You could list a lot of reasons why SWING TIME isn't all that hot, and I'm going to:As always in Ginger & Fred movies, the plot is banal, and SWING TIME adds frequent incoherence to the usual banality;I admit that I'm the only person who appears to be bothered by this, but we have a father who wants to sell his daughter for $25,000. Freddie sees nothing wrong in this. Come to think of it, neither does the daughter, Margaret;The first 15 minutes of the movie are deadly. It isn't the first Astaire/Rogers picture that gets off to a slow start, but SWING TIME takes it to ridiculous extremes. And the laughing gag at the end (probably taken from Laurel and Hardy, a comic team so unique that stealing from them is almost always a mistake. George Stevens got his start as a cameraman for Stan and Ollie) isn't much better;Ricky (George Metaxis) is no kind of rival for Ginger's affections, isn't funny, and is downright slimy;He also miraculously turns into a nice guy at the end. It was grossly obvious that this was done for plot purposes only;And speaking of grossly obvious plot purposes, Penny's (Ginger's) objections to Lucky's gambling come and go at the writers' convenience;SWING TIME is stuck with Victor Moore in the traditional E.E. Horton role. I'm not the world's biggest fan of Horton, but I find Moore one of the least pleasant 'sympathetic' actors that I have ever come across. I've only been able to tolerate him in MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW, and even there he seemed the weak link in a very great movie;Heck, Moore's completely unmotivated betrayal of Fred's secret engagement during the snow scene might go down as the laziest writing of all time;And I'll stop with the questions: Why does Lucky feel it necessary to keep his engagement from Penny? And why does he feel obligated to complete such a frivolous bargain? Once he's broken poor Penny's heart he feels no compunction in going straight to Margaret to break things off, so why not before when it would have been so much easier?I'd wonder why Penny would go off to marry Ricky but that sort of idiocy seems almost inevitable in the characters played by Ginger Rogers in this series.Yet despite all that, SWING TIME is one of the finest musicals ever made. It has as much right to the title 'Best Astaire/Rogers Film' as any of them, and better than most. A list of its virtues:The Kern-Fields musical score is superb, as great as any in the series;The dances Astaire (with the help of Hermes Pan) devised are without exception masterpieces, even surpassing the sublime achievements of ROBERTA and FOLLOW THE FLEET and TOP HAT;Fred Astaire has continued his gradual improvement as a film actor and gives his finest performance to date in SWING TIME;Ginger Rogers continues her rapid improvement as a dancer and probably hits her peak, a peak that she'll continue through the rest of the RKO series, in SWING TIME;Ginger also gives the best acting performance that anyone ever gave in this series of musicals, and so far as I'm concerned deserved an Oscar for it (looking down the list of nominees, I'd say her only competition should have come from Carole Lombard in MY MAN GODFREY. Of course, Hollywood wouldn't dream of giving anyone a Best Actress nomination for a movie like SWING TIME);These performances were no doubt made easier by the fact that, to a greater extent than in any other of the Astaire/Rogers musicals, SWING TIME has a heart to go along with its laughs;This may be because George Stevens directed it. Stevens was a rising young director at the time who had already shown a penchant for getting top performances from his leading ladies (Stanwyck in ANNIE OAKLEY, Hepburn in ALICE ADDAMS, and Stevens would continue the trend with, among others, Jean Arthur in later pictures). Stevens seemed never at a loss for wonderful ideas. His direction for the 'A Fine Romance' number is sublime, probably the best of any scene in the series. On the other hand, Stevens would lose the pace somewhere in practically all of his films, and the pace in the later ones seemed practically frozen into place. Again, the unique influence of Laurel and Hardy, perhaps the only performers capable of thriving at such a slow pace, may have been harmful to Stevens (this is pure speculation, of course);That snow set and the final design for 'The Silver Slipper' nightclub may be the most beautiful sets that I have ever seen. Likewise, Ginger's dress for the climactic 'Never Gonna Dance' number may be the most beautiful gown that I have ever seen. And the rest of her wardrobe ain't chicken liver, either.SWING TIME is a movie of extremes. The beginning is awful, the laughing gag at the end tedious. In between, you have about the best 75 minute musical that has ever been made. For Fred and Ginger, it would probably never be quite this good again.

As a movie, this is a real stinker. The plot premise (the rapid movement from dislike to romance) is bad enough, but not uncommon, but the pairing of 60 year old (and looking every day of it) Victor Moore as best bud of Fred is laughable. No wait, the pairing of Helen Broderick as best bud of Ginger now that's laughable. Both of these actors have the presence of a block of wood on the screen.So why watch it? People who know dance (I'm not one of them), say that 3 of the 10 greatest dances ever filmed appear here. I wouldn't know but the dancing is spectacular, for me, particularly the dance to "Pick Yourself Up".Also, arguably, the movie introduces 3 songs that are solid members of the Great American Songbook. Great Jerome Kern / Dorothy Fields collaborations of "The Way You Look Tonight" (the Oscar winner and only award of this stiff), the aforementioned "Pick Yourself Up" and "A Fine Romance". 3!!!! So watch. The dance is great; the music is great. Watching the plot and the clunky sidekicks bumble through this film is like watching a train wreck. Three great songs and three great dances deserved a better vehicle.

in 200 years when we're all dead people will compare this movie and possibly top hat with the sistine chapel can you imagine the amount of effort and sheer graft to get these seemingly effortless routines to this quality they are simply peerless no one else in the 20th century movies put out that degree of sweat and effort to create that degree of perfection if genius is the infinite capacity to take pains then astair is michaelangelo and william Shakespeare and ginger is the most sublime foil and its all so silly and inconsequential . that is one of he other tropes of 20th century culture to elevate silliness to a high art form see the the Marx brothers and spike milliganwho else in this era but astaire could get away with a parody of afro American culture with such grace (mr bojangles ) except possibly elvis Presley but his was a natural gift like michael Jackson's. Astaire's skill was built brick by brick. blood sweat and tears cant think of any other non athlete who put in that degree of work in 20th century to produce this amount of beauty.enjoy

The story, like with most Fred and Ginger films, is not Swing Time's best asset, it does come across as contrived, though it also has a charming and cute edge to it. That however doesn't matter so much, when so much in fact everything else is done so well. Swing Time is another Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers classic, and a very close second best to Top Hat. The sets and photography are very lavish and beautiful to look at(Ginger's wardrobe likewise), the most audacious and sophisticated of all the Fred and Ginger films. Jerome Kern's score and songs are also outstanding, The Way You Look Tonight, A Fine Romance, Pick Yourself Up and especially Never Gonna Dance are all classics, and while it is understandable why some won't like it and find it jarring Bojangles of Harlem is at least catchy. There's nothing to complain about in the dancing either, the standout is easily Never Gonna Dance, just perfection in every meaning of the word and Fred and Ginger probably haven't done a dance more beautiful or emotionally moving. It in particular shows off Astaire's effortless grace and style perfectly. The choreography has a lot of spirit and pizazz, done with an appropriately light touch as well as touches of the dramatic. The script is good-natured and amusing, with some sweet parts too. Special mention should also go to the dialogue scene preceding Never Gonna Dance which is very poignant, maybe the most poignant dialogue scene of any of their films. Fred and Ginger are delightful together, and play their characters with great charm. Victor Moore acts with energy and enthusiasm, but one does wish there was much more of Eric Blore. In conclusion, once you get past the story Swing Time is a wonderful film. 9.5/10 Bethany Cox