I was very surprised to learn that Fred Astaire wasn't the original choice to play Jed Potter! That honor went to Paul Draper, who apparently was a versatile tap dancer, but without Fred's other film actor assets. It then became sort of a Technicolor remake of the B&W "Holiday Inn", but with just one girl(Joan Caulfield), not two, to fight over. The problem is that she is definitely more in love with Bing, but Fred is more in love with her than is Bing, and keeps trying to steal her back. Bing(as Johnny) keeps telling her he would make her a lousy husband. Like many other girls, she refuses to take no for an answer, being sure she could overcome Johnny's need for geographical novelty, once she had him snared. Like many other girls, she was wrong, and eventually left him for that reason, now with a child to support. (Babies began to appear in some post-war musicals, mirroring the 'baby boom'). Mary is then back with Fred for a while, but jilts him again, relocating in Europe(doing what??). We then skip from the '20s to mid-WWII, with Bing singing about buying war bonds, followed by the Irving Berlin standards "This is the Army Mister Jones" and "White Christmas". The latter was done in the context of an USO performance for the troops, very different from the romantic context it was done in "Holiday Inn". This is followed by the anti-climactic finale, in which Bing is a singing guest on Fred's radio program. He reprises "You Keep Coming Back Like a Song" and, low and behold, we hear Mary, off-stage, start singing "Blue Skies". This is very reminiscent of the emotional reunion of Bing and Marjorie Reynolds in "Holiday Inn", with "White Christmas" being reprised in a surprise duet.
Actually, as in "Holiday Inn", we do have a musical supporting actress in cute Olga San Juan. However,unlike in "Holiday Inn", she is not romantically involved with either of the stars, bur rather has something going with Bing's constant buddy in his various nightclub businesses, played by Billy De Wolfe. I assume the brass pandered to the fear of audience ethnic prejudice here, as New Yorker Olga was born to Puerto Rican parents. I found Olga much more appealing than Joan, and she certainly upstaged her in her 3 stage numbers: "You'd Be Surprised", "Cuba", with Bing, and "Heat Wave", with Fred. To be fair, Olga was a professional singer and dancer, while Joan was not. You can also see her in the Universal musical comedy "Are You With It", where she is Don O'Connor's leading lady. This was still Joan's first year in films, having previously been Bob Hope's leading lady in the historical comedy "Monsieur Beaucaire". Apparently, she did rather well in her comedic role in that film. I thought she was poorly suited to her role in this film compared to the other lead actresses in this or the previous "Holiday Inn".
Astaire planned this to be his final film. As in "Holiday Inn", he was given one classic unique solo production, to "Puttin' on the Ritz", in the latter portion of which ,mutiple dancing copies of Fred fill the background,along with his front center primary image. Quite impressive! Again, as in "Holiday Inn", he does one song and dance with Bing, but with the bonus of a terminal series of impressions of various stereotypes, alternating with and interacting with Bing. This was more effective than the series of too brief comedic get ups he and Don O'Connor did individually in the later "Anything Goes" Fred also got to dance around during much of the major production "Heat Wave", costarring Olga.
Another major difference with "Holiday Inn" is that the great majority of songs had been composed long ago or had been done in films within the previous few years. This includes the title song. Al Jolson sang it in the first ever musical talkie in 1927, and Ethel Merman, in the '38 "Alexander's Ragtime Band". In that film, Ethel also sang the here-included "Heat Wave" and "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody" Marilyn Monroe would later again redo "Heat Wave" in her provocative style in "There's No Business Like Show Business". However, you may prefer the performance in this film. The opening lavish production to "A Pretty Girl...", Joan's major singing(dubbed) and dancing role, had been done even more lavishly in the MGM '36 "The Great Ziegfeld", with Dennis Morgan's fine tenor voice(check this out on You Tube)."Puttin' on the Ritz", with its unorthodox complex rhythmic pattern, had been done on film in 1930. Even Clark Gable did it as song and dance("Idiot's Delight"), but Fred's performance much tops these.
Billy De Wolfe wasn't especially amusing, other than his improvised monster guise. He was better in "Dixie", "Dear Ruth", and "Call Me Madam", for example.
Now that "Holiday Inn" has been released in a colorized version, it can more legitimately compete with this film as the best of the Crosby-Astaire films.
Actually, as in "Holiday Inn", we do have a musical supporting actress in cute Olga San Juan. However,unlike in "Holiday Inn", she is not romantically involved with either of the stars, bur rather has something going with Bing's constant buddy in his various nightclub businesses, played by Billy De Wolfe. I assume the brass pandered to the fear of audience ethnic prejudice here, as New Yorker Olga was born to Puerto Rican parents. I found Olga much more appealing than Joan, and she certainly upstaged her in her 3 stage numbers: "You'd Be Surprised", "Cuba", with Bing, and "Heat Wave", with Fred. To be fair, Olga was a professional singer and dancer, while Joan was not. You can also see her in the Universal musical comedy "Are You With It", where she is Don O'Connor's leading lady. This was still Joan's first year in films, having previously been Bob Hope's leading lady in the historical comedy "Monsieur Beaucaire". Apparently, she did rather well in her comedic role in that film. I thought she was poorly suited to her role in this film compared to the other lead actresses in this or the previous "Holiday Inn".
Astaire planned this to be his final film. As in "Holiday Inn", he was given one classic unique solo production, to "Puttin' on the Ritz", in the latter portion of which ,mutiple dancing copies of Fred fill the background,along with his front center primary image. Quite impressive! Again, as in "Holiday Inn", he does one song and dance with Bing, but with the bonus of a terminal series of impressions of various stereotypes, alternating with and interacting with Bing. This was more effective than the series of too brief comedic get ups he and Don O'Connor did individually in the later "Anything Goes" Fred also got to dance around during much of the major production "Heat Wave", costarring Olga.
Another major difference with "Holiday Inn" is that the great majority of songs had been composed long ago or had been done in films within the previous few years. This includes the title song. Al Jolson sang it in the first ever musical talkie in 1927, and Ethel Merman, in the '38 "Alexander's Ragtime Band". In that film, Ethel also sang the here-included "Heat Wave" and "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody" Marilyn Monroe would later again redo "Heat Wave" in her provocative style in "There's No Business Like Show Business". However, you may prefer the performance in this film. The opening lavish production to "A Pretty Girl...", Joan's major singing(dubbed) and dancing role, had been done even more lavishly in the MGM '36 "The Great Ziegfeld", with Dennis Morgan's fine tenor voice(check this out on You Tube)."Puttin' on the Ritz", with its unorthodox complex rhythmic pattern, had been done on film in 1930. Even Clark Gable did it as song and dance("Idiot's Delight"), but Fred's performance much tops these.
Billy De Wolfe wasn't especially amusing, other than his improvised monster guise. He was better in "Dixie", "Dear Ruth", and "Call Me Madam", for example.
Now that "Holiday Inn" has been released in a colorized version, it can more legitimately compete with this film as the best of the Crosby-Astaire films.