A Damsel in Distress (RKO) is a
1937The year 1937 in film involved some significant events.- Events :*April 16 - Way Out West premieres in the US.*May 7 - Shall We Dance premieres in the US.-Top grossing films:#Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs#Maytime#Saratoga...
English-themed Hollywood
musicalThe musical film is a film genre in which several songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative. The songs are usually used to advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but some musical films simply plop the songs in as unrelated "specialties" - as with Carmen Miranda's...
comedy
filmFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
starring
Fred AstaireFred Astaire , born Frederick Austerlitz, was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films...
,
Joan FontaineJoan Fontaine is a British American actress. She became an American citizen in April 1943. She is the younger sister of actress Olivia de Havilland, also an Academy Award winner. Along with Luise Rainer, Gloria Stuart, Shirley Temple, Deanna Durbin and Olivia de Havilland, Fontaine is one of the...
,
George BurnsGeorge Burns , born Nathan Birnbaum, was an American comedian, actor, and writer.His career spanned vaudeville, film, radio, and television, with and without his wife, Gracie Allen. His arched eyebrow and cigar smoke punctuation became familiar trademarks for over three quarters of a century...
, and
Gracie AllenGrace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen , better known as Gracie Allen, was an American comedienne who became internationally famous as the zany partner and comic foil of husband George Burns...
. With a screenplay by
P. G. WodehouseSir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English writer whose body of work includes novels, collections of short stories, and musical theatre. Wodehouse enjoyed enormous popular success during a career of more than seventy years and his prolific writings continue to be widely read...
, loosely based on his
novel of the same nameA Damsel in Distress is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the U.S. on October 4 1919 by George H. Doran, New York, and in the U.K. by Herbert Jenkins, London, on October 17 1919...
, music and lyrics by
GeorgeGeorge Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are universally familiar....
and
Ira GershwinIra Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century....
, it is directed by
George StevensGeorge Stevens was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer.-Film career:Born in Oakland, California, Stevens broke into the movie business as a cameraman, working on many Laurel and Hardy shorts...
.
The film was made at George Gershwin's instigation, an enthusiasm that Wodehouse mischievously attributed to the fact that his novel was about a successful American songwriter named George Bevan.
A Damsel in Distress (RKO) is a
1937The year 1937 in film involved some significant events.- Events :*April 16 - Way Out West premieres in the US.*May 7 - Shall We Dance premieres in the US.-Top grossing films:#Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs#Maytime#Saratoga...
English-themed Hollywood
musicalThe musical film is a film genre in which several songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative. The songs are usually used to advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but some musical films simply plop the songs in as unrelated "specialties" - as with Carmen Miranda's...
comedy
filmFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
starring
Fred AstaireFred Astaire , born Frederick Austerlitz, was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films...
,
Joan FontaineJoan Fontaine is a British American actress. She became an American citizen in April 1943. She is the younger sister of actress Olivia de Havilland, also an Academy Award winner. Along with Luise Rainer, Gloria Stuart, Shirley Temple, Deanna Durbin and Olivia de Havilland, Fontaine is one of the...
,
George BurnsGeorge Burns , born Nathan Birnbaum, was an American comedian, actor, and writer.His career spanned vaudeville, film, radio, and television, with and without his wife, Gracie Allen. His arched eyebrow and cigar smoke punctuation became familiar trademarks for over three quarters of a century...
, and
Gracie AllenGrace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen , better known as Gracie Allen, was an American comedienne who became internationally famous as the zany partner and comic foil of husband George Burns...
. With a screenplay by
P. G. WodehouseSir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English writer whose body of work includes novels, collections of short stories, and musical theatre. Wodehouse enjoyed enormous popular success during a career of more than seventy years and his prolific writings continue to be widely read...
, loosely based on his
novel of the same nameA Damsel in Distress is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the U.S. on October 4 1919 by George H. Doran, New York, and in the U.K. by Herbert Jenkins, London, on October 17 1919...
, music and lyrics by
GeorgeGeorge Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are universally familiar....
and
Ira GershwinIra Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century....
, it is directed by
George StevensGeorge Stevens was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer.-Film career:Born in Oakland, California, Stevens broke into the movie business as a cameraman, working on many Laurel and Hardy shorts...
.
Overview
The film was made at George Gershwin's instigation, an enthusiasm that Wodehouse mischievously attributed to the fact that his novel was about a successful American songwriter named George Bevan.
George GershwinGeorge Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are universally familiar....
died of a brain tumour while the film was in production.
The first Astaire RKO film not to feature
Ginger RogersGinger Rogers was an American film and stage actress, dancer and singer.During her long career, she made a total of 73 films, and is noted for her role as Fred Astaire's romantic interest and dancing partner in a series of ten Hollywood musical films that revolutionized the genre...
, the nineteen year-old Fontaine was chosen, with
Burns and AllenBurns and Allen, an American comedy duo consisting of George Burns and his wife, Gracie Allen, worked together as a comedy team in vaudeville, films, radio...
drafted in to provide the comedy. It soon emerged that Fontaine couldn't dance, but Stevens persuaded Astaire not to replace her with
Ruby KeelerRuby Keeler, born Ethel Hilda Keeler, was an actress, singer, and dancer most famous for her on-screen coupling with Dick Powell in a string of successful early musicals at Warner Brothers, particularly 42nd Street. From 1928 to 1940, she was married to legendary singer Al Jolson...
. The film was the first Astaire picture to lose money, costing $1,305,000 to produce and losing $65,000. The "Stiff Upper Lip" routine garnered co-choreographer
Hermes PanHermes Pan was an American dancer and choreographer, principally celebrated as Fred Astaire's choreographic collaborator on the famous 1930s movie musicals starring Astaire and Ginger Rogers.-Early life:...
the 1937
Academy AwardThe Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers. The formal ceremony at which the awards are presented is...
for Best Dance Direction.
Key songs and dance routines
The choreography explores dancing around, past, and through obstacles, and in confined spaces.
- "I Can't Be Bothered Now
"I Can't Be Bothered Now" is a song composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, written for the 1937 film A Damsel In Distress, where it was introduced by Fred Astaire.-Notable recordings:...
": sung by Astaire while executing a tap solo with cane in the middle of a London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
street and escaping on a bus.
- "Put Me to the Test": Astaire, Burns, and Allen comic tap dance with whisk brooms, a routine inspired by vaudeville duo Evans and Evans and introduced to Astaire by Burns, who quipped: "Gracie and I ended up teaching Astaire how to dance".
- "Stiff Upper Lip
"Stiff Upper Lip" is a 1937 song composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin. It references the British expression 'Stiff upper lip'.It was introduced by Gracie Allen in the 1937 film A Damsel in Distress.-Notable recordings:...
": sung by Gracie Allen and followed by an innovative extended comic dance by Astaire, Burns, and Allen through a fairground obstacle course.
- "Things Are Looking Up
"Things Are Looking Up" is a song composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin. It was introduced by Fred Astaire in the 1937 film A Damsel in Distress.-Notable recordings:...
": Astaire sings one of Gershwin's "most beautiful, yet underappreciated ballads", followed by a romantic dance through the woods with Fontaine, where George Stevens artfully uses trees to hide Fontaine's terpsichorean shortcomings.
- "A Foggy Day (in London Town)
"A Foggy Day" is a song composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, introduced by Fred Astaire in the 1937 film A Damsel in Distress...
": Astaire introduces what has become a standard in the Great American SongbookGreat American Songbook is a term referring to the interrelated music of Broadway theatre, Musical theatre, Hollywood musicals, and so-called Tin Pan Alley, for a period that begins during about the 1920s and ending about 1960 with the emerging dominance of rock and roll...
, sung while alternately walking and dancing solo through a wooded landscape.
- "Nice Work If You Can Get It
"Nice Work If You Can Get It" is a popular song.The music was written by George Gershwin, the lyrics by Ira Gershwin. It was one of nine songs George Gershwin wrote for the movie A Damsel in Distress, in which it was performed by Fred Astaire with backing vocals provided by The Stafford Sisters...
": the film's second Gershwin standard is introduced by Astaire and chorus, followed by an Astaire tap solo, executed while confined by and playing a set of drums. It was shot in one continuous take and makes use of a very early version of the zoom lensA zoom lens is a mechanical assembly of lens elements with the ability to vary its focal length , as opposed to a fixed focal length lens...
.
- The movie also features two faux madrigal
A madrigal is a type of secular vocal music composition, written during the Renaissance and early Baroque eras. Throughout most of its history it was polyphonic and unaccompanied by instruments, with the number of voices varying from two to eight, but most frequently three to six...
s written by the Gershwins: "Sing of Spring" and "The Jolly Tar and the Milkmaid". These are performed by a group of madrigal singers, with Astaire joining in on the latter song.
External links