Fred Astaire

  • Mark Sandrich – Carefree (1938)

    1931-1940ComedyMark SandrichMusicalUSA

    Synopsis:
    Stephen Arden (Ralph Bellamy) benefits so much from his psychiatrist pal Tony Flagg’s drinking cure that he sends his fiancée Amanda Cooper to see Tony in hopes that she can be ‘cured’ of her reluctance to get married. Tony falls fast in love with Amanda but has a tough pursuit when she overhears him on a voice recording calling all females idiots. Tony’s hypnosis treatments gets out of hand when Amanda repeatedly leaves the sessions in an unconscious Ego-at-the-wheel state. The first time out she enjoys a destructive rampage on the city streets. Read More »

  • Stuart Heisler & Mark Sandrich – Blue Skies (1946)

    1941-1950ClassicsMark SandrichMusicalStuart HeislerUSA

    Jed Potter looks back on a love triangle conducted over the course of years and between musical numbers. Dancer Jed loves showgirl Mary, who loves compulsive nightclub-opener Johnny, who can’t stay committed to anything in life for very long.Read More »

  • Mark Sandrich – Top Hat (1935)

    1931-1940ClassicsMark SandrichMusicalUSA

    Synopsis:
    Showman Jerry Travers is working for producer Horace Hardwick in London. Jerry demonstrates his new dance steps late one night in Horace’s hotel, much to the annoyance of sleeping Dale Tremont below. She goes upstairs to complain and the two are immediately attracted to each other. Complications arise when Dale mistakes Jerry for Horace.Read More »

  • Mark Sandrich – Holiday Inn (1942)

    1941-1950ComedyMark SandrichMusicalUSA

    Synopsis:
    Lovely Linda Mason has crooner Jim Hardy head over heels, but suave stepper Ted Hanover wants her for his new dance partner after femme fatale Lila Dixon gives him the brush. Jim’s supper club, Holiday Inn, is the setting for the chase by Hanover and manager Danny Reed. The music’s the thing.Read More »

  • Vincente Minnelli – The Band Wagon (1953)

    USA1951-1960ClassicsMusicalVincente Minnelli

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    “In Sight and Sound’s 2002 poll of the ten best films ever made, one musical made the list: Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly’s Singin’ in the Rain (1952). Without denying that film’s considerable charm, a musical released a year later (which failed to receive a single vote in Sight and Sound’s survey) may be worthier of similar hyperbolic citations: The Band Wagon. The films share several points of contact: both are backstage musicals built around songbook catalogues and produced for MGM by Arthur Freed; both have witty screenplays by Betty Comden and Adolph Green; and both feature important roles for Cyd Charisse. One may also see both films as primary examples of what André Bazin called the “genius” of the Hollywood system, in which great films are produced less through a single auteur than through a group of talented individuals working collectively with the sophisticated technical resources of a major studio while simultaneously drawing upon the rich traditions and forms of American popular culture.”Read More »

  • Vincente Minnelli – Yolanda and the Thief (1945)

    1941-1950FantasyMusicalUSAVincente Minnelli

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Plot: Johnny Riggs, a con man on the lam, finds himself in a Latin-American country named Patria. There, he overhears a convent-bred rich girl praying to her guardian angel for help in managing her tangled business affairs. Riggs decides to materialize as the girl’s “angel”, gains her unquestioning confidence, and helps himself to the deluded girl’s millions. Just as he and his partner are about to flee Patria with their booty, Riggs realizes he has fallen in love with the girl and returns the money, together with a note that is part confession and part love letter. But the larcenous duo’s escape from Patria turns out to be more difficult than they could ever have imagined. Written by Dan NavarroRead More »

  • Stanley Kramer – On the Beach (1959)

    1951-1960DramaStanley KramerUSAWar


    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    In 1964, nuclear war wipes out humanity in the northern hemisphere; one American submarine finds temporary safe haven in Australia, where life-as-usual covers growing despair. In denial about the loss of his wife and children in the holocaust, American Captain Towers meets careworn but gorgeous Moira Davidson, who begins to fall for him. The sub returns after reconnaissance a month (or less) before the end; will Towers and Moira find comfort with each other?Read More »

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