On Monday night I went to see Blue Skies with Dickson, Annie and Sharon, a movie from 1946 (how appropriate for the blog-less Sharon) featuring such greats as Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. The movie was presented at the Royal Alberta Museum by the Edmonton Film Society as part or their Musicals for a Summer Night series.
A nostalgic, loosely-structured musical that follows the rivalry between a dancer and a nightclub owner who love the same woman. The story is bolstered by a string of Irving Berlin numbers. A high spot is “Puttin’ on the Ritz”, a split-screen gem featuring a chorus line of miniature Astaires that took five weeks to achieve.
While I did enjoy the film, I’m not a big fan of musicals. I just don’t understand why they are so (or were so) appealing. “Puttin’ on the Ritz” was definitely an enjoyable sequence, but the one that made the movie for me was both Crosby and Astaire in “A Couple of Song and Dance Men”.
Lots of excellent music to be found in this film, including “White Christmas”. I think the funniest part about this being an old movie for me was that Technicolor was featured so prominently. Hard to imagine that it was such a big deal back in the day!
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