barkleysofbroad

Fred Astaire would dance with Rita Hayworth. He would dance with Audrey Hepburn. He would
even survive the “Towering Inferno,” but after he and Ginger Rogers parted ways to pursue new
paths, the magic was never recaptured with another costar. The pairings just didn’t have the
innate chemistry and magic of the dancing duo. Quite literally, the pair came back by popular
demand a decade after their last outing for one final swansong, this time in glorious Technicolor.

“The Barkleys of Broadway” was a movie that only thinly disguised the kind of biopic undertones
that made it as much a documentary as an entertainment. Astaire and Rogers are a feuding
married couple famous onstage for their dancing and comedic antics. Astaire is a perfectionist who
has directed Rogers throughout their entire relationship. She wants something more from her
creative career and thinks he’s holding her down.

When a pretentious French playwright offers her the lead in his latest stage drama, she jumps at
the chance and, in an emotional explosion, parts ways with Astaire, who continues their hit stage
show without her. But Rogers’ experience isn’t going the way she planned. Is drama not her
thing? Astaire begins posing as her director over the phone and coaching her and she improves.
Meanwhile he can only watch and wait as his marriage crumbles while he hopes to resurrect it
somehow.

The movie is not their greatest or most legendary. This is the one they did for nostalgic reasons.
In the film, the dance numbers are lighter and not as innovative between them, though they are
elegant. There is even a reprisal of “Cheek to Cheek” from the original “Top Hat.” The “Barkleys
of Broadway” merely seeks to make the audience smile with the memories.

Interestingly, the story does mimic the real life tribulations of Rogers, who was desperate to get
away from dance comedies and go into “serious” roles, which she did with “Kitty Foyle” and “The
Major and the Minor.” However, she never would escape her legacy as Astaire’s matching half.
They truly were the greatest dancers in the history of cinema.

This movie is not without its enjoyments. Astaire and Rogers bicker nicely as was their trademark,
while the elfish leading man has an innovative solo dance number with a number of shoes without
owners dancing alongside him in step. The other breakout character in the show is pianist Oscar
Levant, who pulls what can only be described as musical stunts across the ivory keys of the pianos
he plays in the film.

Astaire and Rogers’ final outing is funny and heartwarming. Not the runaway miracle that is “Swing
Time” or the hilarious romp of “Carefree,” but a kind of high-budget epilogue to a pairing that no
one wanted to see end, but ultimately had to.