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The Barkleys of Broadway
starring: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Oscar Levant, Billie Burke, Gale Robbins
directed by: Charles Walters

List Price: $14.98

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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780790749471
Format: Color, Original recording reissued, NTSC
ISBN: 0790749475
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Release Date: May 02, 2000
Running Time: 109 minutes
Sales Rank: 14600
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: May 04, 1949

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Editorial Review:

Amazon.com:
The MGM reunion of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, 10 years after their last RKO picture, happened by accident. The Barkleys of Broadway was meant to pair Astaire with Judy Garland as a follow-up to their 1948 hit Easter Parade. Garland, however, had to drop out due to health problems and was replaced by Ginger, who had gone on to a successful career in nonmusical drama and comedy. As it turned out, the plot probably suited Ginger better than it did Garland. Josh and Dinah Barkley are a veteran song-and-dance couple whose routine bickering turns into a complete breakup when Dinah decides she hasn't received enough credit for her talent and leaves Josh to take a straight dramatic role as Sarah Bernhardt. Fred and Ginger are as charming and comfortable together as a veteran couple should be, but this film is not a return to the RKO days--its elements are trademark MGM: splashy colors, Fred in a gimmicky solo number (playing sorcerer's apprentice to a line of unoccupied shoes), Oscar Levant providing his usual dynamic pianism and acerbic personality, and a score that is at its best when it borrows songs from a previous generation. In fact, Harry Warren, who provided the music for Ira Gershwin's lyrics, was upset that the film's big ballroom number recycled George and Ira Gershwin's "They Can't Take That Away from Me," which Fred and Ginger had introduced (but did not dance to) in 1937's Shall We Dance. Frankly, though, "They Can't Take That Away" not only works well thematically, but is one of the greatest songs ever written for the screen, while Warren's score is merely adequate and unmemorable. All in all, The Barkleys of Broadway is a warm, welcome, and not completely satisfying reunion. Watch it, then watch Swing Time again. --David Horiuchi

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Good reunion
"The Barkleys of Broadway" is an excellent vehicle to reunite Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. The merits are excellent colour and the stars themselves, mature and well cast and recreating their magic both in dance and in their obvious warmth and rapport. The drawbacks depend on whether you like MGM musicals or not. For me, the film has that overproduced and pretentious quality which was typical MGM. Oscar Levant is his usual tiresome self and their is one very high camp bit when Rogers recites the ... Read More

Rating:

- Why We Loved Them
"The Barkleys of Broadway," a musical comedy/romance, (postwar, 1949) was, unexpectedly, the tenth and last film Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers made together. It finds Astaire 50 years old, and Rogers, 38, and was made, after a ten-year hiatus, during which they each did their own things, and Rogers won an Oscar for her serious work in "Kitty Foyle." Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios made it, rather than the pair's original studio, Radio Pictures(later RKO). Famed MGM producer Arthur Freed, working in ... Read More

Rating:

- Fine Film - Poor Print
Beware. While this is one of those Astaire/Rogers films with some wonderful dance numbers, the color print put out here by Warner Brothers is terrible. The transfer is so dark as to be sometimes unwatchable. Compare the fabulous tap number here by these two that's found in That's Entertainment and you'll see that this print is like looking through a dark filter. I bought this DVD to have the Shoes With Wings On number and, in my opinion, the best dance ever done by this pair - They Can't Take That ... Read More

Rating:

- A Very Good Print of a Suprisingly Cheap Production
We are great Fred & Ginger fans. We now have all their movies. Considering the Talent all around -- including Comden & Green on dialog -- we must conclude that this effort was limited by a very small budget. For example there is only one big, complete, musical, production number. The dialog is so limited, it forces the actors to be wooden. The color is great.

Rating:

- Great
The barkley's of broadway is a fabulous film of fred astaire and ginger rogers!
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