Second Chorus. H.C. Potter. 1940. 
Wow!
That’s some logo.
Anyway, this is another public domain movie, but this one has star power:
And as usual with these things, it hasn’t been restored at all, so it looks pretty awful. And the audio is bad, too.
Still! Astaire!
And he’s as diffidently charming as ever, but this is an oddly low-budget low-effort movie.
Huh:
In a 1968 interview, Astaire described this effort as “the worst film I ever made.” Astaire admitted that he was attracted to the film by the opportunity to “dance-conduct this real swingin’ outfit”. In an interview shortly before his death, Shaw admitted this film put him off acting.
It does have a couple of nice dance scenes, but the rest is just like there. That’s a convoluted plot that’s not very interesting, and there’s so much dialogue, all aiming for “witty” and landing at “oh lahd”.
What’s the antonym of “scintillating”? That’s what this is.
Perhaps I would have enjoyed this more if it had been restored, and I see that it’s recently had a better re-release. But I’m never going to watch this again.
I did laugh out loud at the score sabotage scene. Toooooooooot!
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