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There's really only reason why you'd find, rent, and sit through On Your Toes: if you love the dancing talents of ballerina Vera Zorina. She plays a ballerina and is given several scenes to shine. If you're just looking for a showbiz movie about the ups and downs of trying to have a stage career, look elsewhere.

The movie starts out in vaudeville, where James Gleason, Queenie Smith, and Donald O'Connor have a dancing act. Little Donald is absolutely adorable, but he's only in the movie for about fifteen minutes. Then he grows up, and gets replaced by Eddie Albert-fresh off Broadway and in his second-ever film-and the film turns into a bizarre Russian ballet. Eddie leaves vaudeville to pursue classical music, then he connects with Vera, Leonid Kinskey, Frank McHugh, and a strangely accented Alan Hale. The rest of the movie is very odd, full of ballet, and hardly any plot. I was hoping to see more of Eddie Albert singing and dancing, but he didn't get to show off his hidden talents. During the one scene he's shown tap dancing, the camera only shows his feet after a very obvious stunt double enters the frame from the opposite direction Eddie left.

I had the pleasure of seeing the revival of this marvelous Rodgers and Hart show when it played San Francisco some years ago. The CD is available and should be mentioned as it is the only complete recording to be had. I agree with all the reviews previously mentioned on this site and also enjoyed Donald O'Connor in his early days. Eddie Albert did very well and probably was cast since he was well received in R&H's "Boys From Syracuse" which was tremendously successful as was "On Your Toes".

My disappointment arises from the same comments previously made; the missing wonderful lyrics of Larry Hart,the inane shenanigans of the Russian characters played by very capable actors, the waste of not thinking of casting Bolger, minimizing Junior's worth by not recognizing he is a music professor in the original play, and missing the opportunity of capturing a piece of Broadway history.

Anything, however, that captures what Rodgers and Hart did for the American theatre world deserves preservation on film.

Except for the wonderful musical arrangement of "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue", the choreography looks less than inspired as danced by VERA ZORINA and EDDIE ALBERT. Especially if one has seen Gene Kelly and Vera-Ellen do the number in a fantastic musical highlight from WORDS AND MUSIC. And the less said about the weak comedy routines, the better.

The only compensations in this weak transfer from stage to screen (in which "There's A Small Hotel" has been relegated to background music), is the pleasant cast. Eddie Albert is his usual charming self, gifted at comedy and easily stealing most of the scenes with his nonchalant genius for comic roles. Vera Zorina demonstrates that she could act, when called upon, but her role is the stereotyped diva in distress that any capable actress could do with her eyes shut.

Alan Hale, Leonid Kinskey, Donald O'Connor (as a boy hoofer), and Frank McHugh do their standard professional jobs in assorted light comedy roles--but despite their flair, most of the one-liners fall flat.

Surely, this was a more exciting event on Broadway than it appears in its screen incarnation with Ray Bolger appearing opposite Vera Zorina. Too little time expended on a worthwhile script and too many songs missing from the original stage musical. The result is a routine backstage musical with only the "Slaughter" ballet to redeem it.

I was disappointed in not hearing any of the great songs, such as "There's a Small Hotel," sung in this movie, apparently revised to accommodate its star Vera Zorina, who is a ballerina. Despite the onscreen credit for lyrics, the songs of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart are used as background music throughout, while two pieces suitable to ballet were used to display Zorina's ballet skills. The first, "Princess Zenobia" started as a straight ballet, but with Eddie Albert substituting for a missing performer, it turns into a burlesque of ballet, and is a hit. I was uncomfortable with the implication that straight ballet cannot be enjoyed (which is even stated in the script). The second piece, "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue," was extremely well done and worth seeing. But here also, the writers injected other material. The impresario, Alan Hale, planned on having Albert killed at the end of the ballet. We know it and Albert learns of it while still on stage and sees the killers too, all of which creates a small amount of suspense. The overall plot is a little dumb, as in most early musicals, but I did enjoy seeing a young, dancing Donald O'Connor (playing Albert as a boy) and some of the gags supplied by Frank McHugh and Leonid Kinskey.

Vera Zorina, Eddie Albert, Alan Hale, Jr., Frank McHugh, Leonid Kinskey, Donald O'Connor, and James Gleason star in "On Your Toes," a 1939 film based on the Broadway show of the same name, which starred Ray Bolger and had music and lyrics by Rogers and Hart. If you think you hear "There's a Small Hotel" in the background throughout this film, you are - it was one of the songs in the musical that is not performed here. Since the star is Vera Zorina, the song omissions are presumably because she wasn't a singer. You'd think Hollywood just never dubbed anyone or just never assigned a song to a different character.

At any rate, if you forget the original show, what's left is actually entertaining, with Albert playing Phil Dolan, Jr., a young hoofer turned composer who writes "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue." The two dance sections, "Princess Zenobia" and "Slaughter" are the highlights of the film, with Slaughter very importantly shown with the original Balanchine choreography.

The other highlight for me was seeing a young Donald O'Connor, who plays the Phil as a young boy in vaudeville - he's delightful.

Some trivia: the head of the ballet company, played here by Alan Hale, Jr., was played on Broadway by Monty Wooley.