Not Coming to a Theater Near You

Blue Skies / USA / 1946

At best, Blue Skies has what Roger Ebert would call an “idiot plot,” the kind of thing that exists only to keep a Hollywood musical chugging ahead, and fills time between the big numbers. But even viewed that way the characterization here remains frustratingly obtuse, the characters’ romantic entanglements more or less inexplicable.

Worse, Blue Skies doesn’t do much to make up for those shortcomings in other areas. Fred Astaire’s most memorable number in the picture is a version of “Puttin’ on the Ritz” where special effects allow him to act as his own chorus, but even that doesn’t hit the magical heights one hopes for, basically melding the “Top Hat, White Tie, and Tails” bit from 1935’s Top Hat with the technology that allowed Gene Kelly to dance with himself in 1944’s Cover Girl. “A Couple of Song and Dance Men,” Astaire’s duet with co-star Bing Crosby, rehashes the pair’s singer-versus-dancer shtick from 1942’s superior Holiday Inn with little success, and Crosby sings a snatch of Holiday Inn’s “White Christmas,” which he would go on to sing yet again in 1954’s White Christmas. It all comes across as pretty stale.

Blue Skies was supposed to be Astaire’s last picture before his retirement, and as I watched, I found myself rejoicing in the fact that it wasn’t. It’s true that Astaire’s actual last film, 1981’s abysmal Ghost Story, serves as an equally if not more unsatisfactory send-off, but if Astaire stopped here, he never would have paired with Cyd Charisse in The Band Wagon, or danced on the ceiling in Royal Wedding. That would have been a great loss indeed.

by Victoria Large | Source: MCA/Universal VHS
21 Jan 2008 2:58 PM | Comments (1)

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1. Nate Yapp / 21 January 2008 / 6:51 PM / URL

   Nor would we have the irrepressibly fun Easter Parade, for that matter. And while my favorite moment from that film is by Jules Munshin (come to think of it, nobody’s done a really good appreciation of All Things Munshin), I still adore Astaire and Garland vaudevilling it up.