Swing Time (1936)
Swing Time (1936)
Plot.
Where to Watch.
Currently Swing Time is available for streaming online, rent, buy or watch for free on: Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home
Streaming in:🇺🇸 United States
Cast & Crew.
Fred Astaire
Lucky Garnett
Ginger Rogers
Penny Carrol
Victor Moore
Pop Cardetti
Helen Broderick
Mabel Anderson
Eric Blore
Gordon
Betty Furness
Margaret Watson
Georges Metaxa
Ricky Romero
Landers Stevens
Judge Watson (uncredited)
Jack Goode
Dancer (uncredited)
William Bailey
Roulette Player
Gerald Hamer
Eric Lacanistram (uncredited)
Harry Bernard
Second Stagehand
Edgar Dearing
George Stevens
Director
Allan Scott
Screenplay
Pandro S. Berman
Producer
Howard Lindsay
Screenplay
Erwin S. Gelsey
Story
Van Nest Polglase
Art Direction
Henry Berman
Editor
Bernard Newman
Costume Design
David Abel
Director of Photography
Jerome Kern
Original Music Composer
Vernon L. Walker
Visual Effects
Hermes Pan
Choreographer
John W. Harkrider
Set Designer / Costume Design
Dorothy Fields
Lyricist
Hugh McDowell Jr.
Sound Recordist
Nathaniel Shilkret
Music Director
George Marsh
Sound Editor
Darrell Silvera
Set Dresser
Carroll Clark
Assistant Art Director
Fern Emmett
Olin Francis
John Harrington
Howard Hickman
Frank Jenks
Pierre Watkin
Frank Mills
Ferdinand Munier
Abe Reynolds
Media.
Details.
Release DateAugust 28, 1936
StatusReleased
Running Time1h 43m
Content RatingNR
Budget$886,000
Box Office$2,600,000
Genres
Last updated:
This Movie Is About.
Wiki.
Swing Time is a 1936 American musical comedy film, the sixth of ten starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Directed by George Stevens for RKO, it features Helen Broderick, Victor Moore, Betty Furness, Eric Blore and Georges Metaxa, with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Dorothy Fields. Set mainly in New York City, the film follows a gambler and dancer, "Lucky" (Astaire), who is trying to raise money to secure his marriage when he meets a dance instructor, Penny (Rogers), and begins dancing with her; the two soon fall in love and are forced to reconcile their feelings.
Noted dance critic Arlene Croce considers Swing Time to be Astaire and Rogers's best dance musical, a view shared by John Mueller and Hannah Hyam. It features four dance routines that are each regarded as masterpieces. According to The Oxford Companion to the American Musical, Swing Time is "a strong candidate for the best of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals". The Oxford Companion says that, although the screenplay is contrived, it "left plenty of room for dance and all of it was superb. ... Although the movie is remembered as one of the great dance musicals, it also boasts one of the best film scores of the 1930s." "Never Gonna Dance" is often singled out as the partnership's and collaborator Hermes Pan's most profound achievement in filmed dance, while "The Way You Look Tonight" won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and Astaire topped the U.S. pop chart with it in 1936. Jerome Kern's score, the first of two that he composed specially for Astaire films, contains three of his most memorable songs.
The film's plot has been criticized, though, as has the performance of Metaxa. More praised is Rogers's acting and dancing performance. Rogers credited much of the film's success to Stevens: "He gave us a certain quality, I think, that made it stand out above the others." Swing Time also marked the beginning of a decline in popularity of the Astaire–Rogers partnership among the general public, with box-office receipts falling faster than usual after a successful opening. Nevertheless, the film was a sizable hit, costing $886,000, grossing over $2,600,000 worldwide, and showing a net profit of $830,000. The partnership never regained the creative heights scaled in this and previous films.
In 1999, Swing Time was listed as one of Entertainment Weekly's top 100 films. In 2004, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition), it is ranked at No. 90.