Blue Skies ***½ (1946, Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Joan Caulfield) – Classic Movie Review 4365

Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby both pursue Joan Caulfield in Paramount’s likeable, if run-of-the-mill 1946 Technicolor backstage musical Blue Skies, lifted up high by 22 Irving Berlin songs. Everyone who loves vintage musicals will be in seventh heaven when Astaire astoundingly taps out Puttin’ on the Ritz, Crosby croons the iconic White Christmas, and the duo memorably perform A Couple of Song and Dance Men.

Fred Astaire and a chorus of Astaires in Puttin’ on the Ritz in Blue Skies.

Blue Skies was billed as ‘Astaire’s last picture’ as he decided at 47 that this would be his final film and that he would retire, dissatisfied with roles relegated to playing second fiddle to the lead and saying he was ‘tired and running out of gas’. However, it is most remembered for Astaire’s celebrated solo performance of Puttin’ on the Ritz, featuring Astaire leading an entire dance line of Astaires.

With most of the songs recycled from his earlier works, Berlin also came up with the idea for the creaky love triangle storyline about a chorus girl called Mary (Caulfield) who weds and divorces nightclub boss Johnny (Crosby), then breaks her engagement to dancer Jed (Astaire). So what if co-star Caulfield is a trifle dull as the showgirl who comes between the two men, and that the whole shakily constructed movie doesn’t really amount to the sum of its superlative parts? It’s a good show anyway.

Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby in Blue Skies (1946).

Blue Skies provided effervescent Forties escapism for audiences just after World War Two just when they needed it most, and it is still entertaining now. It is just crammed with the cream of Berlin’s song list, including (of course) Blue Skies, ‘You’d Be Surprised’, All by Myself, A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody, How Deep Is the Ocean?, Heat Wave and ‘You Keep Coming Back Like a Song’, while naturally Fred and Bing are simply the classiest and the best – and they show it here. It was Paramount’s biggest hit of 1946, greatly pleasing Astaire, as he wanted to go out on a high note.

Stuart Heisler took over the direction on Mark Sandrich’s sudden death of a heart attack. Tap dancer Paul Draper was to partner Crosby but during the first week of production his speech impediment and his criticism of Caulfield’s dancing abilities led Crosby to replace him with Astaire. Paramount pulled Caulfield out of the film, but changed their minds and put her back in.

Astaire was assisted by choreographers Hermes Pan and Dave Robel (for the Puttin’ on the Ritz routine).

Also in the cast are Billy De Wolfe, Olga San Juan, Robert Benchley, Frank Faylen, Victoria Horne, Jack Norton, Mikhail Rasumny and Karolyn Grimes.

It is the second time Berlin’s 1942 song White Christmas is used in a film, following Holiday Inn (1942), and of course it was used again in the 1954 film White Christmas. Crosby’s version sung is the world’s best-selling single, with estimated sales of more than 50 million worldwide.

When Astaire announced that he was retiring after this film, New York’s Paramount Theater got together a petition of 10,000 names to reconsider retirement, which he did when Gene Kelly broke an ankle filming Easter Parade (1948).

Clark Gable sings and dances Irving Berlin’s ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’ in Idiot’s Delight (1939), more famous in Fred Astaire’s incarnation in Blue Skies or in Peter Boyle’s from Young Frankenstein (1974).

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4365

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