The Barkleys Of Broadway
BBBB
(out of 5)
Judy Garland’s physical inability to fulfill her commitment to this film robbed movie audiences of another teaming between her and Fred Astaire after Easter Parade the year before. Instead, Astaire’s long-estranged dancing partner Ginger Rogers stepped up to bat for one more round with her old friend, and the result is a colourful musical with lots of fun numbers and playful chemistry between them. They play a show business couple who nearly experience a complete falling out when she decides she wants to be more than just a girl on his arm but desires to be seen as a serious actress (not too far from their real story, actually, except that Astaire and Rogers were never romantically linked in public when they were dancing together). Numbers include “My One and Only Highland Fling”, “They Can’t Take That Away From Me”, and Rogers doing a passionately dramatic reading of the French national anthem.
USA, 1949
Directed by Charles Walters
Screenplay by Betty Comden, Adolph Green
Cinematography by Harry Stradling Sr.
Produced by Arthur Freed
Music by Lennie Hayton
Production Design by Edward C. Carfagno, Cedric Gibbons
Costume Design by Valles
Film Editing by Albert Akst
