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The Barkleys of Broadway |  | Directors: Charles Walters, Edward L. Cahn, Tex Avery
Actors: Bill Thompson, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Oscar Levant, Billie Burke
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
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Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 19986
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dubbed, DVD, Original recording remastered, Subtitled, NTSC
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), French (Dubbed)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 109 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: WARD67379D
ISBN: 1419807455
UPC: 012569673793
EAN: 9781419807459
ASIN: B0009NSCPS
Theatrical Release Date: May 4, 1949
Release Date: August 16, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A collection of musical films starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
Genre: Musicals
Rating: NR
Release Date: 16-AUG-2005
Media Type: DVD
Amazon.com
The MGM reunion of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, 10 years after their last RKO picture, happened by accident. The Barkleys of Broadway was meant to pair Astaire with Judy Garland as a follow-up to their 1948 hit Easter Parade. Garland, however, had to drop out due to health problems and was replaced by Ginger, who had gone on to a successful career in nonmusical drama and comedy. As it turned out, the plot probably suited Ginger better than it did Garland. Josh and Dinah Barkley are a veteran song-and-dance couple whose routine bickering turns into a complete breakup when Dinah decides she hasn't received enough credit for her talent and leaves Josh to take a straight dramatic role as Sarah Bernhardt. Fred and Ginger are as charming and comfortable together as a veteran couple should be, but this film is not a return to the RKO days--its elements are trademark MGM: splashy colors, Fred in a gimmicky solo number (playing sorcerer's apprentice to a line of unoccupied shoes), Oscar Levant providing his usual dynamic pianism and acerbic personality, and a score that is at its best when it borrows songs from a previous generation. In fact, Harry Warren, who provided the music for Ira Gershwin's lyrics, was upset that the film's big ballroom number recycled George and Ira Gershwin's "They Can't Take That Away from Me," which Fred and Ginger had introduced (but did not dance to) in 1937's Shall We Dance. Frankly, though, "They Can't Take That Away" not only works well thematically, but is one of the greatest songs ever written for the screen, while Warren's score is merely adequate and unmemorable. All in all, The Barkleys of Broadway is a warm, welcome, and not completely satisfying reunion. Watch it, then watch Swing Time again. --David Horiuchi
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 24
Good finale for Asaire and Rogers. January 23, 2009
hassenfeffer (Hammond, In)
After they appeared in "The Story Of Vernon and Irene Castle", Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers went their seperate ways. Fred went to MGM studios while Ginger stayed a little while longer at RKO (where they made their classic movies together).
Ginger sought out comedies and serious dramatic roles, winning an Oscar for "Kitty Foyle". Fred made several musicals, then retired briefly. "Easter Parade", with Judy Garland, was Fred's comeback. Judy was supposed to be in "The Barkleys of Broadway", but when she dropped out, Ginger stepped in. When it was made in 1949, it was Fred and Ginger's first film together in ten years. It would also be their last.
Josh (Fred) and Dinah (Ginger) Barkley are married stage stars. When Dinah wants to play straight dramatic roles, it leads to the end of their partnership and problems in their marriage. Josh comes up with a scheme to get them back together both personally and professionally.
The smart and witty script was by the husband and wife team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who would go on to write the screenplay for "Singin' in the Rain" three years later.
The highlights are, of course, the production numbers. "My One and Only Highland Fling" is performed by Fred and Ginger wearing kilts. Fred gets a wonderful tap solo, "Shoes With Wings On", in which dozens of shoes come to life and dance by themselves. Silly, yes, but it works.
George and Ira Gershwin's "They Can't Take That Away From Me", which Fred had sung to Ginger in "Shall We Dance", is reprised here. At Ginger's suggestion, they did a dance to it this time, because there was no dance included with it when they did it before. The dance for this version was a lovley one.
This film may seem slow at first, but repeat viewings show how classy, elegant and funny it really is.
The DVD includes a "Making Of" featurette, the trailer, a cute Droopy cartoon,and a forgetable short subject.
Fans of Astaire and Rogers will want to add this to their collection.
 "Going on Maneuvers" December 5, 2008
Earl N. Robinson
My liking of Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers movies is not categoric. I am no lyricist but on occasion once given the cue I was able to anticipate every line to the finale of the some songs of some features. The plots sometimes leave something to be desired--sitting through them. This cinema is much more than their "poetry in motion" outwitting on the dance floor the rest of the movie. That great song of love that is finally urequited captures the vain imagining of the heart, the mirages of the mind. But Astaire's chivalry plants the seed of yet another futurity for the pair in art that was not consummated in life. Truly, "They can't take that away from me."
They Can't They That Away From Them.. October 15, 2008
William Fredrick Cooper (Bronx, New York)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
After a ten year hiatus, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers got together made their tenth and final movie together. Finding Astaire 50 years old, and Rogers, 38, it's the dancing couple's first and only picture together in color, full, saturated Technicolor, no less.
The movie differs from the stars' previous work in that they start out as a bickering married couple. Rogers is tired of being made to feel that Astaire has been her Svengali and craves a serious move. (Kitty Foyle, somebody?) The French climax was a brilliant touch.
Astaire is awesome. The "Shoes With Wings" routine, I feel was only the third best dance scene in the movie. "Bouncing The Blues," an entertaining workout, was incredible! Staccato taps, to stripper-like finish with Rogers concealing their affection with the curtain at dances end, was pure joy. Though not as limber as she was in her youth, Ginger looks athletically muscled, and makes up for the changes over time. Her partner leads with a chemistry only those two know.
But the emotional apex of the film has to be the rhapsodic reprise of "They Can't Take That Away From Me," from "Shall We Dance," on which both Ira and George Gershwin worked. With Breathless artistry and excellent precision, I get chills watching this dance. Watch Ginger and Fred near the end of this closely: Magically mesmerizing, they made love in dance, and you can feel the flames of their passion.
That timeless highlight was the pinnacle of their whole union. My only regret is even after ten movies, they left me wanting more.
Alas, history can't take the magic from their legacy away from me.
William Fredrick Cooper
(Author Of THERE'S ALWAYS A REASON)
Good reunion June 30, 2008
Douglas M
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
"The Barkleys of Broadway" is an excellent vehicle to reunite Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. The merits are excellent colour and the stars themselves, mature and well cast and recreating their magic both in dance and in their obvious warmth and rapport. The drawbacks depend on whether you like MGM musicals or not. For me, the film has that overproduced and pretentious quality which was typical MGM. Oscar Levant is his usual tiresome self and there is one very high camp bit when Rogers recites the "Le Marseillaise" in a bid to demonstrate within the plot that she is a great dramatic actress. It is hard not to laugh.
The print of the film is excellent and there is good choice of variable extras. The short film "Annie was a Wonder" is a sentimental and corny tale of a Swedish girl becoming an American citizen and hard to watch. The cartoon is another MGM dud with Droopy, the dog. The theatrical trailer for the film is included but best of all there is the last part of a series of documentaries about Astaire and Roger's legacy. Astaire's daughter appears and the doco captures all one would possible wish to know about how the reunion occurred.
The DVD is OK value but better if purchased as part of one of the Astaire /Rogers collections.
Why We Loved Them December 15, 2007
Stephanie DePue (Carolina Beach, NC USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"The Barkleys of Broadway," a musical comedy/romance, (postwar, 1949) was, unexpectedly, the tenth and last film Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers made together. It finds Astaire 50 years old, and Rogers, 38, and was made, after a ten-year hiatus, during which they each did their own things, and Rogers won an Oscar for her serious work in "Kitty Foyle." Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios made it, rather than the pair's original studio, Radio Pictures(later RKO). Famed MGM producer Arthur Freed, working in his prestigious music unit, gave it a no-expense spared gloss; it's the dancing couple's first and only picture together in color, full, saturated Technicolor, no less.
The somewhat slow, stagebound script was by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and it is witty: at one point, Astaire says, "I've been sneezing and coughing like a Model T." As is widely known, Astaire, having stepped successfully into the dancing shoes that were meant for Gene Kelly in "Easter Parade," and worked happily with Judy Garland, was expected to reteam with Garland here. But Garland had been fired, she was ill, although she was apparently well enough to show up on the set, without invitation, and harass Rogers, who had been invited to take her part. Most sources say that Comden and Green therefore had to rewrite the part for Rogers. Most sources also point out that the scriptwriters somewhat followed real life, in that Astaire wanted to be the best song and dance man ever, whereas Rogers yearned for the respect given a serious actress, see "Kitty Foyle." However, let's remember that Garland also yearned for the respect given a serious actress, and eventually made "Judgment at Nuremberg," and "A Star Is Born." So whose life were the scriptwriters really thinking about, from the beginning, anyway?
At any rate, this movie differs from the stars' previous work in that they start out already married, (they are quite middle-aged by now) and bickering, rather than courting, and they are portrayed as being already at the height of their careers, enjoying a Broadway hit. They are Josh and Dinah Barkley in this one, and Rogers is tired of being made to feel that Astaire has been her Svengali; she wants a hit of her own, preferably a serious one. The script also differs from their other work in that it provides them with no individual foils. Instead we have the talented piano player and acerbic wit Oscar Levant as their mutual best friend, and Billie Burke in her usual scattered society hostess role. Charles Waters directed; Cedric Gibbons art directed, giving the film its lively look.
Nobody knows quite what to make of Rogers' way over the top, out of the blue, reading of "La Marseillaise." My only theory is that perhaps it was meant as a homage to the then fairly recent wartime "Casablanca." If you can stop crying long enough during that film's "Marseillaise" scene, you'll notice that it, too, is a bit overwrought. However....
The film's original music was composed by the well-known Harry Warren, with lyrics by George Gershwin, (Ira Gershwin had died, shockingly young), and most agree the music's nice, but not up to the dancers' earlier great material. However, the pair get a spirited, entertaining, rhythmic workout to "Bouncing The Blues." Their Scottish "Highland Fling" number is enjoyable. "Manhattan Downbeat" just doesn't work. Astaire's favorite, famed choreographer, Hermes Pan, comes back to work on the big, well-known "Shoes With Wings." But the evocative, emotional highpoint of the film has to be the reprise of "They Can't Take That Away From Me," from "Shall We Dance," on which both Ira and George Gershwin worked. It reminds us of every reason we loved the earlier pictures.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 24
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