Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Interesting, fun and full of entertainment starring Fred Astaire and Burgess Meredith, two guys who purposely fail their subjects in college each year so that they can stay on and play in the band and make money for themselves.Owing money for encyclopedias purchased is the cause for them to meet Paulette Goddard, secretary to the guy who is ready to take them to court for non-payment. They lure her away by some fabrication causing the boss to fire her. She joins them and really lets her hair down. Involving themselves with the Artie Shaw band, they do an excellent job of sabotaging each other and become venomous to the band industry.Of course, they are able to get back but they soon get involved with an investor who thinks he can go and play music as well as having intentions with Goddard as well.Lots of fun and nostalgia for movie-goers here.

This is deservedly considered Fred Astaire's weakest film, not in his performance, but in the plot line and in its production values. First of all, as a 42 year old college student who has stayed in school simply for the fact that as a student, he continues to have gigs as the college's band leader (along with Burgess Meredith!) is already a ridiculous set-up. Then, how the two best pals try to sabotage each other for the love of their young manager (Paulette Goddard, who would end up marrying Meredith in real life!) during a public audition with Artie Shaw's band isn't realistic considering the alleged closeness of their friendship. (I'm surprised that they didn't have Meredith didn't sit up front sucking on a lemon while Astaire played his solo). Toss in Charles Butterworth as the mandolin playing benefactor of a concert Shaw is giving and a plot to keep him off stage with his mandolin during the performance, and there's little to do but groan.In spite of the fact that next to Joan Fontaine, Goddard was considered Astaire's weakest dancing partner, she actually does good in their one number together. He may have worked her hard and given her some fairly easy steps, but she manages to pull it off. Goddard does have some romantic chemistry with Astaire, not as light on her feet as Ginger Rogers, but equally as sexy. The big band sequences feature some fun if unmemorable jazz music, and Astaire's dance while conducting Shaw's band seems strangely out of place. Still, there are some moments of amusement and any film where Astaire dances can't be all that bad.

Why spend any time describing this dull plot or the mediocre acting? You should watch this only to see Fred Astaire do a couple of great numbers, one as a Russian, another while he "conducts" the Artie Shaw band (yes, he's in a tux for that one).What's fascinating for modern audiences is to see Artie Shaw, not so much for his acting either, but because he plays a couple of great numbers here and he was terrific on the licorice stick. He's young here too (30 years old). One number he was famous for (not here though) is "Stardust" and it featured a trumpet solo by Billy Butterfield). Butterfield actually plays for Burgess Meredith here (who like Astaire fakes poorly on the horn). We also see Buddy Rich in the orchestra playing drums next to Artie Shaw. What a combo! Shaw was a huge sensation in the 30's and 40's; an equal to the more famous now Benny Goodman. He sold more than a hundred million records. He brought along talent like Billie Holiday, Mel Torme, Buddy Rich, and Ray Conniff. He also played classical music with Leonard Bernstein. In this movie, he plays "Concerto for Clarinet". This film also brought him 2 Oscar nominations, one for Best Score and one for Best Song ("Love of my Life").Astaire once called this the "worst movie I ever made" and for him, that's true. But it's great to see Shaw play, and how he could play! Shaw admired Astaire but said he was a tireless worker, the opposite of the kind of debonair image he presented in top hat and tails.

Even for a Fred Astaire film, this movie had a ridiculous plot. At 41 years of age, we are meant to believe that Fred is a perennial college student in his mid-twenties, who has just graduated and is vying with his ex-room-mate (Burgess Meredith) both for a job with Artie Shaw's band and the affections of Paulette Goddard.The songs are few and far between, and (with the exception of "Poor Mr. Chislom") not very good. Even more surprising, there is virtually no dancing -- with more scenes, instead, focusing on Astaire doing a very bad mime of playing the trumpet.The characters all come across as selfish, and things which are meant to be viewed as harmless pranks appear nasty and needlessly hurtful. By the end of the movie, you have not developed a level of empathy for any of them -- except perhaps for Paulette Goddard, who really shines in this movie as a great comic actress and foil for much of the movie. See it for her role, but most of Astaire's other movies are much better.