The Barkleys of Broadway

Ten years after what all thought was their last film together, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers teamed up one more time for The Barkleys of Broadway. Rogers was called in as a replacement for Judy Garland, who was originally cast in the role of Fred's partner in a song-and-dance team put temporarily on the rocks when the wife decides to take up heavy dramatic acting. A little older but no slower, Astaire and Rogers cooked up the same magic in Barkleys as ever they did before - and Ira Gershwin resurrected "The Way You Look Tonight" as a featured song in the new film. (Quite appropriately, in light of Robin Wood's assertion in Film Comment that the key to the joys offered by the Astaire-Rogers team can be found in that song's thematic line, "Never, never change.") The Barkleys of Broadway is full of new delights, as well, in particular Fred Astaire's ballet solo, "Shoes With Wings On" in which he dances with a dozen or so pairs of shoes sans dancers.

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