Fred Astaire plays a disc jockey telling the story of his career through a bunch of old Irving Berlin recordings. It appears he was once a great Broadway star in love with a chorus girl (Joan Caulfield) but that relationship ended once crooner pal Bing Crosby won her heart and married her. Astaire, now spinning records on the radio for some mysterious reason, has a secret motive for his tale, which you have to wait until the last record is spun to find out. This is a tale involving alcoholism, major egos and fatherly neglect. To see Astaire getting tipsy and then going on stage to do a musical number is strange to say the least. It's one of the most disturbing images in films.
The songbook is mixed with familiar tunes ("Blue Skies", "Heat Wave", "Puttin' on the Ritz", even a bit of "White Christmas") and obscure songs that hadn't been pulled out of Berlin's sheet music trunk in years. There's probably a reason why those songs aren't classics today. For my taste, "Easter Parade" was the best of the Irving Berlin songbook films, while "There's No Business Like Show Business" comes a close second. Astaire's dapper "Puttin' on the Ritz" is the best known routine from this film. "Young Frankenstein" fans won't be able to resist adding their Peter Boyle impression (as I didn't). All in all, I felt the film overlong and a bit dull, although Crosby's rendition of "Blue Skies" (and its filming) is quite lovely. Billy DeWolfe's portrayal of a housewife visiting a nightclub for the first time is embarrassing, and the Crosby/Astaire vaudeville routine is extremely dated, even by 1946 standards.
The songbook is mixed with familiar tunes ("Blue Skies", "Heat Wave", "Puttin' on the Ritz", even a bit of "White Christmas") and obscure songs that hadn't been pulled out of Berlin's sheet music trunk in years. There's probably a reason why those songs aren't classics today. For my taste, "Easter Parade" was the best of the Irving Berlin songbook films, while "There's No Business Like Show Business" comes a close second. Astaire's dapper "Puttin' on the Ritz" is the best known routine from this film. "Young Frankenstein" fans won't be able to resist adding their Peter Boyle impression (as I didn't). All in all, I felt the film overlong and a bit dull, although Crosby's rendition of "Blue Skies" (and its filming) is quite lovely. Billy DeWolfe's portrayal of a housewife visiting a nightclub for the first time is embarrassing, and the Crosby/Astaire vaudeville routine is extremely dated, even by 1946 standards.