Product: Birth Of The Blues/Blue Skies - Double Feature (1941)
Rating: 5.0
THE BEST AT THEIR BEST!
BLUE SKIES: Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire at their musical and "glorious technicolor" best, singing and dancing to a plethora of Irving Berlin classics. What could be better? Certainly not the insipid copycat F. Sinatra and G. Kelly MGM musicals made a few years later! The "originals" are usually better, and this is surely true in this case. Astaire's dancing to "Puttin On the Ritz" is sublime, and Bing's crooning of "All By Myself" and "You Keep Coming Back Like A Song" to Joan Caufield has, if you look closely, an added debt of feeling for a usual more stoic Bing. Why? It has recently been revealed that Bing and Joan Caufield were having an affair when the movie was made! A must for and any movie musical fan's collection.BIRTH OF THE BLUES: Although a somewhat standard black & white movie musical typical of the late 1930s, the movie contains a bevy of standard songs and jazz numbers performed by a top notch cast. Moreover, the movie is "spiced" by a young Mary Martin. Bing and Mary's duet to "Wait Til The Sun Shines Nelly" is the highlight of the movie.IN CONCLUSION, A GREAT AND A BONUS GOOD MOVIE FOR A LOW BARGAIN PRICE. A GREAT AND MUST BUY!