Blue Skies (film)
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Blue Skies is a 1946 Hollywood musical comedy film, released by Paramount Pictures and starring Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Joan Caulfield, Olga San Juan and Billy De Wolfe, with music, lyrics and story by Irving Berlin. The film was directed by Stuart Heisler and produced by Sol C. Siegel.
As in Holiday Inn (1942), the film is designed to showcase the songs of Irving Berlin. The plot, which is presented in a series of flashbacks with Astaire as narrator, follows a similar formula of Crosby beating Astaire for the affections of a leading lady. Comedy is principally provided by Billy De Wolfe.
Tap dancer Paul Damer was the initial choice to partner Bing Crosby, however, during the first week of production Damer's speech impediment led Crosby to insist on his replacement by Astaire who, then forty-seven, had already decided that this would be his final film and that he would retire, having spent over forty years performing before the public. The film was billed as "Astaire's last picture" and its very strong performance at the box office pleased him greatly, as he had dearly wanted to go out on a high note.
The reasons for Astaire's (temporary) retirement remain a source of debate: his own view that he was "tired and running out of gas", the sudden collapse in 1945 of the market for Swing music which left many of his colleagues in jazz high and dry, a desire to devote time to establishing a chain of dancing schools, and a dissatisfaction with roles, as in this film, where he was relegated to playing second fiddle to the lead. Ironically, it is for his celebrated solo performance of "Puttin' On The Ritz" that this film is most remembered today.
Key songs/dance routines:
Crosby applies his famous relaxed crooning style to the many songs he delivers here. In contrast, Astaire, assisted by choreographers Hermes Pan and Dave Robel (for the "Puttin' On The Ritz" routine), delivers a series of dances which explore the theme of controntation, both with partners and with the audience. As a result, it is one of only a few Astaire films not to feature a romantic partnered dance.
- "A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody": Berlin's 1919 song is presented as part of a big Ziegfeld Follies production number, an aesthetic which Astaire parodies in this partnered dance with Caulfield and others. In the first of a series of references to films he made earlier in the 1940s, he reprises a tap sequence performed atop a bar counter in the "One For My Baby" number from The Sky's the Limit (1943), this time danced down a stairway.
- "I've Got My Captain Working For Me Now": This song, originally composed in 1919, is performed by Crosby, backed up by Billy De Wolfe.
- "You'd Be Surprised": Another 1919 song, this time performed by Olga San Juan.
- "Serenade To An Old-Fashioned Girl": Caulfied sings this number, specially written for the film.
- "Puttin' On The Ritz": Although Berlin's 1930 song was originally written for vaudevillian Harry Richman, it has become indelibly associated with Astaire, who also recorded it for Columbia in 1930. In this tap solo with cane, which was widely billed as "Astaire's last dance", the lyrics are updated, replacing racist references to ritzy Harlemites with wealthy whites strutting their stuff up and down Park Avenue. The routine was produced after the rest of the film had been completed, and according to Astaire, it took "five weeks of back-breaking physical work" to prepare. It is constructed in three sections, beginning in a dull book-lined office with a tired-looking Astaire showing his years and dressed in his trademark top hat, white tie and tails. Here Astaire delivers the song while executing a gentle tap and cane solo in mock slow-motion, in an amusing parody of his impending retirement. The song finished, he returns to normal speed and proceeds to dance around the office while executing an ingenious jumping cane routine which relied on a concealed floor trigger mechanism. Thus rejuvenated, Astaire sweeps aside a pair of drab curtains to reveal a chorus of nine Fred Astaires - achieved by filming two separate versions of Astaire, repeating them four times and interleaving them. The final section is a greatly speeded up repeat of the tune which accompanies a routine of spell-binding virtuosity for Astaire and chorus. In "Top Hat, White Tie and Tails" from Top Hat (1935), Astaire proceeded to machine-gun his chorus dancers with his cane. This time, Astaire joins his chorus in adopting a confrontational, at times almost menacing posture towards his audience. In 1957, on the brink of yet another temporary retirement, Astaire wittily refers back to this routine in the self-parodying "The Ritz, Roll And Rock" number from Silk Stockings.
- "I'll See You In Cuba": A 1920 song performed as a duet by Crosby and San Juan.
- "A Couple Of Song And Dance Men": A comic song and dance duet for Astaire and Crosby to a number specially composed for the film. The concept is a reworking of the "I'll Capture Your Heart" number from Holiday Inn (1942) and the comedy centres around Crosby's legendary reluctance to rehearse.
- "You Keep Coming Back Like A Song": Crosby performs this specially composed number.
- "Nightclub Montage": Crosby performs fragments of "The Little Things In Life" (1930), "Not For All The Rice In China" (1933) and "Russian Lullaby" (1927).
- "Everybody Step": Crosby sings this 1921 number, followed by a brief dance for chorus choreographed by Hermes Pan. Crosby directs the chorus in the opening stages, a concept revived and further developed by Pan for the opening number of An Evening with Fred Astaire (1958).
- "How Deep Is The Ocean?": Crosby performs this 1932 song in a musing style, backed by a female quartet.
- "(Running Around In Circles) Getting Nowhere": Crosby sings this specially composed song to Caulfield.
- "Heat Wave": The film's major production number features Astaire, Olga San Juan and chorus in a brightly coloured Latin-themed setting. It begins with San Juan's rendition - with the lyric "making her seat wave" toned down to "making her feet wave" - of this 1933 song, while Astaire approaches warily, using dance steps reminiscent of those used in the "Dream Ballet" number from Yolanda and the Thief (1945), followed by a partnered dance for Astaire and San Juan, and then a tap solo section for Astaire who quotes from the "Boogie Barcarolle (Rehearsal Sequence)" number from You'll Never Get Rich (1941). This solo section was shot in one take and features music specially composed by Astaire, the only time his music was used in a film. In a counterpoint to the film's opening number, this number ends with him ascending a staircase, only to fall dramatically from a precipice, ending his character's dance career.
- "Wartime Medley": Crosby performs excerpts from "Any Bonds Today" (1941), "This Is The Army Mr. Jones" (1942) and "White Christmas" (1942) - which he had introduced in his previous film with Astaire: Holiday Inn (1942).
- "You Keep Coming Back Like A Song/Blue Skies (reprise)": Performed by Crosby and Caulfield at the film's close.
External links:
References
Fred Astaire: Steps in Time, 1959, multiple reprints.
John Mueller: Astaire Dancing - The Musical Films of Fred Astaire, Knopf 1985, ISBN 0394516540
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