vincentlynch-moonoi This is the fourth and last film in MGM's "Broadway Melody" series, which began back in 1929. I've watched them all (for the first time) recently, and it's interesting to see how they evolved...and without question, this is the most sophisticated...although the two previous films were very entertaining.This is also the only time that Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell ever appeared in film together. She the top female dancer, he the top male dancer, and they are great together.Here, a friendly...and then not so friendly competition between two friends, both dancers develops. Fred Astaire plays the somewhat more talented dancer, while George Murphy plays the slightly less talented dancer. In a mix-up involving the great Frank Morgan, Murphy gets selected to appear with Eleanor Powell in a big Broadway production over the more talented Astaire. The two partners (Astaire and Murphy) breakup, but can't quite separate. Meanwhile Murphy turns up drunk and unable to perform, and Powell finally realizes that her partner (in both dancing and love) was supposed to be Astaire.Astaire was great. Murphy was very good. What was the difference? Try watching each of them when tap dancing...look at just their feet. Murphy occasionally makes tiny missteps that are hardly noticeable. Astaire is always perfect.Supporting cast members include Ian Hunter as the producer.Two of Cole Porter's best compositions are found here. "I Concentrate on You" is an exceptional song, and is wonderfully sung here by Douglas McPhail and danced by Eleanor Powell and Fred Astaire. And perhaps the best song of all time -- "Begin the Beguine" -- is featured here, with Astaire and Powell dancing to 2 different interpretations in a wonderful routine (although I was not impressed with the vocal by mezzo-soprano Lois Hodnott.It's tough to criticize this film, although MGM made a big mistake here. They considered filming it in Technicolor, which probably would have resulted in it being one of the most remembered of the MGM musicals. But due to the war, they settled for black and white. A shame. For that reason alone, I'm giving it only a very strong "7".

rps-2 A film from Hollywood when it was indeed the world's dream factory. Seventy years old... Black and white... mono sound... and it's probably the best film I've seen in six months. I've seen most of the Astaire- Rogers films but somehow this one escaped me. It is stunningly great. Cole Porter's ageless music... Fred Astair's classy persona and wonderful dancing... Eleanor Powell who indeed outshines Ginger Rogers... The production numbers are all the more remarkable when you realize the technology of the day was primitive by comparison with now. (One amazing scene where Astaire and Powell are dancing while their rear image is seen in a mirror at the back of the stage. Yet there is no reflection of the lights or cameras.) The world was pretty bleak in 1940. The depression was still being felt. Hitler had conquered most of Europe. France and Britain were about to collapse (France did. Britain almost did.) Here in Canada we were already at war. Yet for twenty-five or fifty cents you could buy 90 minutes of joy, glamour, beauty and fantasy. (Plus a cartoon, a short and a newsreel.)

bkoganbing Broadway Melody Of 1940 was the final of four glorious backstage musicals that MGM did. I suspect that others could have been done, but World War II among other things changed public tastes quite radically. The musical like every other film genre was bent for propaganda during those years.But in peace or war you can't beat the dancing of Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell with George Murphy thrown in for good measure. What's better than these three singing and dancing a Cole Porter score.In a story that curiously enough reflected their lives as well Fred and George are a dance act which is barely getting by. Eleanor Powell needs a partner for her new show and through a mix up that was a plot device worthy of one of Fred's films with Ginger, her producer's mean to hire Fred, but hire George instead.George Murphy would have been the first to say this real life as opposed to dialog on the screen. But right at the beginning he identifies Astaire as the creative one on the team. Murphy was a fine song and dance man, but he would never claim to be anything like Fred Astaire in terms of creativity.One of Cole Porter's biggest hits and my personal favorite of all of his songs comes from this film. I Concentrate On You is sung by young baritone Douglas MacPhail and then danced by Astaire and Powell. This is a song that will live as long as mankind can make music. A great song about following your heart. Incredibly enough, not even nominated for Best Song that year. The best versions of the song were recorded by Perry Como and Frank Sinatra.With all the talent involved in this film, you can't go wrong watching Broadway Melody of 1940.

brunodutch Leaving aside the fact that the leads can hardly act they sure can dance. When the awful designs allow. Eleanor Powell wears some of the worst and most garish clothes I remember from a movie of this period. Even poor Fred Astaire is dressed in spangles for the start of the dreadful Begin the Beguine. That is the supposed highlight of the movie but is so overproduced and designed that the viewer gets worn out before the leads appear in simpler clothes and actually manage to dance with each other. Much more interesting is the opening Don't Monkey with Broadway, wittily danced by Astaire and George Murphy, the juke box number for Astaire and Powell, Astaire's charming solo, and the brief but amusing trio for the three leads right at the end. Oh, and lets not forget the dreadful Harlequin number which makes Powell look extraordinarily clumsy and which seems to exist to show off some fancy lighting cues.The plot is not worth bothering about beyond noting that it's even more preposterous than usual for this kind of movie. The whole endeavor has a witless, leaden feel. I'm not surprised that Astaire didn't make another movie with Powell. She can't act a lick and has no sex-appeal. When they do get a chance to dance together they are both magic, but she challenges him as an equal, athletic and dynamic, an equal, not a decorative partner there to set off his easy elegance.