Product: Birth Of The Blues/Blue Skies - Double Feature (1941)
Rating: 3.0
Double feature at the right price - pity about the films really
Here are 2 Paramount studio films of the turgid Bing Crosby, very popular in their day but pretty hard to take nowadays. Here are some of the problems:- "Birth of the Blues" is an embarassing distortion of history which may have one of the most offensive screenplays ever written;- Brian Donlevy has a major role in "Birth" and would rank as the one of the least suited stars to the musical genre in the history of film. He is completely charmless;- "Blue Skies" pairs Crosby with Fred Astaire and 2 dull leading ladies. The budget for the 2 men meant there was no money for decent female costars. Olga San Juan!!! Olga who? She is awful and Joan Caulfield is colourless. Then there is Billy de Wolfe who is beyond description;- Astaire himself is pallid and announced his retirement after the film was released, although he subsequently moved to MGM and the Arthur Freed unit.On a positive note:- both films are very well made;- there are some good numbers - "The Waiter, the Porter and the Upstairs Maid" in "Birth of the Blues" and Astaire's showstopping "Puttin on the Ritz" in "Blue Skies", for example;- Mary Martin is a terrific co-star in "Birth" and lights up the screen.The prints are good but only Crosby fans will want this set. There are no extras.