An interesting film -- a mixture of light comedy, romance, and fantasy, with a dream sequence of very modernistic music and a surreal dance number. Astaire accompanies himself on a harp in one scene and in another dances on a floor with wavy lines that create a three-dimensional optical illusion effect which is almost disconcerting. Frank Morgan (the Wizard of Oz) and Mildred Natwick give excellent supporting performances, as does Leon Ames, who appeared in many movies of the 1940's. It's one of Astaire's better dance movies, but completely different from his earlier ones in tone, creativity, and romantic expression, and it's in color. Worth seeing again.

This film is vastly underrated. It is by no means the usual MGM Freed tune fest. But if you can happily suspend disbelief for a couple of hours and indulge all your fairy tale fantasies, watch this film. I saw it on a DVD made from an old VHS (recorded from TV I suspect). I hope someone will have the sense to release a remastered copy on DVD so modern audiences get the chance to forget about their cynical and worldly cares and wrap themselves up in the warm blanket of this Technicolour fantasy.I wonder if the reason this film is largely forgotten is because it does not easily fit into any category. OK it was made by the Freed unit at MGM, but it is not a typical musical. Think of it as a visual fairy tale for grown ups.

It was shown on TCM this past weekend. It's a fantasy musical which has sort of unanimously been regarded as a mild stinker-- but amazingly has been amalgamated with a cult following over the years. (What're you gonna do?) It's not a serious piece of movie- not even in the Hollywood-attempting-a-certain-atmosphere vain. One look at the artificial sets, the candy-box Technicolor, and the performances and you need- I repeat NEED- to suspend yourself for 106 minutes and just let go. Lucille Bremer was actually a fine dancer (if you watched her and Fred Astaire in ZIEGFELD FOLLIES), but her abilities are not put to best use here. Record it (as I did), and just fast-forward to "Coffee Time," a sensational, four-minute hand-clapping dance performed in a Latin Carnival, on a floor of swirling black-and-white zebra stripes, easily the best thing in the movie.

Vincente Minnelli was always fascinated with French culture; and just as French painters began to abstract their subjects and create incredibly nebulous confections supported by intelligent and insightful craft, so Minnelli does with the MGM musical in YOLANDA AND THE THIEF.This movie has to be seen to be believed. From the first frame it invents its own universe and never for a second does it venture into anything that could be called 'reality'.