You Were Never Lovelier (1942)

Love sure is complicated in You Were Never Lovelier.

Robert Davis (Fred Astaire) heads to Buenes Aires. A gambling man, he puts his cash on a horse that barely shows up to race.

Wanting work, he tries to meet hotel owner Eduardo Acuna (Adolphe Menjou). Davis already has an in. He knows hotel band leader Xavier Cugat (playing himself). The hoofer finds a friendly face with Acuna's secretary, Fernando (Gus Schilling), but can't stir Eduardo's interest.

The businessman has his own troubles. One daughter is married, but the next, Maria (Rita Hayworth), isn't interested in any suitors. That distresses sisters Cecy (Leslie Brooks) and Lita (Adele Mara) who are eager to tie the knot. Pops decides to pique Maria's interest by writing a series of notes from a secret admirer. Davis, still looking for work, gets himself involved in the masquerade. The aura of mystery from her would-be suitor intrigues Maria. She gave Davis the brush off before because of some poor choices on his part ("I opened my mouth too wide and kept it open too long."), but is now interested when it looks like he's the one who's pitching woo. "I'm beginning to wonder what he's like," she suggests.

Davis warms to his assignment, but finds himself at the mercy of Eduardo who's less than keen to see his daughter pair off with him.

Hayworth looks divine. Fred works his magic on the dance floor. Menjou gets plenty of great lines dissing others, mainly Davis and the often fired Fernando. "You're as beautiful as ever," he tells his wife Delfina (Barbara Brown). "It just takes longer now."

You Were Never Lovelier is light, pleasant fare.

RATING: 7.5/10

FUN FACTS: William Seiter also directed Astaire in 1935's Roberta.

Leslie Brooks was a chorus girl in Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Gus Schilling was also in Citizen Kane and Touch of Evil.

You Were Never Lovelier was nominated for three Oscars - best song, recording and score.

Funny Face (1957)

Audrey Hepburn dazzles.

Fred Astaire shines.

But the romance that's at the heart of Funny Face
is a joke.

This 1957 feature from American director Stanley Donen (Singin' in the Rain) earned four Oscar nominations. Three make absolute sense - cinematography, art direction and costume design. The writing award makes no sense.



Funny Face
stands out because of its impressive cinematography. Kudos to Ray June (Horse Feathers, Houseboat), who died a year after this film was released.

Hepburn is radiant as bookstore employee Jo Stockton who becomes the new face of Quality magazine for women. Dick Avery (Fred Astaire) is the photographer who discovers her for editor Maggie Prescott (a very good Kay Thompson).

Maggie and Dick fall in love. Ewww. There's a 30-year difference between the stars. That's an issue for this film fan.

Plus, Funny Face spends too much time on a really dumb subplot that has Maggie trying to talk philosophy with a professor, Emile Floste (Michael Auclair). Dick, besides not being keen on seeing another man vie for Maggie's attention, figures the academic really wants to make a move on her rather than share intellectual thoughts. "He's more man than philosopher," Dick suggests.

Watch Funny Face for June's work, especially scenes shot outside a church and some great song and dance numbers. Pardon lines such as "You're a cutie with more than beauty." Shot in high fidelity in VistaVision.

RATING: 7/10

FUN FACTS: Kay Thompson only made four films. She's the godmother of Liza Minelli and created the Eloise series for young readers.

Director Stanley Donen helmed several musicals in the 1950s including Singin' in the Rain and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. He's still alive at the time of this writing.

Easter Parade (1948)

Easter Parade doesn't lay an egg, but it's not all it's cracked up to be either.

My beef with this 1948 effort from director Charles Walters (High Society, Please Don't Eat the Daisies)?

True romance is hard to find.

Dancer Don Hewes (Fred Astaire) loves his partner Nadine Hall (Ann Miller). But she wants to go solo. End of relationship.

Hewes decides he'll transform chorus girl Hannah Brown (Judy Garland) into his new partner. She falls for him, but why? Hewes makes all the decisions for their act. Her input is nil. His focus is work, work, work. Hey, the guy can dance, but he's not the type to cuddle up on a couch after a show. Hannah's right when she tells him, "You're nothing but a pair of dancing shoes."

Hewes' buddy, Jonathan Harrow (Peter Lawford), is smitten with Brown, but he also has an interest in Nadine. Why? Brown isn't interested in the one guy who's showing her some affection. What's up with these people?

Dance numbers that truly impress are limited. Astaire's Drum Crazy dazzles in the film's early going. Miller is very fine with her solo, Shakin' the Blues Away.

Some of this film's best moments come from its supporting players. Kudos to Clinton Sundberg as Mike the Bartender, a barkeep who has heard plenty about relationships gone wrong. "This place is like a clinic," he tells Hewes about his workplace. That scene also gives Astaire his best line in the film. Reeling after getting the heave-ho from Miller's Nadine, he asks Mike, "Can you drown a brunette in this (drink)?"

Richard Beavers sounds great with one of Easter Parade's last numbers, The Girl on the Magazine Cover. He only made six films between 1946 and 1954. What happened there?

Finally, Jules Munshin has some fun as Headwaiter Francois, the swanky restaurant worker who keeps seating Hewes, Brown and company, but they never stick around long enough to eat. His description of his salad is a treat.

Easter Parade looks great. It's filmed in Technicolor. But where's the warmth? Not here I'm afraid.

RATING: 6/10

FUN FACTS: Easter Parade won an Oscar for best score. Thank you for the songs, Irving Berlin.

I keep finding actors who appeared in Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood. Add Ann Miller to the list. Her last credit was Mulholland Drive in 2001.

Jimmy Bates is the young lad who doesn't want to give up a stuffed rabbit to Fred Astaire in a toy shop. He also appeared in Singin' In the Rain.

Holiday Inn (1942)

Now this is more like it.

Christmas in Connecticut and It Happened on Fifth Avenue were OK Christmas films, but definitely don't deserve to be called classics.

Holiday Inn doesn't rank alongside It's a Wonderful World either, but it's definitely closer in quality to Frank Capra's fine 1946 effort than those other two films recently reviewed on this site.

Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire only made two films together - Holiday Inn and Blue Skies four years later. There's one good reason right off the bat to give this film a look. Bing sings plenty and Astaire is a treat to watch on the dance floor - especially on an Independence Day routine with firecrackers as props. Wow, this guy is smooth.

Here, Astaire playing dancer (what else?) Ted Hanover, is a cad. He wants to share the stage with top-notch female talent. If that hurts Jim Hardy (Bing Crosby), too bad.

Hardy and Hanover are a team when the film opens on Christmas Eve.

"This is our last night in show business," Hardy suggests. He wants out of the constant grind of performing. His plan - buy an inn in Connecticut and only perform on holidays. "I want to be lazy," he declares. Maybe no one has told him how much work the average entrepreneur faces. Hardy plans to settle down with Lila Dixon (Virginia Dale), who's also part of the act. It's too bad it's Hanover she wants to find under the misiletoe for the rest of her life.

Hardy's heart bounces back soon enough when he meets Linda Mason (Marjorie Reynolds), a young lady with a fine voice and dancing talent. She's keen to work at Holiday Inn to start her career. When Lila ditches Ted for a better half with lots of cash, the smooth as silk hoofer goes on a major bender and makes his way to Holiday Inn. He and Linda are a hit on the dance floor, but he's so smashed he remembers little of the great talent he cut a rug with. "I've got to have a partner," he vows. His agent, Danny Reed (Walter Abel), joins in the search for the mystery woman.

Hardy, who has already been burned by Hanover once in matters of the heart, does his darndest to keep Linda away from Ted. His ploy works - for a while.

Seeing Crosby sing and Astaire dance is reason enough to watch this film. Plus, Bing sings White Christmas. White Christmas! That would be the biggest selling single for decades until Elton John's retake on Candle in the Wind paying tribute to Princess Diana in the late 1990s.

It's unsettling to see Crosby and Dale put on blackface for a song and dance number saluting Abraham Lincoln. Blame that on the times of racial inequality in the United States. Blackface would be gone by the 1960s.

The film's finale is a treat - an acknowledgement of Hollywood's world of make believe. Is actual director Mark Sandrich seen among the crew preparing for a movie's climatic scene? Another nice touch - Bing and Fred reprise the film's first song, updated to reflect how their ways with the ladies have gone.

Holiday Inn. Great cast. Fine music and dance. Now this is how the holidays should be spent.

RATING: 8/10

FUN FACTS: Character actor Irving Bacon has some fun as Gus, a taxi driver who ferries Linda Mason to Holiday Inn. He appeared in more than 500 films and television shows including Gone With the Wind and Shadow of a Doubt .