{"id":39891,"date":"2023-05-26T19:08:03","date_gmt":"2023-05-26T23:08:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=39891"},"modified":"2023-05-26T19:11:10","modified_gmt":"2023-05-26T23:11:10","slug":"the-bootleg-files-second-chorus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2023\/05\/26\/the-bootleg-files-second-chorus\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: Second Chorus"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 832:<\/strong> \u201cSecond Chorus\u201d (1940 musical comedy with Fred Astaire, Paulette Goddard and Burgess Meredith). <\/p>\n

LAST SEEN:<\/strong> On YouTube.
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\nAMERICAN HOME VIDEO:<\/strong> On public domain labels.<\/p>\n

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS:<\/strong> A lapsed copyright.
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\nCHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE:<\/strong> Not likely, although in theory there could be a rescue it from public domain hell.<\/p>\n

In 1968, Fred Astaire returned to films after a six-year absence to star in the big-budget musical \u201cFinian\u2019s Rainbow.\u201d In the media push for the film, Astaire was asked by a reporter which one of his film\u2019s was his worst \u2013 the star stated without pause that the 1940 \u201cSecond Chorus\u201d was the low point of his career.
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In retrospect, one could argue that Astaire spoke too soon. \u201cFinian\u2019s Rainbow\u201d was an erratic endeavor with a young Francis Ford Coppola (in his first big-budget Hollywood movie) creating reverse alchemy in spinning 70mm lead from Broadway gold. \u201cSecond Chorus,\u201d in comparison, was a modest but forgettable film that emerged as a mild distraction instead of the attention-grabbing hit it should have been.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecond Chorus\u201d certainly had a lot going for it. Besides Astaire, the cast included Paulette Goddard (who almost snagged the Scarlett O\u2019Hara role in \u201cGone with the Wind\u201d and was on a career upswing), Burgess Meredith and bandleader Artie Shaw. Behind the camera was director H.C. Potter \u2013 who would follow up this film with the surrealist comedy masterpiece \u201cHellzapoppin\u2019\u201d \u2013 and choreographer Hermes Pan. Producing the film was Boris Morros, a mysterious Russian-born character who transitioned from being a musical director to producing the Laurel and Hardy comedy \u201cThe Flying Deuces\u201d in 1939. Morros took on \u201cSecond Chorus\u201d as an independent endeavor for release by Paramount Pictures.<\/p>\n

So, what went wrong? \u201cSecond Chorus\u201d wasn\u2019t supposed to be a musical comedy. According to Artie Shaw biographer John White, the film\u2019s script was written with the decidedly non-musical John Garfield as its leading man, but Morros wanted to helm an Astaire vehicle and the script was rewritten to accommodate him.<\/p>\n

But even by the low standards of the 1940s musical comedy, the story for \u201cSecond Chorus\u201d was absurd. Astaire and Meredith play college students who repeatedly flunk each semester but stay in school so they can perform in a college band \u2013 Astaire was 41 and Meredith was 33 when the film was made, and they clearly look their ages. During one of their band performances, a pretty audience member (Paulette Goddard) catches their attention \u2013 only to serve them with a summons notice to collect a debt for an encyclopedia set they never paid for.<\/p>\n

Through a series of twists and turns that could only exist in the world of musical comedy, Astaire and Meredith get Goddard fired from her job and hire her to be their manager. She is so good at booking their band that Artie Shaw is concerned that he is losing gigs to this unlikely group \u2013 so Shaw hires her. But when she tries to get Astaire and Meredith jobs with Shaw, they sabotage each other\u2019s efforts \u2013 and the remainder of the film finds them trying to get into Shaw\u2019s good graces and to win Goddard\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n

On its own terms, \u201cSecond Chorus\u201d is a standard-issue entertainment that was churned out back in the day \u2013 a happy distraction with some tunes and laughs that filled the gap between the newsreel and the second feature. The problem with the film \u2013 and one reason why it is not fondly recalled today \u2013 is because of Astaire. After coming off a skein of champagne and caviar features at RKO opposite Ginger Rogers, \u201cSecond Chorus\u201d feels like a soda pop and pretzels offering. You expect better from Astaire, but he rarely has the chance to go full-throttle here.<\/p>\n

The relatively few dance numbers in \u201cSecond Chorus\u201d are not memorable. Astaire and Goddard did one dance number together, even though she was not a dancer. Goddard would recall she rehearsed five weeks for a mix of then-trendy dance moves under the song \u201c”I Ain’t Hep to That Step But I’ll Dig It\u201d \u2013 and their number was captured in a single take on the first go-round. Astaire dialed down much of his dance power so as not to overpower Goddard, a graceful act that he would repeat several times later in his career with female performers who did not rise to his level.<\/p>\n

Astaire\u2019s two other dance numbers included the mock-Russian \u201cKamarinskaya\u201d where did Cossack-style moves and sang in Russian \u2013 actually, Morros dubbed his Russian lyrics, marking the only time that Astaire\u2019s singing was dubbed. Astaire also danced while conducting Shaw\u2019s band in the climactic \u201cConcerto for Clarinet,\u201d which might have been one of his most uninspired dance numbers. A fourth dance number called \u201cMe and the Ghost Upstairs,\u201d where Hermes Pan wore a white sheet to dance with Astaire, was cut from the film, although the footage miraculously survives \u2013 and when watching it, you can see why this uninspired and silly interlude was scissored out.<\/p>\n

Astaire wasn\u2019t the only one unhappy with \u201cSecond Chorus\u201d \u2013 Artie Shaw thought the film was going to launch him into an acting career, but the script changed against his favor and he had a dismal relationship with director Potter. As a result, Shaw never acted in films after \u201cSecond Chorus.\u201d The only ones who seemed to come away from \u201cSecond Chorus\u201d happy were Goddard and Meredith \u2013 they married in 1944 but divorced five years later.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecond Chorus\u201d snagged two Oscar nominations \u2013 for the song \u201cLove of My Life\u201d by Shaw and Johnny Mercer and for Best Scoring by Shaw \u2013 but did not win in either category. Morros would later be exposed as a double agent who was initially employed by Stalin\u2019s KGB but later joined J. Edgar Hoover\u2019s FBI to spy on his Moscow comrades, and that was funnier than anything that passed for humor in his films.<\/p>\n

As for \u201cSecond Chorus,\u201d Paramount would later license the film to low-rent Astor Pictures for a theatrical re-release and ultimately forget to renew its copyright in 1968 \u2013 the year of \u201cFinian\u2019s Rainbow\u201d \u2013 thus dooming the movie to the public domain, where it circulated for years in lousy prints (mostly from the Astor re-release). The film could be saved from this state if the copyright owners of Shaw\u2019s music score stood up for their material. But this has yet to happen.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re curious, you can find \u201cSecond Chorus\u201d on YouTube or a multitude of public domain DVD labels. There are worse ways to spend your time\u2026and, yes, there are also better ways.<\/p>\n