Swing Time - 1936

Swing Time, Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire, 1936 Giclee Print
12 in. x 9 in.

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Another of the greatest Astaire-Rogers dance musicals, their sixth film together, with lyrics and music by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields. Hoofer/gambler "Lucky" Garnett (Astaire) is late to his marriage to hometown socialite Margaret Watson (Furness). Her father Judge Watson (Stevens) challenges his prospective son-in-law to return only after earning a fortune of $25,000 in the big city.

In a local dance studio, Lucky falls in love with instructor Penny Carrol (Rogers). After many romantic misunderstandings, complications and difficulties in the contrived plot, he finds his real life's partner. Songs and dances include: "Pick Yourself Up," "The Way You Look Tonight," "Waltz in Swing Time," "A Fine Romance," "Bojangles of Harlem" (Astaire's only blackface number in a tribute to Bill Robinson), and the lengthy, romantic dance duet "Never Gonna Dance" in the finale.

Top Hat - 1935

Top Hat Wall Mural
48 in. x 72 in.

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Top Hat (1935) is one of the great 30s dance musicals, and possibly the best, most characteristic and most profitable Astaire and Rogers musical ever, with wonderful, magical dance and song numbers (with straight-on, full-length views of the dancers without a lot of camera cuts or unusual camera angles). Its tagline was: "They're Dancing Cheek-to-Cheek Again."

Some consider it as a glorified re-make of their earlier film The Gay Divorcee (1934), with its familiar story of mistaken identity and a similar cast. The film's witty script, written specifically for Astaire and Rogers, was written by Dwight Taylor (author of The Gay Divorcee) and Allan Scott - and was based on the play The Girl Who Dared, by Alexander Farago and Aladar Laszlo.

This film, directed by Mark Sandrich (who directed five of the dance team's films - see * below), was the fourth of nine films that Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers appeared in for RKO (between 1933 and 1939), and it became RKO's greatest box-office hit of the 30s (the moneymaker brought in $3 million).

42nd Street - 1933

42nd Street, with Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels, George Brent, and Una Merkel, 1933 Giclee Print
9 in. x 12 in.
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42nd Street (1933) is the classic, fast-paced, backstage movie musical - a refreshing film that changed the film musical forever and saved Warner Bros. studios from bankruptcy, helping it grow into a major studio. Set during the Depression and about the Depression, this film is considered the backstage musical par excellence, the grand-daddy of them all. It was based on the 'putting-on-a-show' tradition stemming from MGM's first sound film, The Broadway Melody (1929), another "backstage musical."

Its skillful direction was provided by Lloyd Bacon, with a funny, often sardonic screenplay by Rian James and James Seymour, and the film was nominated for Best Picture. The film succeeded by mixing veteran stars (George Brent, Warner Baxter and Bebe Daniels) with virtual new-comers (Ginger Rogers, Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler), and exotic chorus girls in abundance.

42nd Street was the first of three landmark musical films released in 1933 by Warner Bros. to revitalize the musical film genre (the other two films were Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) and Footlight Parade (1933)). In contrast to the fantasy, escapist romantic dance musicals of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers that also began in the same year (Flying Down to Rio (1933)), this film was an unglamorized look at the tough realities of backstage life behind the footlights. The urban milieu of the film is filled with crisp, slangy, bitter dialogue and wisecracks, street-wise characters, topical references, desperately-striving chorines, dancers, and crew, and down-and-out references to the Depression.

As well as being one of the most commercially-successful films of its time, it was also the first major work of Busby Berkeley, a tremendously talented choreographer, whose direction of voyeuristic, surrealistic production numbers is illustrated in extravagant, musical numbers, giant kaleidoscopes of imagery, dancing girls forming abstract designs and patterns, and innovative camera images. He was particularly known for his overhead shots, freely-moving camera (dollies and pans), and for creating numbers especially-made for films that went far beyond conventional boundaries.