Wow! Such a good movie.

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

. . . during SWING TIME, he knocks her down three times. Later, during Fred's infamous White Men Can't Dance number, a trio of Black Shadows behind a scrim seem to be Out-Hoofing him. But during a week in which a couple of America's Most Beloved 90-something gentlemen have passed away, seeing a guy Born Old--such as Fred--taking so many falls in SWING TIME sort of puts a lump in your throat. (Specifically, the USA's original "Help, I've fallen in my bathtub and can't get up!" role model--John Glenn--and the Heimlich maneuver dude, who choked to death a few days after Mr. Glenn expired.) One of the Housewives of New Jersey--Arlene--just turned 114, and she's been a widow for 54 years. Another widow, an Italian named Emma, had 117 candles on her birthday cake last summer, and is the only person still alive on Earth who was born in the 1800s (just think of the pressure on HER!). It's kind of sad to think of ladies such as Arlene, Emma and Ginger being left alone for so long, which helps to make SWING TIME so poignant despite all of Fred's pratfalls. Oscar Hammerstein once wrote "What's the Use of Wond'ring If the Ending Will Be Sad?" because it always is.

Even by the standards of Astaire musicals, this story is pretty dumb, with Astaire an engaged gambler who meets and falls for dance teacher Rogers.As usual, there are amusing bit players, most notably Eric Blore, and some good songs, including A Fine Romance and Pick Yourself Up.I always feel I should enjoy Astaire more than I actually do - his tap dance/ballroom style never excited my as much as Gene Kelly's more balletic approach. The best number is the Bojangles one, which is beautifully done but unfortunately, the blackface forces one to ponder the peculiarities of white entertainers pretending to be happy-go- lucky black ones.The movie is likable but gets increasingly nonsensical, moving from satisfyingly silly to annoyingly silly. I don't really think any of it made much sense.Still, if you're an Astaire/Rogers fan, or just a fan of dopey but well done musicals, you should probably check this one out.

A performer and gambler (Fred Astaire) travels to New York City to raise the $25,000 he needs to marry his fiancée, only to become entangled with a beautiful aspiring dancer.At this point in my life I have seen enough musicals and dance films to know that the bulk of them are just so-so or not all that great. The musicals are dated far too easily, and some of the stars (especially Frank Sinatra) just never seem right. That being said, "Swing Time" was a breath of fresh air. No one denies that Astaire is a great dancer. He also happens to be rather funny in this one.My only regret is I feel like Warner Brothers never gives their films the treatment they deserve. This DVD is alright, but it still seems like it is missing something in the way of extras.

While "The Gay Divorcée" and "Top Hat" remain listed on the top of the Astaire/Rogers pairings, I feel that it is "Swing Time" that is their greatest. It starts off winningly with Fred pretending to be a klutz of a dancer so he can get a lesson from the pretty Ginger, resulting in the revealing "Pick Yourself Up" where all of a sudden he breaks into a tap and shows her that he's no clod with two left feet. Their romance is the epitome of what Katharine Hepburn said to describe them: "She gave him sex; he gave her class." Indeed, Fred is an odd looking leading man-extremely skinny with thinning hair and a long face that manages to glow when he smiles. Their romance blooms into a fabulous dance partnership which opens a nightclub, and on the night of their opening, the fiancée (Betty Furness) he forgot to mention shows up. While the plot doesn't sound like much, it is the presentation which makes it a classic. Astaire and Rogers get to sing and dance quite elegantly to the Oscar Winning "The Way You Look Tonight" then spar to "A Fine Romance", one of the great comedy duets ever performed on stage or screen. Astaire puts on black-face in the brilliantly staged "Bojangles of Harlem" which has some brilliant musical cords, and even if the manner in which is presented is quite controversial today, it remains one of his greatest solo numbers. The comedy relief is provided by wise-cracking Helen Broderick (returning from "Top Hat") and Victor Moore, the cutest chubby character actor to make it big on stage and screen. He was already a legend on Broadway when he made this, and the success of this lead to him being given some leading roles in a few "B" programmers, two of which co-starred the wonderful Broderick. When people speak of Eve Arden as the great wise-cracker of the silver screen, they need to remember that Broderick was around before, and while not as glamorous as Arden, she often stole every scene she was in.Add in fussy Eric Blore as the head of the dance agency where Rogers and Broderick worked in the opening segment, and you have a consistently entertaining film which has stood the test of time. A Broadway version of this ("Never Gonna Dance") was underrated when it opened in 2002 and closed quickly; Perhaps fans felt why look for phony Astaire and Rogers when the real thing is easily available. But the show was elegantly staged, and even if unnecessary, provided me with an evening of entertainment that I will never forgot. It's ironic, however, that the supporting characters got the best notices, with former Broadway leading lady Karen Ziemba tossing off sardonic comments in the Broderick role (and receiving a Tony nomination) and Peter Bartlett in the small role that Blore played. To play on the character's obvious feminine traits, the name of the character was changed to "Pangborn" in honor of that hysterically funny portrayer of sissy characters (Franklin Pangborn), and it remained one of the show's highlights. When the leads broke into "The Way You Look Tonight", I could hear a gasp of recognition from the older ladies in the audience, and I knew that if it didn't strike the critics, it certainly won them over.Technically, "Swing Time" is an absolutely perfect film with a great art decco set and quick editing in the musical numbers to make them move rather than just stand still. The costumes are all exceptional, and with the fantastic songs and choreography, everything simply comes together. This is the film where I think that Astaire and Rogers have the best chemistry, and even Moore and Broderick with their major age difference come off romantic as well, certainly no Fred and Ethel Mertz. It is obvious that everybody was having fun, even if the hard work shows, and that makes for one of the very best original movie musicals ever made.