Josh and Dinah Barkley are a husband-and-wife musical comedy team at the peak of their careers. After finishing a new show, Dinah meets serious French playwright Jacques Pierre Barredout, who suggests that Dinah should take up dramatic acting. Dinah tries to keep the suggestion a secret from Josh, but when he finally discovers Dinah hiding a script for Jacques' new show from him, the couple splits up.
Their good friend, acerbic composer Ezra Millar tries to trick them back together again, but fails. When Josh secretly watches Dinah's rehearsals for Barredout's new play and sees how she is struggling, he calls her up and pretends to be the Frenchman, giving her notes that help her to understand her part, the young Sarah Bernhardt. As the result, Dinah gives a brilliant performance. After the show, she accidentally learns that her late-night mentor was Josh and not Barredout, so she rushes to Josh's apartment and the two reconcile.
MGM borrowed Jacques François from Universal Pictures. Barkleys was his first film in English, and was to be his last American film, although he appeared in two UK-based productions. His French film career was extensive: he worked up until his death in 2003.[2]
Production
The Barkleys of Broadway was conceived under the working title You Made Me Love You, with Judy Garland in the lead role opposite Fred Astaire, a repeat of their pairing in Easter Parade (1948). In fact, producer Arthur Freed had Comden and Green working on the script for the new film even before Easter Parade was finished.[3] The film went into rehearsals with Garland, but it was soon clear that she would not be physically and emotionally able to do it. Freed contacted Ginger Rogers to see if she was interested in reuniting with Astaire: there had been rumors, denied by both, that the Astaire-Rogers working relationship had not been particularly warm, and they had not worked together since The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle in 1939. Rogers was interested, and The Barkleys of Broadway became their tenth and final film together, as well as their only film in color.[3]
The production period was from August 8 to October 30, 1948, with some additional work on December 28. While the film was in production, Astaire won an honorary Academy Award for "his unique artistry and his contributions to the technique of musical pictures," presented to him at the awards ceremony by Ginger Rogers.[3]
Songs
"Swing Trot" – music by Harry Warren and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. Dance critic Arlene Croce called this the best number in the film. Seen through the opening credits, it was released without visual impediment on That's Entertainment III (1994).[3]
"You'd Be Hard to Replace" – by Harry Warren and Ira Gershwin
"Bouncin' the Blues" – by Harry Warren
"My One and Only Highland Fling" – by Harry Warren and Ira Gershwin
"Weekend in the Country" – by Harry Warren and Ira Gershwin. Performed by Astaire, Rogers and Oscar Levant.
"Shoes with Wings On" – by Harry Warren and Ira Gershwin. Fred Astaire performs this number alone, as part of the show that Josh Barkley does by himself. It utilized compositing to have Astaire, a cobbler, dance with many pairs of shoes.
"They Can't Take That Away From Me" – by George Gershwin (music) and Ira Gershwin (lyrics). This song was also used in RKO's 1937 Astaire-Rogers film Shall We Dance, where Astaire had sung it to Rogers (as here). Their dance duet here (ballroom – no tap), one of their most effective, was the first time they danced it together.[3]
"Manhattan Downbeat" – by Harry Warren and Ira Gershwin
Three other Harry Warren-Ira Gershwin songs were intended for the film but never used: "The Courtin' of Elmer and Ella," "Natchez on the Mississippi," and "Poetry in Motion."[4] Another song by Warren and Gershwin, "There is No Music", was dropped from the film when Judy Garland was released from the picture.[5]
Critical response to The Barkleys of Broadway was mixed but positive.[3]
Box Office
The film grossed $50,000 in its first week at the State.[6] According to MGM records the film earned $2,987,000 in theatrical rentals in the US and Canada and $1,434,000 overseas resulting in a profit of $324,000.[1][7]
Awards and honors
Although the film did not win any awards, it did receive several nominations. Cinematographer Harry Stradling Sr. was nominated for a 1950 Academy Award for Best Color Cinematography, and writers Comden and Green were nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Musical.[8]
Adaptations
A radio version of the film was broadcast on January 1, 1951, as an episode of the Lux Radio Theater, with Ginger Rogers reprising the role of Dinah Barkley, and George Murphy playing her husband and partner Josh.
References
^ abcThe Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study
^Jablonski, Edward (1999). "What about Ira?". In Schneider, Wayne (ed.). The Gershwin style: new looks at the music of George Gershwin. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 269. ISBN9780195358155.
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