Product Details

• Actors: Sonja Henie, Tyrone Power, Rudy Vallee, Edna May Oliver, Mary Healy
• Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: January 1, 1998
• Run Time: 87 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302985943
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #153,344 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A delightful little spoof for the year it was made, April 16, 2002

By 

Simon Davis (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Second Fiddle [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I find this little film utterly charming. It is very much of its time as it was made and released in that Golden Hollywood year of 1939 when so many wonderful classics were released. In particular this film homes in on the exhaustive search that David O. Selznick undertook to find the perfect Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With the Wind" as the source for its own storyline of the search for just the right girl to star in a fictional movie called "Girl of the North".

At this time Sonja Henie despite a limited range as an actress had very quickly become a top Box Office attraction and was one of the great stars at Twentieth Century Fox just behind Shirley Temple. She combined supreme skating talents with a sweet persona that won audiences over and made her films for Fox huge money makers.
Sonja was often teamed with the biggest leading men at Fox like Don Ameche, Richard Greene and of course as here, the wonderful Tyrone Power. The two had already had a great success together in 1937 in "Thin Ice" and the two not only looked splendid together on screen but also had a really great screen chemistry.
In "Second Fiddle" they play antagonists who of course eventually fall in love. Being of the time of course no expense was spared on the production which even now has a special glow about it. The production numbers are lavish, and while the Irving Berlin score is not the most memorable it still compliments the overraul production.
Tyrone Power is as always a delight as the male lead showing the right combination of cheekiness and charm as the press agent trying to get Henie's school teacher character to come to Hollwood with him. The always excellent Edna May Oliver lends her usual great presence to this film as Henie's no nonsense aunt and she has a surprisingly wonderful screen rapport with Tyrone and some of the most delightful scenes in the film are when these two "square off' against each other.
If you enjoy musicals from this golden era of Hollywood or are a big fan of Tyrone Power or Sonja Henie like I am you will enjoy "Second Fiddle' Not the greatest musical of this era but an enjoyable hour and a half nevertheless.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DELIGHTFUL SPOOF OF GONE WITH THE WIND, July 13, 2004

By 

Henning Sebastian Jahre "Judy-Viv" (Oslo, Norway) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Second Fiddle [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is fun indeed. Sonja is surrounded by toptalent such as Irving Berlin(but not his best score), Tyrone Power, Rudy Vallee and Edna May Oliver. Unfortunately she is not given much to do outside her numbers, but it is apparent that she was on her way to become warm in front of the cameras as an actress. Edna May Oliver stands out as a warm and cynic aunt Phoebe. Sonja`s solo on ice is terrific; u can see she is in great pain because of her heart-aches and how she`s feeling better and throws off her sorrows through her work-out on ice. That`s an actress on ice. They say that no one has ever controlled an audience on ice the way Sonja Henie did it.

Her tango was initially edited, but Sonja demanded it back as a whole and she was the only star to contradict Darryl F. Zanuck. Her temperament and clashes with Zanuck are part of Hollywood-legend. Milton Berle once declared: "I wouldn`t say she controlled - but she had the wip!" hehehe...

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spoof search for THE GIRL OF THE NORTH - GREAT FUN, December 9, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Second Fiddle [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is propably Sonja Henie`s best film. In this, her skating is at its best. The music by Irving Berlin however is not on par of what we are used to from that composer, but the lines,c costumes, set decorations, photography and supporting cast(TYRONE POWER, RUDY VALEE and EDNA MAY OLIVER) makes this one of the best 20th Century-Fox musicals of the 30s.