Customer Reviews

A Damsel in Distress [VHS]

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of the most delightful movies, and it preserves the flavor of Burns & Allen. Since we have so little film of Vaudeville, this movie shows us what we missed. The wiskbroom routine surely came from the stage, and the dialogue between Gracie and George and Fred surely came from the stage. Come on folks. Don't compare this film with Ginger and Fred. Its not supposed to be like Top Hat. I personally like Damsel more than Swing Time which doesn't feature enough dancing in the first hour. Sure Joan Fontaine is lost but she's only 19!! Look where she went from here. Get the movie, pop the corn and relax. This is a feel good, just dang fun movie, and you'll be happy you saw it.

There are several things of importance about this film. Most importantly.......it's George Gershwin's LAST COMPLETE score. He did write 1 more song for 38's GOLDWYN FOLLIES but never completed it (Ira Gershwin and Vernon Duke did.....OUR LOVE IS HERE TO STAY) but A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS is choc a bloc with gags and songs and great comic performances. Fred Astaire really seems so much more at ease here than with his former dance partner Ginger Rogers. The storyline is bright and breezy and filled with great character actors Constance Collier,Ray Noble(yes, the British band leader),Reginald Gardner and Harry Watson.The charming if wan Joan Fontaine but most importantly George Burns and Gracie Allen at the top of their game....GB:(criticizing Gracie for her forgetfulness) "Gracie, sometimes I think that their's nothing up here" (indicating his brain)to which Gracie replies: "Ah George , you're self conscious!"
The Gershwin songs are some of his best...A FOGGY DAY, NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT,I CAN'T BE BOTHERED NOW and STIFF UPPER LIP
Burns and Allen and Fred Astaire have two dynamite dance numbers as a trio......most impressively is the "fun house" sequence which contains bits from his Broadway days with sister Adele...take note of the "Swiss Miss" section in the fun house! It's the closest thing to actually seeing Fred and Adele Astaire actually dance on film. Point of interest: Adele had retired from the stage and had refused to team up with Fred in films because she met and married British nobility and retired to live in Britain before the start of WWII.
Hermes Pan is credited with the dance direction but you can see Fred Astaire's mark all over the film. This also may have been one of the last films to feature any actual British countryside footage before the blitz!
A charming film, wacky story and hilarious performances and Oh those Gershwin songs! Ok so it didn't have Ginger but it is a great cup of English Musical Comedy tea and crumpets!
When will Turner finally release this on DVD???? Come on guys! This is a classic awaiting rediscovery!

Well, that's my opinion. Sure, it was his first to lose money. But that's because the 1937 public had a hard time accepting the genius of a man without Ginger. This film contains great solo dancing by Astaire, and for comical dancing he is joined by George Burns and Gracie Allen. We'll just leave out that outdoor dance he did with Joan Fontaine, though the song was a beaut. We see Astaire pounding away on the drums in every way imaginable for "Nice Work if You Can Get It", avoiding the bobby with "I Can't be Bothered Now", and spending time with George and Gracie in a fun house during "Stiff Upper Lip." Those songs, by George and Ira Gershwin are legendary. "Nice Work if you can Get It" is first sung by a madrigal choir that Astaire introduces to swing. "Things are Looking Up" is a romantic tune Astaire delivers to Joan Fontaine. We also hear "A Foggy Day," George Gershwin's last completed score is a can't miss. Pick this one up as soon as you can. You won't forget Gracie Allen's hilarious line: "Well, I don't blame him, if I were Art I'd object too."

A Damsel in Distress [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - France ] This movie has always gotten short shrift (though how many long shrifts have you ever seen?), primarily because Ginger Rogers isn't in it and Joan Fontaine is. So? Does every Fred Astaire movie have to have Ginger Rogers in it to be good? (Answer: No) Is Joan Fontaine relatively weak and poorly cast? (Answer: Yes) So what do we have?

We have Fred Astaire, being as brilliant as he always was. We have Burns & Allen at perhaps their best. We have on film Gracie dancing, which is a rare treat in and of itself. We have Ray Noble, a bandleader/actor/songwriter, who doesn't turn up all that often in films. And let us not forget one of the best things: a brilliant score by George & Ira Gershwin. And face it, folks: they didn't write all that many movie scores. How can we dismiss a movie that introduced to the world such masterpieces of The Great American Songbook as "A Foggy Day," "Nice Work If You Can Get It," "I've Got Beginner's Luck," etc.? (1937 was the the year the Academy made one of its most notorious and shameful blunders by giving the Oscar for Best Song to "Sweet Leilani," a thoroughly forgettable ditty sung by Bing Crosby in HAWAIIAN WEDDING...and it wasn't even written for the movie! Gershwin never in his lifetime received even a nomination for the brilliant and timeless classics he wrote for his few films.)

So...the big question: Why is this movie not available on DVD in the USA? We get a French import that's in the wrong format. This is as much a slap in the face as that Oscar for "Sweet Leilani"! Come on, whoever has the rights to the RKO library this week: get on the ball and let us have this film. And don't skimp on the extras, either! Give us retrospectives and trailers and featurettes on the Gershwins at the movies and everything else that this movie deserves...that WE deserve!

"Damsel In Distress," (1937) another Fred Astaire romantic musical comedy for RKO Radio Pictures, as the studio was then known, was, despite some great help - and most of the usual suspects behind the camera -- the great dancer's first box office flop. It is, therefore, not in print, I believe, and hard to find: I settled for a used videotape, and, if you really want it, you might have to, too. So let's look at the pros and cons. Firstly, and most importantly, neither sound nor picture is what we've been happy to become accustomed to.

However, the talent is there. Astaire himself, of course, playing Jerry Halliday, professional American dancer visiting London. The late great vaudevillians/comics, George Burns (playing George) and Gracie Allen (playing Gracie), his staff people. But someone important is notably missing: Ginger Rogers. She is replaced by Joan Fontaine, then just beginning her career, as the romantic lead, Lady Alyce Marshmorton. There are sturdy British supporting players Reginald Gardiner as Kegs, butler with a hand in many pies; Montagu Love as Alyce's father, Lord Marshmorton, mistaken for a gardener by Astaire's character; Constance Collier, then a very big name in the British worlds of theater, society, and sapphism, as Lady Carolina Marshmorton, Alyce's Aunt. The talented George Stevens directed. The nine-song score is by George and Ira Gershwin, completed before production began on the picture. Confusingly enough, some sources say this was their last completed film score; others say "Shall We Dance" was. Go figure. Pandro S. Berman produced, as usual; Hermes Pan was in on the choreography, as usual. Story and screenplay, as silly as anything Astaire ever made, were by outstanding British humorist/novelist P.G. Wodehouse: Lady Alyce is of an age to marry, but can't make up her mind, until she shares a cab with Halliday, and falls for him. Van Nest Polglase was not on hand to supply his usual gorgeous art deco sets, but it's doubtful that that's what caused the movie to flop.

Most people lay the blame for that at poor Joan Fontaine's door. She was just beginning work; she was supposed to be the second lead, and help carry the picture, but she couldn't. She was then rather colorless for starters, and she couldn't dance. She was given only one brief dance with Astaire, and the haste with which she sits down in the nearest chair, as soon as that's over, is still telling after all these years. Supposedly, as Fontaine, sister of Olivia De Havilland, sat at the movie's premiere, watching herself try to dance, a woman behind her loudly said "Isn't she awful." The actress always said she thought this movie set her career back four years. She would eventually succeed, of course: she was nominated for an Oscar for the well-known 1940 film "Rebecca," in which, you'll recall, she, in character, couldn't ride or sail, either. She lost Oscar that year, oddly enough, to Ginger Rogers, who'd gone on to better things, in "Kitty Foyle: Natural History of a Woman." But she won the Oscar in 1941 for Alfred Hitchcock's "Suspicion." She always said she considered Astaire a notable exception among her male co-stars, in that he cared more about the film than himself.

Well, Astaire cared about the movie, and the studio did too: that's why they brought Burns and Allen in after production began. These seasoned performers actually could both sing and dance pretty well, in addition to being funny. They do a nice job together on "Stiff Upper Lip." The pair, and Astaire,(both men in spats), dancing to an instrurmental number, do an infectious, enjoyable funhouse romp that most people consider the picture's highlight. Finally, I've always loved Astaire's versions of "A Foggy Day in London Town," and "Nice Work If You Can Get It," so I just plain wanted the picture. You might, too.

I could not agree more that this is a terrific movie and should be on dvd. The songs are wonderful, the dance sequence with Joan Fontaine show just how talented and generous Fred was at making even non-dancers look good, but - the highlight which should be watched over and over again is a dance sequence with Fred, George and Gracie in a funhouse dancing on wheels, barrels, collapsing stair cases and especially in front of the funhouse mirrors. If you have ever stood in front of this type of mirror and wondered what to do, this will show show you.

And Gracie turns to George (playing a press agent) and says "George, some Hawaiian is on the the phone." "Some Hawaiian?" asks George. "Yes. He says he's Brown from the Morning Sun."

From 1933 with Flying Down to Rio to 1939 with The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, Fred Astaire made 10 movies. All except one had him partnered with Ginger Rogers. By 1937 he decided he wanted a break, and the result was A Damsel in Distress. Who was his new partner? Well, he didn't really have one. The closest in the film would be George Burns and Gracie Allen. Joan Fontaine, who was the love interest, simply doesn't register strongly. Probably deliberately, Astaire chose Fontaine because she couldn't sing and couldn't dance. She was the antithesis of Rogers. At 20, she was sweet, shy and attractive. She makes a pleasant love interest, but the movie works as well as it does because of Astaire, Burns and Allen, and some great George and Ira Gershwin songs.

Lady Alyce Marshmorton (Fontaine) met an American she thinks she loves, but her mother is having none of it. Lady Marshmorton is determined Alyce will mary Reggie, a proper British twit. She's keeping Alyce closely watched at the the family manse, Tottleigh Castle. But Alyce runs off to London with the family's butler, the obsequious Keggs (Reginald Gardiner) in pursuit. In London, Alyce meets Jerry Halliday (Astaire), a famous American dancer who has been promoted into a heart throb by his publicity agent, George (George Burns), assisted by George's secretary, Gracie (Gracie Allen). One confusion leads to another, with Jerry, George and Gracie arriving at Tottleigh Castle. Then there are misunderstandings, reconciliations and leaps from a balcony. Things aren't helped by a pool set up by Tottleigh Castle's servants to pick who will eventually win Lady Alyce's hand. Kegg and a young houseboy, Albert, are determined each of their own candidates will be the winner and win the pot for them. They take turns stirring the pot. However, is there any doubt who eventually wins the lady's hand?

Joan Fontaine doesn't sing a note in the movie. Only briefly and cautiously does she share a simple but elegant dance with Astaire. She was probably the most obviously non-dancer he ever worked with. The most complicated steps she's called upon to do are a few simple, graceful jumps. In every case Astaire is there guiding her with his hand or an arm around her waist. For a young woman with no dancing ability, it must have been a petrifying experience for her.

But with Burns and Allen, two pros, Astaire has one excellent routine and one classic. With the "I've Just Begun to Live" theme (there's no song), the three of them do a complicated and amusing three-way dance that is part soft shoe, part tap. The classic is danced to "Stiff Upper Lip" and takes place in an art deco fun house. The number was put together by Hermes Pan, who won an Academy Award for it. The three of them dance on and with every device Pan could think of for a fun house: Moving walkways, collapsing stairs, slides, turning tunnels, rubber doors, distorting mirrors and a circular turntable. It's inventive, surprising and great fun to watch. And pay attention to Gracie Allen. She and her husband were one of the great comedy teams in America. At best they probably are only faded memories now. Gracie, however, was not only a skilled comedienne, she was a very good dancer. She used small gestures and never lost the ability to look "lady-like" while dancing. She could be almost as funny dancing has she was delivering her ditsy lines.

The Gershwins wrote five songs for the movie and there's not a clunker among them. The songs are smart, amusing and clever. Even the one romantic song, "A Foggy Day," is best appreciated by literate lovers:

A foggy day in London town,
Had me low, and had me down.
I viewed the morning with alarm.
The British Museum had lost its charm.

How long, I wondered, could this thing last.
But the age of miracles hadn't past.
For suddenly, I saw you there
And through foggy London town
The sun was shining everywhere.

The songs are:

--"I Can't Be Bothered Now," a fast tap number that takes Astaire into the London streets. He turns his umbrella into an animate object. The number is shot with daytime fog swirling around.

--"Stiff Upper Lip" is a collection of amusing cliches, sung by Gracie. It sets up the fun house number.

What made good queen Bess
Such a great success?
What made Wellington do
What he did at Waterloo?

What makes every Englishman
A fighter through and through?
It isn't roast beef, or ale, or home, or mother.
It's just a little thing they sing to one another.

Stiff upper lip, stout fella,
Carry on, old fluff.
Chin up, keep muddling through.

Stiff upper lip, stout fella,
When the going's rough.
Pip pip to old man trouble
And a toodly-oo, too.

Carry on through thick and thin
If you feel you're in the right.
Does the fighting spirit win?
Quite, quite, quite, quite, quite.

Stiff upper lip, stout fella,
When you're in the stew.
Sober or blotto, this is your motto,
Keep muddling through.

--"Things Are Looking Up," sung by Astaire to Fontaine and then danced by them by the streams and trees of Tottleigh Castle.

--"A Foggy Day." Astaire sings of the first meeting he and Fontaine had while she watches him from her balcony as he strolls and dances in the fog-swept woods.

--"Nice Work If You Can Get It," is a close harmony rendering sung as entertainment at a party at Tottleigh Castle. Astaire joins in. It morphs into a fast tap and drum number for Astaire at the close of the movie, just before he and Fontaine sweep arm and arm out of the castle.

The movie can be located on VHS. The copy I have looks very good. For Astaire fans, it's a must have. The fun house number alone justifies the purchase.

If ever a film deserved to be released on DVD, this delightful treasure should be DVD'd at once! It amazes me it is not yet released! Maybe the reasons are copyright issues or some such film business. Fred minus Ginger are more than made up for with George Burns and Gracie Allen who are hilarious. They also demonstrate their versatility in two dance numbers with Astaire and hold their own admirably keeping up with him! The "Stiff Upper Lip" number with the Fun House mirrors is among the most ingenious things I've seen in a musical and is alone worth viewing the movie. I own a barely viewable copy taped off Public TV in the nineties. One piece of trivia mentioned was that Joan Fontaine was paired with Astaire because he and Ginger's latest movie had 'fallen off a bit' at the box office. Fontaine' role is bland at best (her potential as a a dramatic actress was yet to be revealed, it seemed). Also present for further comical antics are British Big Band leader Ray Noble and Reginald Gardner. This movie is a first-class collector's treasure!

This is a very entertaining music and dance film starring Fred Astaire, George Burns, Gracie Allen and Joan Fontaine with wonderful songs composed by George and Ira Gershwin. Joan Fontaine is no Ginger Rogers or Cyd Charisse, but her beauty and brightness add to the fun. It's easy for us to forget that Burns and Allen were a very successful Vaudeville song and dance comedy team and this film amply demonstrates what fine dancers and how funny they were. The cast is bolstered considerably by Reginald Gardiner and Constance Collier who give a British authenticity to an American film. Alfred Hitchcock would use Joan Fontaine three years later in "Rebecca" and Contance Collier eleven years later in "Rope."

By the time this film was released in 1937, George Gershwin would be dead at 39.

Based on a story by P.J. Wodehouse, the plot is wafer thin, and yet there's a lot to relish in A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS. This screwball musical comedy didn't fare too well in the box office in 1937, and I think this was Fred Astaire's first cinematic flop. That it tanked was largely because the audience back then was used to seeing Astaire paired up with Ginger Rogers, and folks got in a snit when it turned out that not only was the leading lady not Ginger Rogers, neither did she have Ginger's hoofing skills. Me, I didn't mind at all. Joan Fontaine, then 19 years old, was a fresh face, very beautiful, and she demonstrated an endearing naivete, despite that she was perhaps a bit too passive in her role. But, no, she couldn't dance. And she was still a few years away from REBECCA and her Best Actress Oscar nomination and then her Oscar win for SUSPICION.

Unlike Ginger's more street savvy roles, Joan Fontaine's demure and proper character doesn't really get plenty of chances to crack wise. Instead the husband-and-wife comedy team of George Burns & Gracie Allen were signed on to provide the laughs, and we learn that they're not too shabby at the dancing, either. Taking place in England and its fog and that sprawling manor, the decor tends to veer away from the swanky, glittery art deco style we've gotten so used to in past Astaire-Rogers flicks. Just another change of pace for Fred Astaire.

What remains the same is that Fred plays yet another dapper musical entertainer. Jerry Halliday's cross to bear is that his publicity agent (Burns) has pumped him up as this serial heartbreaker, a plot conceit which proves to be an obstacle in the story's romance. The plot revolves around a silly misunderstanding. Jerry, while visiting in England, comes to think that he's the American that the lovely Lady Alyce Marshmorton is in love with (but he's not). Also believing that Lady Alyce is unwillingly confined at her estate, Jerry sets out on a rescue mission.

A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS has so many things going for it, again it's a bit odd that it didn't do better during its theatrical run. Fred Astaire is as great as ever, his good-humored brand of classy and his graceful dancing feet and, yes, his singing, all as delightful as ever. He was still very much at the peak of his talents, although, honestly, the man's peak lasted for decades. We get to see Fred (but probably his stunt double) perform the legendary "Leonard's Leap." We see him get caught in a chorus line of old Brit fogies and belt out a tune "with a Hey and a Nonny!" And we see him have fun with his buddies Burns and Allen.

But my favorite Astaire routine in this film takes place on the busy London streets as Fred tap dances away from an unhappy policeman even as vehicles zip by and honk at him. George and Ira Gershwin provide the music and lyrics and introduce two more terrific standards: "Nice Work If You Can Get It" and "A Foggy Day," which I love. 'Things Are Looking Up' and 'Can't Be Bothered Now' are okay, but no classics. "Things Are Looking Up" is the number in which Fred has to work around Joan's lack of hoofing skills. But it's okay. Joan Fontaine is still real pretty, even with two left feet.

The funhouse number "Stiff Upper Lip" won Hermes Pan, Fred's chief dance collaborator, his Academy Award for choreography, although I wasn't that into it. To me, the most interesting thing about it is that, at one point, Fred and Gracie re-enact the trademark run-around exit that Fred and his sister Adele often used when they performed on stage years ago.

Lest people forget - and how many of the younger folks remember George Burns today? - George was the straight man in the Burns & Allen act. George would set up Gracie, and Gracie would deliver with some screwball remark. But I don't know if folks nowadays will think her stuff funny - some of her daffy zingers are pretty dated, perfect for vaudeville way back when, but not really tailored for today's sensibilities. Still, she and her guy George add great energy to the film, and if you dig their vaudeville humor, then you'll smile plenty. Montagu Love is also very good as the understanding Lord Marshmorton (whom Astaire mistakes for a gardener). And the servants' antics - and their marriage betting pool on Lady Alyce - really enliven the film.

A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS isn't out on DVD yet. What's up with that?