Filmland Follies

                 For one of cinema's most beloved screen partnerships, we don't know a whole lot about Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers's offscreen relationship. Of course, there are the usual rumors. They hated each other! They were in love! As for hating each other, they spent their whole lives trying to disprove that one. Watch any interview of Fred in the 70s or 80s when he gets the inevitable "who was your favorite partner?" question. He'll try and avoid it for a while, but eventually the conversation always comes around to Ginger, who "had style and talent and improved as she went along. She got so that after a while everyone else who danced with me looked wrong." Fred's words.             After their final movie together in 1949, The Barkleys of Broadway , all evidence shows that they stayed close. When they couldn't be together, dancing at parties or having dinner with their mutual friend and...

              After their success in Flying Down to Rio and the Gay Divorcee , Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were teamed for the third time in 1935's Roberta . Strangely enough, the duo was billed under star Irene Dunne and relegated to comedic relief. They only dance together twice in the film - but those two dances are some of their best work.               Fred plays Huck Haines, a band leader from Indiana who's been hired to play a gig in Paris. He brings his band overseas only to discover he's out of a job because the man who hired Huck's Indianians wanted Indians instead. Huck and his friend John (Randolph Scott) remember they both know people in Paris who might be able to help them out - Huck's childhood neighbor Lizzie Gatz and John's Aunt Minnie, known as the famed dress designer Roberta.               The band shows up at Roberta's where they meet Step...

                 A few days ago, on July 16, Ginger Rogers would have been 112 years old. A regular kid who turned dance champion then Broadway star then Hollywood sensation, Ginger inspired generations of movie audiences. She fought for fair pay for female actresses, spoke out about the man's world that was - and still is - Hollywood, and showcased a rare combination of comedic timing and musical talent. Ginger's onscreen characters are a magic blend of clever, witty, emotional, and genuine - and it's hard to find a more classic Ginger character than Top Hat 's Dale Tremont.               Dale's first appearance is in a gloriously ruffly nightgown, rising from her palatial hotel bed to the sound of tap dancing. In normal circumstances, she'd probably be tap dancing too, but right now she's trying to sleep. Fred Astaire giving himself a solo in the room upstairs isn't helping. She marches upst...

              One of the commonly-heard questions about Old Hollywood actresses tends to be, "Wait, how many husbands did she have?" And while this question is problematic in itself - she was a powerhouse actress in a Hollywood run by men, who cares how many times she was married - it does tend to linger in your mind. What was the deal with all the Hollywood husbands?             Perhaps Bette Davis, known for her one-liners both on- and off-screen, summed it up best: "None of my husbands was ever man enough to become Mr. Bette Davis." The imbalance of power created by Hollywood stardom was simply too much for many men who felt threatened by their wife's acclaim, influence, and earnings. Sadly for dozens of actresses, this resulted in a string of divorces that were amplified by their prominent press coverage.             Ginger Rogers was married five times and s...

              Doesn't that poster just say it all? Pre-Code murder mysteries are a special kind of madness - the usual formula includes a sassy reporter trying to make her way in a man's world, inevitably stumbling into a murder (and a romance). She's your everyday career girl but somehow dresses like a model, isn't afraid to confront creepy guys lurking in basements, and cracks cases as easily as one-liners.             A Shriek in the Night followed this well-loved storyline, proving the biggest hit that independent "Poverty Row" studio Allied Pictures would ever release. Its success was mostly due to Ginger Rogers, fresh out of 42nd Street and Gold Diggers of 1933 and about to become a worldwide sensation in Flying Down to Rio . Despite her undeniable screen presence and comedic timing, A Shriek in the Night doesn't make full use of Ginger's talents - it's more of a preview for what's to come.  ...

            By 1949, musicals were in a bit of a slump. MGM had been churning out song and dance movies like  Good News  and  Anchors Aweigh  through World War II, largely due to the star power of Gene Kelly and Judy Garland, but nothing compared to the glittering productions of the 1930s. At the same time, Fred Astaire's career was reaching its second peak. After retiring briefly in 1946, he replaced an injured Gene Kelly in 1948's Easter Parade and quickly became MGM's musical star of choice. The smash success of Easter Parade led the studio to re-team Fred and co-star Judy Garland in  The Barkleys of Broadway.               Sadly, by this point in her career, Judy was already struggling with addiction and her mental health was too unstable for her to work regularly. After a few rehearsals for the Barkleys , she was forced to drop out. The studio scrambled to find a replacement...

             Since it began in 1928, RKO Radio Pictures was a B-movie factory. As fast as they could find a hundred chorus girls and a script, they'd be in production - often for a mere three weeks before the film raced into theatres. Most of these attempts were flops, a few turned newcomers into stars, but every so often they'd land on a smash hit. Flying Down to Rio , a pre-Code B-movie musical, ended up launching an era.               Like most B-movies, it followed the common advertising formula - "Stupendous musical! 200 beauties!" It promised audiences an exotic South American summer, complete with sunny beaches, catchy songs, and chorus girls performing airplane stunts. They got what they bargained for - and then some. Special effects, including ghost-like clones of the characters representing their inner thoughts. Dolores del Rio, a Mexican actress considered the first and biggest Latin America...