Roberta

I found this to be a very entertaining musical with some decent mixture of songs, comedy and romance. There are no less than three leading ladies and they all look good. Two of them are big names: Irene Dunne and Ginger Rogers.

There's Fred Astaire in here, too, so I guess we can call this another "Astaire- Rogers film." If so, I think it's one of their best and certainly one of their most underrated. You don't hear much about this movie, and that's unfair.

Rogers and Astaire both have some funny lines in this film and I wish Ginger's role had been bigger. She and Astaire do a couple of tap dance numbers that are excellent - some of their best work together. Dunne's first two songs aren't bad but you have the rest. Her soprano voice almost broke my eardrums, especially with "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes."

Randolph Scott, Helen Westley and Claire Dodd also star in this dated-but-generally fun movie.

What's not to like - Astaire-Rogers dancing to "I Don't Dance, Don't Ask Me", ocean liners crossing the Atlantic, trains racing across northern France, jazz bands rehearsing in Paris clubs, stupendous art deco sets, a couturier's elegant salon, serenading to balalaikas, stunning models privately displaying satin gowns, Russian princes, "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" sung by the beautiful Irene Dunne, an elegant Old Russian restaurant with its frescoes, fashion show that incorporates Astaire and Rogers dancing, Irene Dunne's warmth, a witty script, a Broadway smash hit brought to the screen - geez, what a movie! It is only recently that I've begun to enjoy musicals. The ones I like are the light ones - not the ones incorporating social issues which I feel musicals are ill-equipped to handle.

But a light musical comedy - with exquisite dancing, charming leads, swank clothes, elegant sets, witty dialogue - WOW! And this is definitely such a musical - absolutely charming.

The four leads are wonderfully cast. Irene Dunne reminds me of Greer Garson in having a certain soulfulness combined with innate gentility and enormous warmth - Dunne also happens to have had a world-class operatic singing voice (that in later movies, as operettas ceased to be appealing, was seldom heard). There is something so very vulnerable about a wounded Irene Dunne character - and she is wonderful in this part.

Randolph Scott has a big, clean, very handsome, American quality that is also wonderfully suited to this part - one in which his character is candid, straightforward, easily swayed by others who are sophisticated -but at a certain point will act decisively when he comes to realize his judgment has been mistaken.

Fred Astaire's subordinate comic supporting role is suited well by the enormous difference in size between himself and Scott - and obviously his dancing and his easy way with humorous lines is just wonderful.

The 24 year old Ginger Rogers may be the biggest revelation to me - it's not just that she can dance astonishingly well, that she is wonderful (and wonderfully funny) with accents, that she can sing songs equally comically or romantically (and with great gestures), that she is very VERY funny, whip-smart with dialogue,, but she perfectly suits the job of one hustling for jobs, adapting to all circumstances, rough and ready -- and extremely aware at all times.

I think studio heads really saw Rogers' amazing abilities through the end of World War II (after which she was shamefully abandoned) - she seldom played the "classy woman" and we instead find her as a shop girl, prisoner on furlough, society wannabe, entertainer. I would like to have seen her play in her career, a part in which she more deliberately seductive (like Barbara Stanwyck or Joan Crawford, Miriam Hopkins or Bette Davis often did) but alas.

You'll like this - just relax and feel yourself enthralled.

Once upon a time, audiences went to see musicals like this expecting melodies you could whistle on the way out of the theater, and American composers delivered. It seemed songs you could sing were a dime a dozen back then -- it was called "Tin Pan Alley." But now they are enshrined in "The Great American Songbook," a list of the greatest American songwriters and their works from the 1920s to 1950s, whose posthumous rolls seem to expand every year.

"Roberta," a musical largely forgotten today, was the cradle of some of those classics, including "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," "Lovely to Look At," and "I Won't Dance" (which was wonderfully reinterpreted in "Warm Springs), plus some forgettable but amusing 1930s novelty numbers, such as playing an organ made up of the band members' gloves.

Audiences went to Fred Astaire - Ginger Rogers movies to see great dancing to great music. A great plot and great acting would be nice (such as in "Top Hat") but weren't essential. Hollywood kept trying to come up with new vehicles for this duo, with varying success, but always with fine music and dancing. "Roberta"'s plot is about average for the genre, and is worth seeing -- once. If you took the music and dancing out, how many stars would it get?

The songs here are not as closely integrated into the plot as they would be in later musicals beginning with Rodgers and Hammerstein, although "Showboat" of 1936 by Kern and Hammerstein was more successful in this regard. But in both "Showboat" and "Roberta" we have musical performers in the plot as an excuse for the music.

Irene Dunne's superb singing was one of the surprises of "Roberta." It turns out she was a thoroughly trained singer; she also sings in "Showboat." Sadly, she did not get to use her fine voice more, but she was an older actress by the time of the great musicals of the late 1940s and 1950s. Unlike some musical stars, she was able to easily transition to straight dramatic parts, such as "I Remember Mama."

I was also surprised to see some hot piano keyboard action by Fred Astaire. I think one reason audiences adored Astaire is that although he was a multi-talented singer, dancer, actor (and sometimes musician), he made it look so effortless and had an innate modesty.

Check out Candy Candido, the band member whose voice keeps changing registers. He was the voice of the angry apple tree in "The Wizard of Oz," and did some voices for Disney. And keep an eye out for an anonymous Lucille Ball, who is one of the fashion models.

This is a movie you will probably only want to see once, unless you wait long enough, in which case you probably won't remember any of the plot, anyway.

Irene Dunne, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and Randolph Scott shine in "Roberta," a 1935 film directed by William Seite, based on the Broadway play, with music by Jerome Kern This isn't a typical Astaire-Rogers film, so if you're looking for that, you may be disappointed. The emphasis here is on fashion, and on the design house of Roberta - in reality, John Kent's (Randolph Scott) Aunt Minnie (Helen Westley), a dressmaker who found success in Paris. Astaire plays Kent's friend, Huckleberry Haines, a bandleader. Irene Dunne is Stephanie, the head designer at Roberta's. Actually, she and her doorman cousin Ladislaw (Victor Varooni) are Russian royalty. Rogers plays Countess Schwarwenka, a troublemaking client who's recognized by Huckleberry as Lizzie Gatz, an old girlfriend from back home. The Countess gets Hucklebery and his band a job at the Cafe Russe, and Stephanie and John find they're interested in one another. Then Roberta dies, and John inherits the design shop.

The film is filled with not only beautiful music but the fashions of the day in gorgeous art deco settings, making for a very sophisticated and polished look. Astaire and Rogers are actually comic support, but they're knockouts.

The music consists of some familiar tunes, including the haunting "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," sung by Irene Dunne and later danced by Astaire and Rogers, "Lovely to Look At," sung by Dunne and then danced by Astaire and Rogers, "Yesterdays," sung by Irene Dunne, and, of course, "I Won't Dance" - but they do. Astaire sings the lively "Let's Begin" as well.

This enchanting musical was re-made in 1952 as "Lovely to Look At," but somehow, it's not as good, lacking the cast. "Roberta" shows up on TCM occasionally. Don't miss it.

... because when it was made Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire were still supporting players. The real stars of the film are Randolph Scott in modern dress not western garb,and queen and songbird of the RKO lot at the time, Irene Dunne. A somewhat musical rom-com, it has Huck Haines (Fred Astaire) and his big band arriving in France only to learn that their promised gig has fallen through. Huck's best friend John Kent (Randolph Scott) decides to look up his aunt, a dressmaker named Roberta (Helen Westley) to see if she has any advice on work for the band.

John ends up inheriting the dressmaking firm with Roberta's death, and he falls for lead designer Stephanie (Irene Dunne), while Huck meets up with Lizzie Gatz (Ginger Rogers) a neighborhood gal pretending to be European aristocracy.

Give this one a chance. I All four leads are charming and on top of their game. The costumes are elaborate, and the models are stunning, including a young blonde Lucille Ball. The songs are good, too, including the standard "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes".