It's another fun exciting musical with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. In where two characters you don't think would have any chemistry butl fall in love.
Or at least that's what it might evolve into. But Fred Astaire is really making that difficult. He's acting like a right creep. Now it's one thing to have your stereotype romantic character being a little assertive with the person they like. That's typical in any Hollywood film of the age even movies today do this. But Fred is really pushing the limits. There's being persistent and then there's being a stalker.
So Fred is coming over from Paris to London. And while on his trip through a customs office he comes upon Ginger Rogers. She's standing next to a dresser because her dress was accidentally locked into it. After her aunt went off with some custom officers to work out her financial problems because she bought too many dresses while on a trip. So now Ginger is trying to hail a servicemen to help her out of her predicament.
And of course Fred should happen along and offers his own assistance. But instead of doing what the girl asked him to do. Which was to go and find her aunt, he decides to directly get involved and try to remove the dress himself. He ends up ripping the dress and then hands her his coat as compensation. And all the while he's trying to pick this girl up with some mild flirting. Already he's acting a little pushy (and is acting something of a jerk).
Now Ginger Roger's character really doesn't want anything to do with this man. ''I mean why would she''. He just ripped her dress and is acting like a general jerk.
However she does have the conscious of mind to ask him for his address so she can return his jacket (Via Mail) once she gets home.
Fred is just over the moon. Not only is he hoping that the girl return his jacket, but that she should offer him an invitation.
It's that old stereotype romance where the man falls head-over-heels with a girl simply by looking at her. Even worse he decides to go out looking for the girl all over the streets and down every corner of London. He does find her, after he accidentally rear-ended her car.
Now Ginger is Right freaked out when she realised who rear-ended her. She doesn't even want to swap insurance information.
she just takes off and tries to get away from this nut ball. And what does he do? Why he speeds on and follows her! Leading in a car chase, where the two of them are driving down some country road.
She ends up hitting a dead end and gets her car stuck as he purposely parks behind her so she can't get away.
Now she's cornered, what is she to do? Well she takes the man's number because he's insisting that one of them gets a number. Then he removed the road sign which he had put up himself. The whole thing reeks of Looney Tunes. Except that this is an incredibly unstable man who has questionable motives. And all of this predates Looney Tunes. It's a horrifying conundrum. What makes it even worse is this girl in question turns out was married the whole time. Not only that, she wants to get a divorce. Her aunt who decides to help her with the divorce (as she's been divorced several times herself). Takes her to a lawyer's office who happens to be friends with Fred in the first place.
Now none of them know this information initially. They simply arranged to meet later on to discuss the case. And Fred's friend who's going down to the beach takes Fred along claiming that he's become a little too wrapped up, waiting for this girl to contact him.
Of course Ginger and Fred are going to meet again and what's supposed to be another comedic circumstance.
And in a decent film I would be able to sit there and go; ''Yeah let's see how this works out". And watch as two characters who don't really care for one another grow to appreciate each other's company.
But Fred is just so unlikeable in this movie. How am I supposed to root for the man when he proves that he doesn't deserve the girl to begin with.
And the worst part about all this is.
It's an enjoyable film. The setup, dance choreography, musical numbers, overall acting is quite enjoyable. But the foundation is so badly made.
It also falls into the old cliche of misrepresentation. Ginger's character is supposed to hear a certain word from a certain person to indicate a fake relationship that will help her in her divorce case. But she hears the word from Fred which makes her think that he* is just here on the case and has no interest in her. But then there's this other guy who is supposed to give the saying, who gets involved with her that causes another confusion. And the whole thing unravels in the end, where the two characters find that they do love each other.
Tho out of this miscommunication we do get one of the greatest lines I've ever heard of a film.
Ginger Rogers mistakenly things that Fred is just here on assignment. So after hearing him say the certain phrase that she was supposed to hear from the other guy. She looked him straight in the eye and says ''Okay let's get this over with. Meet me at 12:15 am''. To which Fred Austere looks at her dumbfounded and just sits there absolutely baffled at such a straightforward and immediate response. Especially after the game of cat-and-mouse the two have been playing that previous day.
So here's an irony. Fred's character was something of a creep at the beginning of the movie. But because of all the miscommunication and confusion given to Ginger Rogers character later on, she turns into a weirdo. Both of these people act so strangely to one another and reactive to everybody else so strangely that you start to wonder if they were ever normal to begin with.
God damn it! Sit down! And explain your situations! All of you! Nothing ruins a movie like needless confusion.
Part of me would like to recommend the movie. I really would. There's a lot of fun here, the setup and general story could be very interesting. But the needless unnecessary fake confusion and misdirection just annoys you after a while. And it's not like we're hungry for Fred Astaire movies. 'Top hat' comes out one year after this and it's a far better film. There's my recommendation. Watch 'Top Hat'.
*Fred unknowingly mentioned some weird little phrase to his friend the lawyer. Now at the time he didn't know that his lawyer had any connection with the girl that he liked. And he made reference to this strange little phrase. so his lawyer friend decided to utilise the saying later on not knowing that his client and his friend had previously met.
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