Ginger Rogers' gowns would often torment Fred, and recollections about Irving Berlin who, in spite of only a grade school education came up with eloquent lyrics to match his music. Berlin wrote the music and lyrics for three of the Astaire/Rogers musicals. So there was just lots of once in a lifetime talent on the set for this collection of musicals.

There is some color footage of Fred dancing, and a number with Fred dancing with a ghostly figure that was cut from one of the films but still survives. But in 1939, the last Astaire/Rogers musical actually lost money and the duo ended their partnership at RKO. Narrator Ed Asner says that maybe the collaborative team had run out of new ideas, or maybe that movie audience tastes were just changing since America was moving out of the Depression and into wartime. Definitely a good detailed look at how the films were crafted, and because of all of the footage of Warner Brothers' owned films, almost impossible to see in the United States.

This is the second part of a six part documentary about RKO Studio. Unfortunately, it's not available on video or DVD but fortunately it is posted on YouTube.

The show picks up exactly where the first part ended...talking about Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and their first appearance together, in FLYING DOWN TO RIO. In fact, the last minute of part one is repeated at the beginning of part two and the entirety of the second episode was on this beloved pair. The show spends much of the second episode talking about Fred Astaire and his contributions to the studio. There was a bit of a mistake here, however, as the narration made it sound like RKO hired Astaire from Broadway. However, Astaire actually was working (briefly) for rival studio MGM at that time, where he'd made DANCING LADY....and, interestingly, he played himself! There also was a mistake because it said that Astaire danced alone in DAMSEL IN DISTRESS because his co-star, Joan Fontaine, didn't dance. He did, however, dance with Burns & Allen in this film and their scenes together were delightful!

One portion I appreciated was that both Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers said, categorically, that they cared very much for each other and the stories about their disliking each other was created by the studio itself! Another I appreciated was learning how difficult and time-consuming their dance numbers were (in one case leaving Rogers' feet bloody)...yet they made it all appear so effortless!

By the way, a consequence of this being posted on YouTube is that occasionally the film briefly stopped and a message popped onto the screen indicating portions of the documentary were removed for copyright reasons.