The Barkleys of Broadway
Encyclopedia
The Barkleys of Broadway is a 1949 musical film
from the Arthur Freed
unit at MGM that reunited Fred Astaire
and Ginger Rogers
after ten years apart. Directed by Charles Walters
, the screenplay is by Betty Comden
, Adolph Green
and Sidney Sheldon
, the songs are by Harry Warren
(music) and Ira Gershwin
(lyrics) with the addition of "They Can't Take That Away from Me
" by George
and Ira Gershwin, and the choreography was created by Robert Alton and Hermes Pan
. Also featured in the cast were Oscar Levant
, Billie Burke
, Jacques François and Gale Robbins
.
Rogers came in as a last minute replacement for Judy Garland
, whose frequent absences due to a dependency on prescription medication cost her the role. This turned out to be the last film that Astaire and Rogers made together, and their only film together in color. Many critics at the time remarked upon Rogers' changed figure, noting that the elfin girl of the 30's had made way for a sturdy, athletic woman.
and Ginger Rogers
) are a husband-and-wife musical comedy team at the peak of their careers, but when serious French playwright Jacques Pierre Barredout (Jacques François) suggests that Dinah should take up dramatic acting, it eventually splits the couple up. Their good friend, acerbic composer Ezra Miller (Oscar Levant
) tries to trick them back together again, but fails. When Josh secretly watches Dinah's rehearsals for Barredout's new play and sees how she is struggling, he calls her up and pretends to be the Frenchman, giving her notes that help her to understand her part, the young Sara Bernhardt. Dinah gives a brilliant performance, and she accidentally learns that her late-night mentor was Josh and not Barredout, opening the way for their reconciliation as a couple and their return to the stage as a team.
Cast notes
in the lead role opposite Fred Astaire, a repeat of their pairing in Easter Parade. In fact, producer Arthur Freed
had Comden
and Green
working on the script for the new film even before Easter Parade was finished. The film went into rehearsals with Garland, but it was soon clear that she would not be physically and emotionally able to do it. Freed contacted Ginger Rogers to see if she was interested in reuniting with Astaire: there had been rumors, denied by both, that the Astaire-Rogers working relationship was frosty, and they had not worked together since The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle
in 1939. Rogers was interested, and The Barkleys of Broadway became their tenth and final film together, and their only color film together.
The production period was from 8 August through 30 October 1948, with some additional work on 28 December. The Technicolor process was still relatively new at the time, and required very bright lights which were uncomfortable to work under. While the film was in production, Fred Astaire won an honorary Academy Award for "his unique artistry and his contributions to the technique of musical pictures," presented to him at the awards ceremony by Ginger Rogers.
The Barkleys of Broadway premiered in New York on 4 May 1949 and went into general American release shortly after.
Three other Harry Warren-Ira Gershwin songs were intended for the film but never used: "The Courtin' of Elmer and Ella," "Natchez on the Mississippi," and "Poetry in Motion."
A radio version of the film was broadcast on 1 January 1951 as an episode of the Lux Radio Theatre, with Ginger Rogers reprising the role of Dinah Barkley, and George Murphy
playing her husband and partner Josh.
Sr. was nominated for a 1950 Academy Award for Best Color Cinematography, and writers Comden
and Green
were nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award
for Best Written American Musical.
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
from the Arthur Freed
Arthur Freed
Arthur Freed was born Arthur Grossman in Charleston, South Carolina. He was a Jewish American lyricist and a Hollywood film producer.- Biography :Freed began his career as a song-plugger and pianist in Chicago...
unit at MGM that reunited Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
and Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....
after ten years apart. Directed by Charles Walters
Charles Walters
Charles Walters was a Hollywood director and choreographer most noted for his work in MGM musicals and comedies in from the 1940s to the 1960s....
, the screenplay is by Betty Comden
Betty Comden
Betty Comden was one-half of the musical-comedy duo Comden and Green, who provided lyrics, libretti, and screenplays to some of the most beloved and successful Hollywood musicals and Broadway shows of the mid-20th century...
, Adolph Green
Adolph Green
Adolph Green was an American lyricist and playwright who, with long-time collaborator Betty Comden, penned the screenplays and songs for some of the most beloved movie musicals, particularly as part of Arthur Freed's production unit at MGM, during the genre's heyday...
and Sidney Sheldon
Sidney Sheldon
Sidney Sheldon was an Academy Award-winning American writer. His TV works spanned a 20-year period during which he created The Patty Duke Show , I Dream of Jeannie and Hart to Hart , but he became most famous after he turned 50 and began writing best-selling novels such as Master of the Game ,...
, the songs are by Harry Warren
Harry Warren
Harry Warren was an American composer and lyricist. Warren was the first major American songwriter to write primarily for film. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song eleven times and won three Oscars for composing "Lullaby of Broadway", "You'll Never Know" and "On the Atchison,...
(music) and Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century....
(lyrics) with the addition of "They Can't Take That Away from Me
They Can't Take That Away from Me
"They Can't Take That Away from Me" is a 1937 song written by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin and introduced by Fred Astaire in the 1937 film Shall We Dance....
" by George
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
and Ira Gershwin, and the choreography was created by Robert Alton and Hermes Pan
Hermes Pan (choreographer)
Hermes Pan was an American dancer and choreographer, principally celebrated as Fred Astaire's choreographic collaborator on the famous 1930s movie musicals starring Astaire and Ginger Rogers.-Early life:...
. Also featured in the cast were Oscar Levant
Oscar Levant
Oscar Levant was an American pianist, composer, author, comedian, and actor. He was more famous for his mordant character and witticisms, on the radio and in movies and television, than for his music.-Life and career:...
, Billie Burke
Billie Burke
Mary William Ethelbert Appleton "Billie" Burke was an American actress. She is primarily known to modern audiences as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in the musical film The Wizard of Oz. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as Emily Kilbourne in Merrily We Live...
, Jacques François and Gale Robbins
Gale Robbins
Gale Robbins was an American actress and singer.Born in Indiana, Robbins graduated from high school in June 1939 and began her career with the Phil Levant band in 1940...
.
Rogers came in as a last minute replacement for Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
, whose frequent absences due to a dependency on prescription medication cost her the role. This turned out to be the last film that Astaire and Rogers made together, and their only film together in color. Many critics at the time remarked upon Rogers' changed figure, noting that the elfin girl of the 30's had made way for a sturdy, athletic woman.
Plot
Josh and Dinah Barkley (Fred AstaireFred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
and Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....
) are a husband-and-wife musical comedy team at the peak of their careers, but when serious French playwright Jacques Pierre Barredout (Jacques François) suggests that Dinah should take up dramatic acting, it eventually splits the couple up. Their good friend, acerbic composer Ezra Miller (Oscar Levant
Oscar Levant
Oscar Levant was an American pianist, composer, author, comedian, and actor. He was more famous for his mordant character and witticisms, on the radio and in movies and television, than for his music.-Life and career:...
) tries to trick them back together again, but fails. When Josh secretly watches Dinah's rehearsals for Barredout's new play and sees how she is struggling, he calls her up and pretends to be the Frenchman, giving her notes that help her to understand her part, the young Sara Bernhardt. Dinah gives a brilliant performance, and she accidentally learns that her late-night mentor was Josh and not Barredout, opening the way for their reconciliation as a couple and their return to the stage as a team.
Cast
- Fred AstaireFred AstaireFred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
as Josh Barkley - Ginger RogersGinger RogersGinger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....
as Dinah Barkley - Oscar LevantOscar LevantOscar Levant was an American pianist, composer, author, comedian, and actor. He was more famous for his mordant character and witticisms, on the radio and in movies and television, than for his music.-Life and career:...
as Ezra Millar - Billie BurkeBillie BurkeMary William Ethelbert Appleton "Billie" Burke was an American actress. She is primarily known to modern audiences as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in the musical film The Wizard of Oz. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as Emily Kilbourne in Merrily We Live...
as Mrs Livingston Belney - Gale RobbinsGale RobbinsGale Robbins was an American actress and singer.Born in Indiana, Robbins graduated from high school in June 1939 and began her career with the Phil Levant band in 1940...
as Shirlene May - Jacques François as Jacques Pierre Barredout
- Clinton SundbergClinton SundbergClinton Sundberg was a stage and film character actor.Sundberg was born in Appleton, Minnesota on December 7, with sources differing on his year of birth...
as Bert Felsher - Inez Copper as Pamela Driscoll
- George ZuccoGeorge ZuccoGeorge Desylla Zucco was an English character actor who appeared, almost always in supporting roles, in 96 films during a career spanning two decades, from 1931 to 1951. He is fondly remembered for his roles in classic horror films.-Early life:Zucco was born in Manchester, England...
as The Judge - Hans ConriedHans ConriedHans Georg Conried, Jr. was an American comedian, character actor and voice actor.-Early years:He was born on April 15, 1917 in Baltimore, Maryland to Hans Georg Conried, Sr. and Edith Beyr Gildersleeve. His mother was a descendant of Pilgrims, and his father was a Jewish immigrant from Vienna,...
as Ladislaus Ladi (uncredited)
Cast notes
- MGM borrowed Jacques François from Universal PicturesUniversal Pictures-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
. Barkleys was his first film in English, and was to be his last American film, although he did two U.K.-based productions. His French film career was extensive: he worked up until his death in 2003.
Production
The Barkleys of Broadway began with the title "You Made Me Love You", and with Judy GarlandJudy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
in the lead role opposite Fred Astaire, a repeat of their pairing in Easter Parade. In fact, producer Arthur Freed
Arthur Freed
Arthur Freed was born Arthur Grossman in Charleston, South Carolina. He was a Jewish American lyricist and a Hollywood film producer.- Biography :Freed began his career as a song-plugger and pianist in Chicago...
had Comden
Betty Comden
Betty Comden was one-half of the musical-comedy duo Comden and Green, who provided lyrics, libretti, and screenplays to some of the most beloved and successful Hollywood musicals and Broadway shows of the mid-20th century...
and Green
Adolph Green
Adolph Green was an American lyricist and playwright who, with long-time collaborator Betty Comden, penned the screenplays and songs for some of the most beloved movie musicals, particularly as part of Arthur Freed's production unit at MGM, during the genre's heyday...
working on the script for the new film even before Easter Parade was finished. The film went into rehearsals with Garland, but it was soon clear that she would not be physically and emotionally able to do it. Freed contacted Ginger Rogers to see if she was interested in reuniting with Astaire: there had been rumors, denied by both, that the Astaire-Rogers working relationship was frosty, and they had not worked together since The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle
The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle
The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle is an American biographical musical comedy, released in 1939 and directed by H.C. Potter. The film stars Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edna May Oliver, and Walter Brennan....
in 1939. Rogers was interested, and The Barkleys of Broadway became their tenth and final film together, and their only color film together.
The production period was from 8 August through 30 October 1948, with some additional work on 28 December. The Technicolor process was still relatively new at the time, and required very bright lights which were uncomfortable to work under. While the film was in production, Fred Astaire won an honorary Academy Award for "his unique artistry and his contributions to the technique of musical pictures," presented to him at the awards ceremony by Ginger Rogers.
The Barkleys of Broadway premiered in New York on 4 May 1949 and went into general American release shortly after.
Songs
- "Swing Trot" - music by Harry WarrenHarry WarrenHarry Warren was an American composer and lyricist. Warren was the first major American songwriter to write primarily for film. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song eleven times and won three Oscars for composing "Lullaby of Broadway", "You'll Never Know" and "On the Atchison,...
and lyrics by Ira GershwinIra GershwinIra Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century....
. Dance critic Arlene Croce called this the best number in the film. Seen through the opening credits, it was released without visual impediment on That's Entertainment IIIThat's Entertainment IIIThat's Entertainment! III is a documentary film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to celebrate the studio's 70th anniversary. It was the third in a series of retrospectives that began with the first That's Entertainment! and That's Entertainment, Part II...
(1997). - "Sabre DanceSabre Dance"The Sabre Dance" is a movement in the final act of the ballet Gayane , written by Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian's and completed in 1942. It evokes a whirling war dance in an Armenian dance, where the dancers display their skill with sabres. Its middle section incorporates an Armenian folk...
" - by Aram KhachaturianAram KhachaturianAram Ilyich Khachaturian was a prominent Soviet composer. Khachaturian's works were often influenced by classical Russian music and Armenian folk music...
, arranged for piano and orchestra, with Oscar Levant at the piano - "You'd be Hard to Replace" - by Harry Warren and Ira Gershwin
- "Bouncin' the Blues" - by Harry Warren
- "My One and Only Highland Fling" - by Harry Warren and Ira Gershwin
- "Weekend in the Country" - by Harry Warren and Ira Gershwin. Performed by Astaire, Rogers and Oscar Levant, whose singing voice can be described as unique.
- "Shoes with Wings On" - by Harry Warren and Ira Gershwin. Fred Astaire performs this number alone, as part of the show that Josh Barkley does by himself. It utilized green screen technology to have Astaire, a cobbler, dance with many pairs of shoes.
- Piano Concerto No. 1 (Tchaikovsky)Piano Concerto No. 1 (Tchaikovsky)The Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23 was composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky between November 1874 and February 1875. It was revised in the summer of 1879 and again in December 1888. The first version received heavy criticism from Nikolai Rubinstein, Tchaikovsky's desired pianist....
, First Movement - Performed by Oscar Levant with full symphony orchestra. - "They Can't Take That Away From MeThey Can't Take That Away from Me"They Can't Take That Away from Me" is a 1937 song written by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin and introduced by Fred Astaire in the 1937 film Shall We Dance....
" - by George GershwinGeorge GershwinGeorge Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
(music) and Ira Gershwin (lyrics). This song was also used in RKO's 1937 Astaire-Rogers film Shall We Dance, where Astaire had sung it to Rogers. Their dance duet here, one of their most effective, was the first time they danced it together. - "Manhattan Down Beat" - by Harry Warren and Ira Gershwin
Three other Harry Warren-Ira Gershwin songs were intended for the film but never used: "The Courtin' of Elmer and Ella," "Natchez on the Mississippi," and "Poetry in Motion."
Response
Critical response to The Barkleys of Broadway was mixed but positive. The film earned $3.2 million in the U.S. and $5.42 million worldwide, compared to its estimated cost of $2,325,420.A radio version of the film was broadcast on 1 January 1951 as an episode of the Lux Radio Theatre, with Ginger Rogers reprising the role of Dinah Barkley, and George Murphy
George Murphy
George Lloyd Murphy was an American dancer, actor, and politician.-Life and career:He was born in New Haven, Connecticut of Irish Catholic extraction, the son of Michael Charles "Mike" Murphy, athletic trainer and coach, and Nora Long. He was educated at Peddie School, Trinity-Pawling School, and...
playing her husband and partner Josh.
Awards and honors
Although the film did not win any awards, it did receive several nominations. Cinematographer Harry StradlingHarry Stradling
Harry Stradling Sr., A.S.C. was an American cinematographer with over 130 films to his credit.His uncle Walter Stradling and son Harry Stradling Jr. were also cinematographers.-Early career:...
Sr. was nominated for a 1950 Academy Award for Best Color Cinematography, and writers Comden
Betty Comden
Betty Comden was one-half of the musical-comedy duo Comden and Green, who provided lyrics, libretti, and screenplays to some of the most beloved and successful Hollywood musicals and Broadway shows of the mid-20th century...
and Green
Adolph Green
Adolph Green was an American lyricist and playwright who, with long-time collaborator Betty Comden, penned the screenplays and songs for some of the most beloved movie musicals, particularly as part of Arthur Freed's production unit at MGM, during the genre's heyday...
were nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award
Writers Guild of America Award
The Writers Guild of America Award for outstanding achievements in film, television, and radio has been presented annually by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America, West since 1949...
for Best Written American Musical.