Swing Time (1936)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Swing Time (1936) -- G. Stevens

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers demonstrate their chemistry, both through their antagonistic then romantic repartee and, of course, through their tremendous dancing (after 43 takes, her feet bled from the spinning).  Dry wit and oddball character actors spice things up.  I reckon I'm not too certain about Astaire in blackface doing "Bojangles of Harlem" but his dancing in this sequence is still pretty astounding. The times were what they were and this is relatively inoffensive, as these things go.  Astaire plays a poor bloke who is extraordinarily lucky at gambling but engaged to someone he doesn't love (especially after he meets Ginger). Perhaps I liked Top Hat a bit more -- Fred makes too many avoidable mistakes in this one, upping the tension unnecessarily.