The incredible dancing duo is back in this next film! This was the most popular film of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers as a onscreen team next to Top Hat as well as their sixth film together. Swing Time is when a dancer/gambler tries to gamble his way into $25,000 in order to marry his fiancée until he falls for a dancing teacher.
Awww, aren’t these two adorable?! So we see a similar story here that we see in Top Hat where the plot is confusing and really doesn’t make much sense in that a gambler falls for a dance instructor even though he’s supposed to get married. Another familiar plot is seeing Astaire trying to pursue Rogers while she’s playing hard to get but you can tell she secretly likes his efforts. Sure, he can be annoying but once you hear his voice and he waltzes his way into your heart with his shiny tux, he’s hard to ignore. But it’s not the storyline that made audiences fall in love with this feel-good film but its music and the toe-tapping numbers. I love the number “The Way You Look Tonight” which won Best Song at the Oscars. In this scene, Rogers is still trying to make Astaire leave but lures her to his direction by singing to her “The Way You Look Tonight.” She lovingly walks towards him with soap all over her head (which was actually whipped cream)- making this song hilariously ironic because of the way she looks that night! You’ve heard this number by Frank Sinatra and Michael Bublé. But the way Fred Astaire sings this song, you feel like he means it.
Then there’s the number “Never Gonna Dance” (which was almost the title of the film)- a melancholy song in which Astaire and Rogers must part so they have one last dance together. The dancing itself starts out slow in which they are sad because this is their last dance but then gradually turns fast-paced in which they must make the most of this moment. Did you know that Ginger Rogers’s feet were bleeding though her shoes throughout the whole dance? Well, can you blame her feet?! All of those rehearsals she must have done and the many twirls she’s doing in heels! She was probably screaming inside but I consider herself a trooper for still going through with it. One major flaw with this film was the ending. It still left me confused and made no sense to me please try your hardest to let that go. You’ll love this film if you love Astaire/Rogers as well as the incredible choreography you’ll see throughout the film.
Watch Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers’s sixth film together and write in what you think:
Oh, For the Love of 1001 Films! 