If this movie was a food it would be a cornball with a lovely singing voice. Is that a bad analogy?
Well too bad because that's exactly what this movie is.
The film stars the very great Frederick Austerlitz or or the Americanized Fred Astaire as a stage name goes. Along with as Rita Hayworth who's really the star of this film at the beginning anyways. And
Adolph Menjou who plays a hot headed overconfident Argentine millionaire.
The story opens with Fred at the horse races. He's gamble away his last dime yet again. So now he has to go and find work, somehow he ends up with an appointment (or at least he thinks it's an appointment) to see the rich Argentine who runs a fair bit of the entertainment industry.
Fred meets up with his pal Xavier Cugat (who's just playing himself). He's working at Adolphe Menjou wedding and is none too happy about it. As he's told to play very quietly and is if he wasn't even there. But all the same he does the job anyways and he convinces his friend Fred to join him so that he can vocalize his talents.
Now Fred is about to go and talk to this Argentine millionaire before he gets distracted by one of his daughters. The one played by Rita Hayworth. She's the oldest of three unwed daughters and she's the next one in line according to her family tradition. As each daughter oldest to youngest gets married in a very particular order. Now she's not too bothered about it but her younger siblings are. They want her to get married immediately because they already have fiance's lined up.
As one can imagine a rebellious daughter with disinterest in her family tradition can lead to some family quarrels especially on the day of a wedding. But even worse than all of this is Fred trying to get noticed buy Adolphe Menjou character. He has a little song (of which is the most popular in the film; Dearly Beloved) and is received quite well by the general audience. But Adolphe Menjou shows little to no interest in him. So he's going to go over and talk to Adolphe Menjou. But before he does he comes across Rita Hayworth character and he tries to have a conversation with her. She's quite indifferent to the man, showing no interest. His persistence towards him Awards him nothing. Afterwards he goes up to Adolphe Menjou where he proclaimed that this woman in question has the personality of the inside of a refrigerator. Only then discovering that Rita was Adolphe Menjou daughter.
Now Fred is he in hot water with almost no Prospect of getting out. But this isn't the only problem that's happening. For Adolphe Menjou is getting a little fed up with his daughters disinterest in men. So he takes it upon himself to write her love letters disguised as a mysterious admirer. To see if he can rekindle her interest. At first it works out quite well but then he makes the mistake of asking for a Bellboy to deliver the flowers to his home. What he doesn't know (because he's preoccupied) is that the person who's entered his office is no one else but Fred. Fred decides to take the flowers seeing it as an opportunity to introduce himself proper to the man so that he can show off his dance routine. He takes the flowers over to the house of Ritta and then returns. Knowing nothing about this secret admirer business.
Now Rita Hemsworth's character thinks that Fred is the secret admirer.
Now the only thing Fred is interest in is trying to convince Adolphe Menjou that his Services could be of use. He even goes as far to sneak into Adolphe Menjou office with an entire Orchestra just so they can play a tune that he can dance to. And it's one of the most wonderful moments I've ever seen on film.
Fred Astaire is one of the few people that can dance on film and have me interested in it.
However this doesn't help his cause as the Argentine millionaire tells him to get out of his office since never returned. But now the problem becomes even bigger as Rita Hayworth enters the office claiming to her father that she knows who sent her the flowers. At first her father thinks that she knows it was him. But she believes it was Fred which angers him to some extent. As he wants nothing to do with the man and wants even less for his daughter to have anything to do with him. But she's convinced that Fred was the man all along.
And this is where we get some of Rita Hayworth best acting. Before this she either played stubborn and vein or Clueless and Deccy. Now she's playing something of a hybrid. She's mixing all her different traits together and it gives off this cocky arrogance and she knows just how to push her father's buttons in such a way as to irritate him.
Now it's at this point the film subverted my expectation. I was expecting a simple plot in which Fred Astaire was going to try and seduce Rita Hayworth character to make Adolphe Menjou jealous to get him a job. But instead Adolphe Menjou hires Fred to purposely go after his daughter and make himself seem disinterested in her so that she will go off and find someone better.
Now as the film goes on it becomes formulaic again. As Fred starts the phone for Rita and this becomes a conflict of interest. Throughout the film he has to purposely try to be disinterested in her while simultaneously falling for her. There's a bunch of banter between the two and even more involving our Argentinian millionaire.
Towards the end there's a mighty climax where the entire thing is blown out of proportion and everybody has to reveal their secrets in which Fred has to win her heart over once again with a ridiculous gesture involving a big band serenade a horse and a white suit of Armour.
It's a solid 40s Hollywood musical film. It hits all the right markers and it has just the right amount of drama. It's a bit of a dime in a dozen deal as you most likely seen this kind of plot done before. Most likely in a sitcom. Some parts of the film can be a little slow and uninteresting and any part involving the two younger sisters can be a little annoying. As there purposely made out to be pricci an overly executive.
However the amusing dialogue between the Argentinian millionaire family is always fun as they harass and belittle one another with passive aggressive comments. And all the musical numbers are fun there either enjoyable songs or surprisingly elaborate dances.
You can save yourself a lot of time by just looking up the dance routines online and listening to the soundtrack. Still it's not a bad film it's like a plate of well made spaghetti. You'll enjoy it well enough but you don't need to eat it all the time.
My only disappointment is they didn't utilize the Argentinian background. You have Argentinian the 1940s there's some fun that could be had there maybe some elaborate sets or even just some photos of the landscape.
Otherwise I don't see the reason why they couldn't just put it in California and be done with it. Latin swing music was really popular at the time there anyways and you can have it Argentinian millionaire living in California with his traditions. The only thing we get of Interest here is that this family has links to Great Britain somewhere up in Scotland because Adolphe Menjou is wearing a kilt at one point.
Towards the end there's a mighty climax where the entire thing is blown out of proportion and everybody has to reveal their secrets in which Fred has to win her heart over once again with a ridiculous gesture involving a big band serenade a horse and a white suit of Armour.
It's a solid 40s Hollywood musical film. It hits all the right markers and it has just the right amount of drama. It's a bit of a dime in a dozen deal as you most likely seen this kind of plot done before. Most likely in a sitcom. Some parts of the film can be a little slow and uninteresting and any part involving the two younger sisters can be a little annoying. As there purposely made out to be pricci an overly executive.
However the amusing dialogue between the Argentinian millionaire family is always fun as they harass and belittle one another with passive aggressive comments. And all the musical numbers are fun there either enjoyable songs or surprisingly elaborate dances.
You can save yourself a lot of time by just looking up the dance routines online and listening to the soundtrack. Still it's not a bad film it's like a plate of well made spaghetti. You'll enjoy it well enough but you don't need to eat it all the time.
My only disappointment is they didn't utilize the Argentinian background. You have Argentinian the 1940s there's some fun that could be had there maybe some elaborate sets or even just some photos of the landscape.
Otherwise I don't see the reason why they couldn't just put it in California and be done with it. Latin swing music was really popular at the time there anyways and you can have it Argentinian millionaire living in California with his traditions. The only thing we get of Interest here is that this family has links to Great Britain somewhere up in Scotland because Adolphe Menjou is wearing a kilt at one point.
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