A Few Words About A few words about...™ You'll Never Get Rich -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

After a single production at M-G-M in 1933, Mr. Astaire spent the next the next seven years at RKO, starring in some of what remain today, as the finest musicals ever created.

After that period, and while he would spend quality back at M-G-M, and Paramount, he made two films for Columbia, under the direction of Sidney Lanfield, and William Seiter, that sometimes seem to get short shrift.

The first, You'll Never Get Rich (1941) is the topic at hand, and the second, You Were Never Lovelier (1942), both had him paired with a female lead that many might not think of as a dancer. But that was Rita Hayworth's background.

This romantic comedy with some terrific musical numbers has been beautifully restored by Columbia, and reaches us via Twilight Time.

While it may be a small step below the earlier RKOs, and the later Technicolor M-G-Ms, it remains a treat.

Astaire

Hayworth

Porter (Cole, not Don)

A gorgeous Blu-ray presentation

Image - 5

Audio - 5

4k Up-rez - 5

Pass / Fail - Pass

Recommended

RAH

 

[Robin9]

Many thanks. Yes, I agree this is a gorgeous presentation of the film; far better than any I've previously seen.

Rita Hayworth's background was indeed as a dancer. From childhood, she worked with her father who was not only a fine dancer himself but also a friend of Fred Astaire. Her movie career began as a dancer in films like Dante's Inferno. Her two films with Fred Astaire show that she was a very good dancer and one of his best partners.

 

[marcco00]

I totally agree!

Thanx again Sony and Twilight Time!

You've given us a beautiful restoration of this really terrific musical film.

Please keep them coming!!

 

[Malcolm Bmoor]

I entirely endorse all the thoroughly deserved accolades for this film and Blu-ray. I'd had the DVD for some time but this issue is far far superior.

Altlhough neither Fred Astaire nor Gene Kelly were keen to bestow FAVOURITE status on any of their leading ladies I believe that Mr Astaire once said that Rita Hayworth was the one.

Please see this film and also the recent Blu-ray of COVER GIRL, in which she's with Mr Kelly.

 

[lark144]

I entirely endorse all the thoroughly deserved accolades for this film and Blu-ray. I'd had the DVD for some time but this issue is far far superior.

Altlhough neither Fred Astaire nor Gene Kelly were keen to bestow FAVOURITE status on any of their leading ladies I believe that Mr Astaire once said that Rita Hayworth was the one.

Please see this film and also the recent Blu-ray of COVER GIRL, in which she's with Mr Kelly.

Thanks Malcolm, for that recommendation, which kind of pushed me off the fence. I've never seen this film, though I own the follow-up, YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER, on DVD. It's one of my very favorite Fred Astaire films, and yes, Mr. Astaire & Ms. Hayworth are so perfect together that it's beyond description, like seeing the Sistine Chapel for the first time, or hearing the Budapest Quartet play Beethoven's Opus 135.

Let me tell you about how I first came to watch YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER. In those days, (I think this was around 1990) I had become a belated Balanchine enthusiast, and was going to every performance of the New York City Ballet. One particular performance included a premiere of a new Jerome Robbins piece, entitled "I'm Old Fashioned." It began with the curtains in the NEW YORK STATE THEATER opening on a silver screen, and a scene from YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER appeared, where Mr. Astaire first sings "I'm Old Fashioned" to Ms. Hayworth, and then they begin to dance. Suddenly, the lights came on and the entire stage was filled with couples dancing exactly like the couple on the screen.

And yes, I watched the MOC blu ray of COVER GIRL the night before last, so I guess it's time for me to see YOU'LL NEVER GET RICH.

 

[Malcolm Bmoor]

Thank you Mr lark144. At the grave risk of spoiling the warm and friendly atmosphere prevailing at present I'll venture surprise at the huge success of LA LA LAND whose values, from my point of view, would be in better perspective were the world 'out there' to be more familiar with the great singin' dancin' musicals of the past.

Maybe its impact had a lot to do with the contrast between it and the overwhelming barrage of ultra violence as comedy/light entertainment pictures.

 

[lark144]

Malcolm, I don't think the success of LA LA LAND has so much to do with the other films that are out there as the prevailing cultural climate among Americans at this very moment is not that different from the dark public mood that films such as COVER GIRL successfully gave expression and succor to. In fact, I found it interesting how COVER GIRL, though set in the past, related to many issues and anxieties in what I consider a very contemporary manner, especially the idea that everything that one has spent their life building can suddenly vanish in a moment's notice. The reasons, of course, are different, but the feeling is very similar. What's interesting, of course, about COVER GIRL, is that it evokes that darkness (one merely need point to Gene Kelly's Doppelganger duet) while at the same time relieving those anxieties with a a big infusion of star-spangled, candy-colored joy. But I don't want to spin this thread, which is about Ms. Hayworth and a slightly different, though just as masterful, dancer, into oblivion. In any case, I look forward to YOU'LL NEVER GET RICH appearing on my doorstep in all of its sublime and pristine glory very soon.