Silver Skates

Monogram offers us Belita, Monogram's answer to Sonia Henjie. Not that anyone was asking, considering that Miss Henjie was given Lucky Humberstone as a director by this time. As others have noted, Belita seems more the girl who would get what a man was driving at, and RKO's Leslie Goodwins was hired to direct this movie, so it doesn't stink on ice. However, there's not much in the way of script or good songs, and they got Kenny Baker as the young singer. He was okay in the movie version of THE MIKADO, but W.S. Gilbert never had much respect for tenors. Mr. Baker justifies his faith here as he doesn't always bother to match his lips to the words he is singing.

That leaves Frick and Frack. These skating clowns have lingered in my mind, even though, so far as I know, I had never heard of them -- it seemed like the sort of name two tummelers, slapstick comedians from the Catskills would have. It turns out that's what they were, and I don't know where I know them from. Perhaps they played the Neverle one summer when I was four and I remember nothing but the funny names. They're actually pretty good.

That's the best that can be said for this movie. Like most Monograms, it's fast, it doesn't strain the brain and it's over soon enough. I assume that's how the director felt, because for his next movie, he was back at the comparative luxury of RKO directing Leon Errol in "The Mexican Spitfire's Elephant".

The tall, gorgeous ice skater Belita, who was also a wonderful ballerina, stars in this skateathon, "Silver Skates," that has a story here and there. Basically, an ice show owner (Patricia Morison) is desperate to save her show, which will fail badly once Belita leaves to get married. Help comes in the form of a pint-sized war orphan from Holland.

It's really kind of an amateur hour, saved by the glorious Belita, the beautiful Patricia Morison, and Frank Faylen, whom I've always loved. Frick and Frack did comedy skating -- which in fact is incredibly difficult to do, but today one just feels like fast-forwarding through it. Some of the skating numbers were on the boring side.

Gene Turner, a two-time national figure skating champion, was the other skating star. I took one look at him and said, "That's the man who doubled for Cary Grant in 'The Bishop's Wife.'" I was right - you can't see a film 100 times and not recognize the skating double. Turner toured with Sonja Henie, was a U.S. medal winner in single skating, pairs skating, and ice dancing, worked as a coach for 60 years, and also wrote a column for a skating magazine. He never competed in the Olympics because during his years of competition, the Olympics were subject to cancellation due to World War II, plus he was busy flying 60 missions over France.

So much accomplishment. Monogram didn't deserve them. Not too much else to say, except that Belita should have been with MGM.

Lots of beautiful women ice-skating beautifully.

There's a plot to the movie, but it's really just an excuse so we can watch all the terrific ice-skating. I like the old school ice-skating better. Too much jumping and bouncing in more modern displays. The ice-skating here is beautiful and graceful. There's a ice skater here. That's also terrific to watch. This is just a plain fun movie. No stress, no danger danger, just pure joy to watch.

It was great to see about 30 beautiful young women with their freshly scrubbed faces dancing on the ice. If you're after high drama, this is not it if you're after watching people perform beautifully. I think you'll enjoy this movie. I was able to find a good quality copy on DVD, sadly, it did not come with a case, but I can make those myself.

Figure-skating isn't the most promising basis for a film, nor for an acting career. Esther Williams's movie stardom was based on swimming, but at least MGM could just occasionally hang a decent plot line on that talent. Until somebody makes a movie about Tonya Harding, I don't think I'll ever see a genuinely exciting movie about figure-skating. (Don't let's mention 'Ice Follies of 1939', one of the worst movies ever made.)

In American movies, the most famous skater was Sonja Henie, whilst England had Belita. Both women were blonde and attractive with it, especially in their short-skirted cozzies and high-topped skates. Apart from their skating techniques, the biggest difference between these two ladies on screen was their personalities. Henie always played a 'good girl' type: a frosted ice-virgin who didn't seem aware of her own nubile appeal. Belita, on the other hand, was sexy and she knew it. There's a big production number in 'Silver Skates' in which Belita does some spectacular ice-dancing, then she finishes by striking a proud pose at the centre of the rink and running her hands down the front of her own shapely torso while she throws her head backwards in rapture. This is clearly a lady who's very comfortable with her own body.

I wish that 'Silver Skates' gave more screen time to the beauteous Belita and less time to its ridiculous soap-opera plot. During WW2, Hollywood made a lot of movies depicting America's homefront, in which the characters briefly pay lip-service to the war effort before immersing themselves in a plot line entirely unrelated to the war. 'Silver Skates' is one of those films. Hitler and Stalin are carving up Europe, but the characters in this movie are more concerned about staging an ice carnival. The presence in the States of the English-born Belita (given nearly no dialogue, alas) is attributed to wartime problems back home. Apart from this, the only wartime reference in this movie is a very brief appearance by a war refugee: a little Dutch girl named Katrina (played by a Yank child actress) whose residency in America has been sponsored by Claire (the ice-show's producer) because Katrina is such a good skater. I guess if she couldn't skate, she would still be back in Rotterdam fending off the Nazis. Claire is played by Patricia Morison, a Broadway actress (she starred in the original 'Kiss Me Kate') whose film career never took off.

Apart from Belita's scenes, the most interesting things about 'Silver Skates' are a couple of brief skating turns by Frick and Frack, the comedy ice-skaters. The first time I ever heard of Frick and Frack was when Jackie Gleason did a comedy routine about a (fictitious) vaudeville act with that name, so I assumed that Frick and Frack were American vaudevillains. It turns out they were European, and they got a surprising amount of comedic mileage out of their ice-skating gimmick. Frick was tall and lanky with it, the moustached Frack was short and slightly-built. Their most impressive gag takes advantage of their disparate physiques: the two men skate directly towards each other, in trajectories so rapid that neither man can turn aside. A collision seems imminent. At the last instant, Frick spreads his feet and Frack ducks. Frack goes *between* Frick's legs, then both men straighten again. This is done so quickly that it very nearly looks as if they went right through each other! Frick and Frack perform this gag *twice* in 'Silver Skates', and they do it so skilfully that it's just as funny the second time as the first. (After Frack's death, his partner continued to perform as a single-act named Mister Frick.)

Unfortunately, the skating routines (and Belita's good looks) are the only high points in this film. For most of its screen time, we get a banal soap-opera plot about people marrying one another for contrived reasons. Will the ice show go on, or not? (Take a wild guess.) Kenny Baker stinks up this movie with his presence. Kenny Baker was a 'singer' who appeared in several big-budget musicals of the '30s and '40s, but he's invariably the dullest performer on screen in each of his movies. In 'Silver Skates', Kenny Baker never sets foot on the ice rink, but I kept hoping the ice would crack open long enough for him to fall through and drown.

'Silver Skates' would make a great ice-skating short if somebody would cut out all the argle-bargle subplots and just leave the skating routines by Belita, Frick and Frack and that little Dutch girl. As it stands, I'll rate this movie only 5 out of 10.

A load of bland blokes take up lots of screen time along with an annoying boy and an annoying girl who do some skating. The only reason to watch this film is for Belita. She stars as herself in a film about a company trying to keep onto her as their star attraction for their show. She skates and looks good as always but I wish she had been given a better story.

If you like skating, Eugene Turner also turns up as himself and partners Belita on the ice. We have some songs thrown in – not particularly memorable but OK – and we also have the required morale-boosting ending about the Navy where everyone gets to wear a navy Captain's hat. Cool.