1937 - A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS, odd Fred Astaire musical

Filmed during Fred Astaire's run of musicals at RKO during the 1930's,  A Damsel in Distress is one oddball film.  Usually in these RKO musicals Fred Astaire was teamed with Ginger Rogers.  Unfortunately the box office performance of the Astaire/Rogers series was starting to diminish.  The studio got it into their head that Astaire needed to be separated from Ginger Rogers and picked as his romantic lead Joan Fontaine a performer who couldn't sing or dance which was kind of a problem for a musical.

The story has Astaire as a musical comedy star performing in London where he falls in love with snooty Lady Alyce Marshmorton played by Fontaine who is very pretty but struggles to act.  Frankly the story in this film is really a big nothing even for a film like this.

  

What this film has going for it are some excellent musical numbers.  Astaire's dancing partners are none other than George Burns and his wife/partner Gracie Allen a couple of performers who started out in vaudeville and whose careers ran all the way to the dawn of television.  They were seasoned comedians who were actually fairly credible dancers while performing with Astaire.

 

The songs were by George and Ira Gershwin, the director was George Stevens.  The story may be weak but this is a top grade production with excellent numbers particularity a dance with Astaire, Burns and Allen using whisk brooms of all things and an amazing sequence in a fun house set.

The film was written by, P.G. Wodehouse, Ernest Pagano and S.K. Laauren, the running time is 98 minutes.