Swing time

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Movie
German title Swing time
Original title Swing time
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1936
length 103 minutes
Rod
Director George Stevens
script Howard Lindsay ,
Allan Scott
production Pandro S. Berman
music Jerome Kern
camera David Abel
cut Henry Berman
occupation
synchronization

Swing Time is an American film musical with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers from 1936. The story Portrait of John Garnett by Erwin S. Gelsey was used as a template . In Austria the film was released under the title Waltz from America .

action

Lucky Garnett, a dancer who is not averse to gambling, finally wants to marry his wealthy fiancée Margaret. On the way to the altar, however, he is held up by his friends, so that he appears too late at his own wedding. When Margaret's father wants to call off the wedding completely, he gives Lucky one last chance. This is said to earn $ 25,000 in an honest way to prove his good intentions.

Lucky goes to New York with his friend Pop Cardetti , where he meets the dance teacher Penny Carroll. A misunderstanding makes Penny angry at him. Determined to apologize to her, Lucky wants to take dance lessons from Penny. She is still upset and also convinced that Lucky has no talent for dancing. When her boss, Mr. Gordon, hears this, Penny is dismissed without further ado. With Lucky's help, however, she gets her job back. Now both are supposed to perform in a local club. Since Lucky doesn't have a tuxedo and he can't get one, he and Penny miss the audition, which is why Penny gets mad at him again.

In order to arrange a new audition with the necessary change, Lucky goes to a casino, where he gets the chance to win the $ 25,000 that Margaret's father asked of him. But Lucky is ultimately satisfied with less because he fell in love with Penny. After all, both are allowed to perform in the club. Lucky Penny is increasingly avoiding guilt because he hasn't told her about his fiancée. Penny and her friend Mabel invite Lucky and Pop to the country, where Pop promptly tells her about Lucky's engagement to Margaret. Nevertheless, Penny gets involved in a romance with Lucky. When Margaret unexpectedly arrives at their place, Penny prefers to marry the band leader Ricky Romero. After Margaret broke off her engagement, Lucky managed to prevent Penny and Ricky from getting married. Lucky and Penny finally find each other again.

background

Swing Time was the sixth of ten films by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers together. After RKO Pictures had acquired the film rights to Erwin S. Gelsey's original Portrait of John Garnett , Gelsey was hired by RKO in November 1935 to adapt his story for the big screen together with screenwriters Howard Lindsay and Allan Scott . But like the additional authors Dorothy Yost and Ben Holmes , Gelsey was ultimately not mentioned as a screenwriter in the opening credits or credits.

The shooting took place from May 11th to July 31st, 1936. The street scenes set in New York were shot on the Paramount Pictures studio site. The Santa Fe Railroad Station in Los Angeles served as the backdrop for the station . Fred Astaire spent almost eight weeks preparing for the dance scenes. His dance performance for Bojangles of Harlem , in which he appeared with blackface , was a tribute to the black tap dancer Bill Robinson , whose nickname was "Bojangles of Harlem". Due to the technical complexity of this dance performance, which Astaire shot last of all, the filming took several weeks longer than that of his previously released films.

For the first time in his career, Astaire also used trick technology for which Hermes Pan had provided the idea. In order to ensure that he dances synchronously in front of three larger-than-life shadows of himself, Astaire first performed the dance in front of a white canvas on which a spotlight with particularly strong luminosity cast its shadow. He then danced the choreography in front of another screen in normal lighting. This shot was optically combined with that of the shadow tripled in the studio laboratory. So that Astaire could dance his second dance in sync with his shadow, the image of the shadow was also projected into Astaire's field of vision. It took three days to shoot this scene.

The film was supposed to start with a dance to a song called It's Not in the Cards . However, the scene was found too faint and was cut from the film after the film premiered on August 27, 1936 at New York's Radio City Music Hall . The film musical was shown for the first time on German television on January 12, 1972.

Music and dance numbers

  • Pick Yourself Up ( Jerome Kern , Dorothy Fields ): sung and danced by Astaire and Rogers, also danced by Victor Moore and Helen Broderick
  • The Way You Look Tonight (Kern, Fields): sung by Fred Astaire, later by Georges Metaxa, again at the end by Metaxa, Broderick, Moore, Astaire and Rogers
  • Waltz in Swing Time (Kern, Fields): danced by Astaire and Rogers
  • A Fine Romance (Kern, Fields): sung by Astaire and Rogers, again at the end by Metaxa, Broderick, Moore, Astaire and Rogers
  • Bojangles of Harlem (Kern, Fields): sung by a female choir, danced by Astaire and the choir
  • Never Gonna Dance (Kern, Fields): sung by Astaire, danced by Astaire and Rogers
  • It's Not in the Cards (Kern): The film scene was ultimately removed, some of the melody remained in the film music

Reviews

The lexicon of international films described Swing Time as “one of the best-known and best musicals with the dancing dream couple of the 1930s, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers”. Cinema simply praised the "[great] choreography". Prisma spoke of "one of the most beautiful musicals of Hollywood's golden era". The result is a film in which, in addition to “the great choreography and lots of inventive gags”, the song The Way You Look Tonight also enchants.

Variety saw in the film at the time "another success for the team Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers". The film is "smart, modern and impressive in every way". The songs had "substance and quality as always". The Way You Look Tonight stands out. Frank S. Nugent of the New York Times thought the film was "naturally good". But after films like I dance into your heart , Marine against lovesickness and the others he is "a disappointment", which is mainly due to the music. The New York Herald Tribune also said that although the two main actors had "never been more excellent in their execution", the production itself was "inconsistent and in any case disappointing in the end".

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times once again considered Swing Time to be "the best Astaire-Rogers film". The plot "with their routine jokes" is like that of I dance myself into your heart , but it is "funnier and more cleverly written". The number for Never Gonna Dance was "perhaps the climax" in the creative time of the Astaire-Rogers team. Another highlight is Astaire's solo on Bojangles of Harlem . For the film critic Leonard Maltin , Swing Time was "one of the best Astaire Rogers films". Victor Moore and Helen Broderick are "good" in their supporting roles and the songs by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields are "unforgettable". Astaire's Bojangles number is simply a "screen classic".

Awards

At the 1937 Academy Awards , Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields won the Oscar in the Best Song category for The Way You Look Tonight . Another nomination was for choreographer Hermes Pan for the choreography of Bojangles of Harlem . In 2004 the film was entered into the National Film Registry .

German version

Brigitte Theile wrote the dialogue book for the German dubbed version . Eberhard Cronshagen directed the dialogue .

role actor Voice actor
Lucky Garnett Fred Astaire Eckart Dux
Penny Carroll Ginger Rogers Andrea L'Arronge
Pop Cardetti Victor Moore Bruno W. Pantel
Mabel Anderson Helen Broderick Kathrin Ackermann
Gordon Eric Blore Manfred Lichtenfeld
Margaret Watson Betty Furness Marion Hartmann
Ricky Romero Georges Metaxa Klaus Kindler

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b cf. Notes on tcm.com
  2. ↑ cf. John Miller on tcm.com
  3. ↑ Swing Time. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed June 9, 2019 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  4. ↑ cf. cinema.de
  5. ↑ cf. prisma.de
  6. ↑ " Swing Time is another winner for the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers combo. It's smart, modern, and impressive in every respect [… T] he tunes as usual have substance and quality. " See Swing Time . In: Variety , 1936.
  7. ↑ “The picture is good, of course. [...] But after Top Hat , Follow the Fleet and the rest of it is a disappointment. Blame it, primarily, upon the music. " Frank S. Nugent : Another Astaire-Rogers Song and Dance Fest Comes Knock-Knocking at the Music Hall . In: The New York Times , August 28, 1936.
  8. ↑ "They have never performed with more exquisite finish, but the production itself is uneven and definitely disappointing in its conclusion." See New York Herald Tribune , September 1936, cit. according to John Miller on tcm.com
  9. ↑ “The best of the Astaire-Rogers films […]. The plot, with its sly drolleries, is based like “Top Hat” on mistaken identities, but it's wittier and more cleverly written. [...] including the climactic Never Gonna Dance number that may be the high point of the Astaire-Rogers partnership. " Roger Ebert : Swing Times . In: Chicago Sun-Times , February 15, 1998.
  10. ^ “One of the best Astaire- Rogers films […]. Fine support by Moore and Broderick, unforgettable Jerome Kern Dorothy Fields songs […]. Astaire's Bojangles production number is a screen classic. " Leonard Maltin : Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide 2006 . Signet, 2005, p. 1269.
  11. ↑ Swing Time. In: synchronkartei.de. German dubbing files , accessed on June 9, 2019 .