{"id":31962,"date":"2019-09-30T00:32:09","date_gmt":"2019-09-30T04:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=31962"},"modified":"2020-05-26T22:51:32","modified_gmt":"2020-05-27T02:51:32","slug":"swing-time-1936-criterion-collection-blu-ray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2019\/09\/30\/swing-time-1936-criterion-collection-blu-ray\/","title":{"rendered":"Swing Time (1936): Criterion Collection [Blu-Ray]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers was an absolutely peerless pair of brilliant dancers that didn\u2019t just inject chemistry on the dance floor, but also as a romantic pairing. Whether they were swooning over one another, or tap dancing in sync, it\u2019s impossible not to be caught up in \u201cSwing Time.\u201d George Stevens\u2019 classic romance comedy and musical takes the pairing as mismatched strangers that fall in love over the art of dance and their performances that look effortless but actually act as their own characters.<\/p>\n

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Risk-taker Lucky Garnett (Fred Astaire) pursues dancing and gambling with equal passion. Engaged to the pretty Margaret Watson (Betty Furness), Lucky gets pre-wedding nerves, which leads to the ceremony being called off by her wealthy father. Margaret’s father decides that Lucky can have a second chance at marrying her if he can make $25,000, so he heads to New York City to seek his fortune. When Lucky meets the beautiful dance teacher Penny Carroll (Ginger Rogers), however, his priorities soon change when they realize they share a love of dance and performing.<\/p>\n

\u201cSwing Time\u201d is a deceptively simple romance comedy that takes Fred and Ginger and sweeps them up in endless courting that\u2019s surprisingly charming. Their mostly chaste romance is emphasized through their dancing and how they\u2019re able to seemingly read each other\u2019s minds whenever committing to a dance move. The pair moves fluidly through scene to scene, especially through their first dance number \u201cPick Yourself Up\u201d where they seek to impress Penny\u2019s boss. It\u2019s a joy watching the twosome grab a hold of the audience every single time they dance, and it becomes a wonder Ginger Rogers is able to match Fred Astaire every single beat in high heels. Hell, Astaire makes even stumbling and falling down on his bottom look absolutely graceful and slick.<\/p>\n

Despite the run time, \u201cSwing Time\u201d works as a brisk pace revolving around a romance involving status, embracing your passion, and staying true to yourself. Sadly, the film is almost instantly negated by the finale\u2019s big number with Lucky donning black face for a minstrel dance number \u201cBojangles of Harlem.\u201d Despite the number including one of Astaire\u2019s most famous sequences where he dances with shadows, the sight of Astaire using the awful props as a means of \u201cpaying tribute to Bill Bojangles Robinson distracts from the intent. Even in its context of the period in which it was filmed. \u201cSwing Time\u201d is a very good romance comedy musical nevertheless in spite of the narrative taking a back seat almost immediately. But for fans of Astaire and Rogers, it serves its function as a classic bit of dance and music.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Presented in the Criterion Edition of \u201cSwing Time\u201d are two excerpts of an interview with Ginger Rogers<\/strong> as she recalls being discovered, her professional relationship with Fred Astaire, and the films they made together. Interview two explores her views on George Steven\u2019s working methods. Both interviews clock in at almost thirty minutes total. \u201cIn Full Swing\u201d<\/strong> is a new program with Jazz critic Garry Giddins, dance critic Brian Seiberg, and Dorothy Field\u2019s biographer Deborah Grace Winer all of whom discuss the excellent choreography in the film, the musical numbers and the chemistry between the stars. Produced exclusively for Criterion in 2019, this clocks in at forty one minutes.<\/p>\n

In an interview with George Stevens Jr.,<\/strong> conducted exclusively for Criterion, the founder of the American Film Institute and son of the famous director discusses his father\u2019s career and legacy. There is a two minute archival segment with Fred Astaire<\/strong>, as conducted by George Steven Jr. in 1982. There are two more archival segments with Astaire<\/strong>, one with cinematographer Hermes Pan by Stevens Jr. in 1982, and another nine minute interview with film scholar Mia Mask who discusses the infamous blackface number with \u201cBojangles of Harlem.\u201d Finally, there\u2019s an archival audio commentary with John Mueller author of \u201cAshtray Dancing: The Musical Films,\u201d<\/strong> conducted in 1986. The Criterion case comes with an illustrated leaflet<\/strong> along with an essay by critic Imogen Sara Smith, as well as technical credits.<\/p>\n