Filmland Follies

              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...

               Nobody wants to marry Ralph Bellamy. After watching lots of Old Hollywood films you start to think, "hey, that guy's been in everything!" And in most major films he's been in, he plays the same character - the "unwanted fiance," the second-best option when the protagonist can't be with their true love. Take Carefree , for instance. Ralph Bellamy's character is going to marry Ginger Rogers, but as soon as Fred Astaire enters the picture, we know he doesn't have a chance. Or His Girl Friday - do we ever want Ralph Bellamy to marry Rosalind Russell? Not when she could re-marry Cary Grant, we don't.               Ralph Bellamy, born in 1904, had an incredibly long and successful screen career. Beginning in 1931 with the Pre-Code drama The Secret Six (also featuring Jean Harlow and Clark Gable), Bellamy didn't stop working until his final film appearance in Pretty Woman in 1990. Yes, t...