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Post by Doghouse6 on Apr 26, 2019 0:57:14 GMT
So hard to choose, but all the early films with Ginger Rogers would have to be on my list (not really a fan of their final one); also HOLIDAY INN, EASTER PARADE and THE BAND WAGON for sure. But there are others, too, like YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER with Rita Hayworth. It's hard not to appreciate him in almost everything. It took me a while to warm up to The Barkleys Of Broadway. It simply doesn't possess the gossamer charm and elegance of their RKO pictures, and features only one knockout duet for the two of them (the rehearsal number, "Bouncin' the Blues"). I found I was able to appreciate it much more when I stopped comparing it to their earlier films, and began viewing it simply as an MGM musical - of which it's about as representative as any - rather than as an "Astaire/Rogers" picture. In place of that '30s fantasy world, it presents a more conventional if undeniably colorful one of backstage friction and domestic squabbles, and I've come to find a certain charm, if of a somewhat perverse kind, in the bickering of "the battling Barkleys'" roller-coaster relationship, which gave both players the freedom to stretch beyond the opportunities provided by the formulae of their earlier films. Like you, I'll still always prefer their RKO films, but if they were Crêpes Suzette, Barkleys serves up a commonplace but satisfying pancake (as the artist played by Hans Conried in the film has it).
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