Delayed Reaction: Swing Time

Premise: A dancer with a gambling habit falls for a dance instructor he meets in New York while trying to earn enough money for his fiancé’s father to approve his wedding.

 

This movie is a roller coaster. The plot is strained, even for the Astaire and Rogers pairing, which was built on convoluted storylines. It has some incredible song and dance numbers though. "The Way You Look Tonight", "A Fine Romance", and "Never Gonna Dance" are all incredible and beautiful. Yet, there's also "Bojangles of Harlem". Thankfully, HBO Max gives a little warning about that scene. Look, I'm willing to accept the historical context of blackface scenes, but that doesn't make them less distracting to watch. I'm sure the dancing in that was great, however my only memories of that are thinking "Surely there was a better way to do this" and doing the math in my head about how OK this blackface would've been in 1936*. It's interesting to me that Swing Time is often considered the best of the Rogers/Astaire pairings. Yes, it has some of the best song and dance numbers, but there are several other movies they did that are almost as good and don't have to worry about a blackface routine.

 

*There were protests over The Birth of a Nation screening at the White House in the 1910s. Al Jolson's The Jazz Singer was less than a decade before this. But if it was really "OK" in 1936, why isn't it in more movies? The first black winner of an Oscar was only three years later. Then again, it wasn't for a very progressive role. Song of the South was still a decade away...Yeah, I'm not getting to the bottom of this any time soon.

 

This is definitely not my favorite screwball plot of their movies. I can easily wrap my brain around a mistaken identity. This one is way more convoluted. It has to do a lot of work to make Astaire not come off badly. I think the question is whether I appreciate consistency or individual highs more. This has some of the best moments of the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers partnership that I've seen, but the stuff in between I don't care as much for. And I'd call the "Bojangles of Harlem" scene a significant low because of how much context work I have to do to find anything to appreciate about it. Not my favorite of their movies, but I'm pretty convinced that they can't make a bad movie at this point.

 

Verdict: Weakly Recommend