The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)

Directed by Charles Walters. Starring Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Oscar Levant, Jacques François, Gale Robbins, Billie Burke, Inez Cooper.

Tenth and final musical-comedy-romance vehicle for Astaire & Rogers (a decade after number nine, and the only one they did in color). They start off married, separate partway through, end up together again at the end. In between, Ginger’s musical-comedy specialist aspires to be a dramatic actress under the wing of stuffy French playwright François, which she keeps from her partner-hubby; when Fred does learn the truth, he gets upset, she leaves him, and farcical secrets/misunderstandings ensue. A few of the jokes land, and some of the song and dance numbers are quite entertaining, but overlength and some tiresome bits make it a second-tier effort for the duo overall. Most notably, the jokey song numbers, like the cloying scotch nonsense of “My One and Only Highland Fling”, are pretty feeble. Co-star Levant tickles the ivories with aplomb on recitals of Tchaikovsky and “Sabre Dance”. George & Ira Gershwin’s “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” is re-used here, having previously appeared in Fred & Ginger’s Swing Time (without dance accompaniment), but the peak numbers are “Bouncin’ the Blues” and “Shoes with Wings On” where Astaire shares the stage with animated shoes!

68/100