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ent000334-009
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ch humorous aplomb. Midway in the movie, nd dances to ?╟úI?╟╓d Rather Lead a Band,?╟Ñ al tap dance that threatens to set his ship on et does manage to pause for the obligatory s, including one romantic duet for Astaire and plot did not call for any ardent byplay between most of their time either lightly bickering encounter was invented. At a benefit dance in a self-contained miniature drama to ig ?╟úLet?╟╓s Face the Music and Dance.?╟Ñ It is one numbers thev ever performed: a dazzling series thalf,-as alwavs, seem totally without effort. .s in top form in their next musical, Swing Time is it one of their best (some say it is their best), dling of the tuneful score Jerome Kern wrote ds is deft and smoothly professional. Vvith s firmly established as the screen?╟╓s fore- movie could express exuberanc^ and self- undue strain. Linder George Stevens s *s. from situation to situation, from musical number, happy and secure in the knowledge is aware of?╟÷and revels in?╟÷the myth of Fred cing deities. he Fleet, Swing Time takes Astaire and Rogers out eur of Top Hat, but not as far. Astaire may have ain, but when he does, he?╟╓s wearing a top hat mav have to work as a dance instructor, but ns in an Art Deco ballroom about the size of Time may show the first evidence of the Astaire-Rogers series, but it still cherishes the here lovers can sing and dance in a snow- ,taire is John (?╟úLucky?╟Ñ) Garnett, a dancer with yen for gambling but not much luck. When he g to a haughty rich girl (Betty Furness), he is :e by the girl?╟╓s father: return home with five or give up all claims to his daughter. Still in his uckv hops a freight train to New York, where in love with a dance instructor named Penny icome a sensational dance team in nightclubs, improves at the gambling tables. When Penny :y?╟╓s fiancee, she decides to marry an amorous hat wedding is also disrupted. Inevitably, Lucky aether for a happy ending, lay,, fashioned by Howard Lindsay and revised lan Scott, has a mite^more substance than usual. Swing Time (RKO, 1936 ). Astaire, in blackface for the first and last time, dances with the chorus in the amazing ?╟úBoj angles of Harlem.?╟Ñ The number begins with Astaire reclining atop Harlem, with two oversized false legs stretching toward the camera, and it ends with Astaire tapping his way toward the camera, clapping his hands. The entire number is not only movie magic, it is the special magic created by the genius of Astaire.