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The Barkleys of Broadway
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The Barkleys of Broadway is a 1949 musical film from the Arthur Freed unit at MGM that reunited Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers after ten years apart. Directed by Charles Walters, the screenplay is by Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Sidney Sheldon, the songs are by Harry Warren (music) and Ira Gershwin (lyrics) with the addition of They Can't Take That Away from Me by George and Ira Gershwin, and the choreography was created by Robert Alton and Hermes Pan. Also featured in the cast were Oscar Levant, Billie Burke, Jacques François and Gale Robbins.
Rogers came in as a last minute replacement for Judy Garland, whose frequent absences due to a dependency on prescription medication cost her the role.
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Encyclopedia
The Barkleys of Broadway is a 1949 musical film from the Arthur Freed unit at MGM that reunited Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers after ten years apart. Directed by Charles Walters, the screenplay is by Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Sidney Sheldon, the songs are by Harry Warren (music) and Ira Gershwin (lyrics) with the addition of They Can't Take That Away from Me by George and Ira Gershwin, and the choreography was created by Robert Alton and Hermes Pan. Also featured in the cast were Oscar Levant, Billie Burke, Jacques François and Gale Robbins.
Rogers came in as a last minute replacement for Judy Garland, whose frequent absences due to a dependency on prescription medication cost her the role. This turned out to be the last film that Astaire and Rogers made together, and their only film in color. Many critics at the time remarked upon Rogers' changed figure, noting that the elfin girl of the 30's had made way for a sturdy, athletic woman.
Plot
Josh and Dinah Barkley (Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers) are a husband-and-wife musical comedy team at the peak of their careers, but when serious French playwright Jacques Pierre Barredout (Jacques François) suggests that Dinah should take up dramatic acting, it eventually splits the couple up. Their good friend, acerbic composer Ezra Miller (Oscar Levant) tries to trick them back together again, but fails. When Josh secretly watches Dinah's rehearsals for Barredout's new play and sees how she is struggling, he calls her up and pretends to be the Frenchman, giving her notes that help her to understand her part, the young Sara Bernhardt. Dinah gives a brilliant performance, and she accidentally learns that her late-night mentor was Josh and not Barredout, opening the way for their reconciliation as a couple and their return to the stage as a team.
Production
The Barkleys of Broadway began with the title "You Made Me Love You", and with Judy Garland in the lead role opposite Fred Astaire, a repeat of their pairing in Easter Parade. In fact, producer Arthur Freed had Comden and Green working on the script for the new film even before Easter Parade was finished.
The film went into rehearsals with Garland, but it was soon clear that she would not be physically and emotionally able to do it. Freed contacted Ginger Rogers to see if she was interested in reuniting with Astaire: there had been rumors, denied by both, that the Astaire-Rogers working relationship was frosty, and they had not worked together since The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle in . Rogers was interested, and The Barkleys of Broadway became their tenth and final film together, and the only color film.
The production period was from 8 August through 30 October , with some additional work on 28 December. The Technicolor process was still relatively new at the time, and required very bright lights which were uncomfortable to work under. While the film was in production, Fred Astaire won an honorary Academy Award for "his unique artistry and his contributions to the technique of musical pictures," presented to him at the awards ceremony by Ginger Rogers.
The Barkleys of Broadway premiered in New York on 4 May and went into general American release shortly after.
Cast
Cast notes
- MGM borrowed Jacques François from Universal Pictures. Barkleys was his first film in English, and was to be his last American film, although he did two U.K.-based productions. His French film career was extensive: he worked up until his death in 2003.
Response
Critical response to The Barkleys of Broadway was mixed but positive. The film earned $3.2 million in the U.S. and $5.42 million worldwide, compared to its estimated cost of $2,325,420.
A radio version of the film was broadcast on 1 January 1951 as an episode of the Lux Radio Theatre, with Ginger Rogers reprising the role of Dinah Barkley, and George Murphy playing her husband and partner Josh.
Awards
Although the film did not win any awards, it did receive several nominations. Cinematographer Harry Stradling Sr. was nominated for a 1950 Academy Award for Best Color Cinematography, and writers Comden and Green were nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Musical.
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