Swing Time is a 1936 musical comedy film directed by George Stevens. The film stars Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Victor Moore, and Helen Broderick.
Director: George Stevens
Production Company: RKO Radio Pictures
Distributor: RKO Radio Pictures
Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Victor Moore, Eric Blore, Helen Broderick, Betty Furness, Georges Metaxa
US Box Office: $4,060,000 ($155,400,000 adjusted for inflation)
Film Format: Black & White
Genre: Musical, Comedy
Release Date: August 27, 1936 (premiere)
Plot Summary: Professional dancer and compulsive gambler John “Lucky” Garnett (Fred Astaire) is engaged to Margaret Watson (Betty Furness), but her father will only let Lucky marry her if he becomes respectable and earns $25,000. Lucky and his friend “Pop” Cardetti (Victor Moore) travel to New York City to get the money through gambling. Lucky meets dance instructor Penny Carroll (Ginger Rogers). Although they dislike each other at first, the two become dance partners and eventually fall in love despite Lucky’s initial reluctance due to his prior engagement.
Production: In 1935, executives from RKO Radio Pictures purchased the rights to Erwin S. Gelsey’s comedy screen story “Portrait of John Garnett” to adapt it into a dance-musical for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. RKO producer Pandro S. Berman originally hired Gelsey to adapt his story into a screenplay, though Gelsey was not credited. Howard Lindsay, Allan Scott, and several others wrote the final version of the film’s screenplay. Berman hired Jerome Kern (music) and Dorothy FIelds (lyrics) to compose the film’s songs. Kern and Fields had previously composed music for Astaire and Rogers in Roberta (1934). I Won’t Dance and Never Gonna Dance (after the song) were proposed working titles for the film during development, but RKO’s executives wisely realized that people wouldn’t want to see the film if they didn’t think it had dancing, so the title was changed to Swing Time (another song in the film). Berman chose George Stevens to direct the film. Stevens was under contract with RKO at the time, Swing Time was the first musical he directed, though he had directed several comedies for the studio including The Nitwits (1935) and Kentucky Kernels (1934).
Fred Astaire was cast as Lucky Garnett and Ginger Rogers was cast as Penny Carroll, the two main characters of the film. Swing Time was the sixth musical film to pair the two together (and the fifth in which they were the top-billed stars). Follow the Fleet (1936), another RKO musical starring Astaire and Rogers, was released earlier that year. Betty Furness was cast as Margaret Watson, Lucky’s fiancé. RKO borrowed Furness from MGM. Helen Broderick played Mabel Anderson, Penny’s wisecracking co-worker and friend. She had previously appeared with Astaire and Rogers in Top Hat (1935). Astaire and Kern had disagreements about the musical direction of Swing Time, Kern wanted the all the songs to be performed in the classical style, while Astaire wanted some of the songs to place greater emphasis on modern tap and swing, which Kern refused to do. RKO allowed orchestrator Robert Russell Bennett and Astaire’s pianist Hal Borne to work with Astaire to add “swing” elements to some of the songs.
Shooting on Swing Time began in May of 1936 and went until July. Interior scenes were shot on set at RKO Studios, and several of the exterior scenes were shot outdoors at Paramount Studios. The scene at the train station was filmed on location at La Grande Station in Los Angeles. Astaire and Stevens were both perfectionists when it came to the dance scenes, so Swing Time took longer than usual to be filmed. The dance scene for “Never Gonna Dance” was shot 47 times in one day before Astaire was satisfied, poor Ginger’s feet were bruised and bleeding by the end of shooting. “Bojangles of Harlem” was the last dance scene to be filmed due to the special effects involved. In that scene, Lucky tap dances on stage while three shadows of him dancing are projected onto the stage’s background. The “shadow dance” was shot first with Astaire’s shadow being recorded against a pure white background. Astaire’s foreground dance was performed next in front of a pure white screen and was shot as Astaire watched his first dance (projected behind the camera) in order to perfectly replicate it. The two shots were then edited together. The song was named after black dancer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson and inspired by Astaire’s mentor, black vaudeville dancer John W. Bubbles.
Fun Facts and Trivia: One of the songs written by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields for Swing Time was “It’s Not in the Cards,” which ended up being cut from the film. The opening scene for Swing Time was originally going to feature Fred Astaire performing the song as part of his character’s stage act. The scene was cut for time (and because Stevens didn’t think the song was very good), and the film begins right as Lucky finishes his stage performance. The end of “It’s Not in the Cards” can only be momentarily heard at the start of the first scene, and orchestral parts of the song were later reused as background music.
Swing Time was Ginger Rogers’ favorite film she made with Fred Astaire. Judge Watson is played by Landers Stevens, the father of director George Stevens. Landers Stevens was a silent film star who later had supporting roles as a character actor in many sound films. In the scene featuring the song “The Way You Look Tonight,” Astaire is singing the song while playing the piano as Rogers is washing her hair, which is covered in shampoo for most of the scene. As actual shampoos would run down Roger’s face too quickly while filming (as would soaps), whipped cream was used instead of shampoo!
Reception: Swing Time had its New York City premiere on August 27, 1936. The film went into general release in September. Swing Time was a financial success for RKO and was one of the top ten highest grossing films of the year. It was also one of the top twenty highest grossing films in the United Kingdom that year. Swing Time was released at the height of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers’ popularity as a dance couple, which ensured its success at the box office.
Swing Time received generally positive reviews when it was first released. Abel Green of Variety gave Swing Time a strongly positive review. Green praised the film’s story, music, dancing, and high production values. His only complaint was that the film was too long. Ann Ross of Maclean’s magazine didn’t care for the film’s plot, but she thought that the musical and dance scenes were strong enough to overcome the plot issues. Frank S. Nugent of The New York Times was disappointed in Swing Time‘s musical score, but thought that the film was still an overall enjoyable experience. Joseph Arnold Kaye of Dance Magazine had high praise for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers’ dancing, but thought that the film’s non-musical scenes were just filler.
Swing Time typically receives strongly positive reviews from critics in retrospect. Roger Ebert gave the film a perfect four star rating, and praised the pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Carol Cling of the Los Vegas Review-Journal, Dan Callahan of Slant Magazine, and Ken Hanke of Mountain Xpress also gave Swing Time perfect review scores. Cling in particular argued that Swing Time was one of the best musical films ever made. In 1999, Entertainment Weekly included Swing Time on its list of the top 100 Best Films ever made. The film has been included on several of the American Film Institute’s lists of the greatest American films: it was ranked 90th on their 2007 list of the top 100 best American films, 30th on their 2002 list of the most romantic films, and the song “The Way You Look Tonight” was ranked as the 43rd best film song in 2004. Swing Time was also nominated for AFI’s original 1998 top 100 films list, and for their 2006 list of the top 25 best musicals.
Oscars: Swing Time was nominated for two Oscars at the 9th Academy Award ceremony: Best Song (“The Way You Look Tonight,” with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Dorothy Fields) and Best Dance Direction (Hemres Pan). Kern and Fields won the Oscar for their song “The Way You Look Tonight.” Pan lost the Best Dance Direction Oscar to Seymour Felix for The Great Ziegfeld.
Why You Should See It: Swing Time is a very good musical comedy film. Although he is mostly known today for his drama films, George Stevens did a good job directing Swing Time, the musical scenes are all very well choreographed and well-shot. The songs are fun and memorable, and the dancing is great (as the be expected from an Astaire-Rogers film). I personally really liked “The Way You Look Tonight” and “A Fine Romance.” Swing Time has plenty of funny moments as well. Astaire and Rogers have some good zingers, as does Helen Broderick, but in terms of comedy Victor Moore steals the show. Moore is absolutely hilarious as Pop.