I think we all wish we
could have someone be kind enough to just give us money and opportunity for no
reason. Imagine some kind of benefactor you never have to meet taking you out
of the rut of your life, paying for you to go to school, and giving you an
awesome wardrobe. That would be incredible especially the school part! (I know,
I know nerd alert). The plot of Daddy
Long Legs shows what our wish of a benefactor could maybe be like.
Jervis Pendleton (Fred Astaire) comes from a very wealthy
family. Part of his home is a museum of the family’s art collection. He takes a
trip to France where his car breaks down. Looking for help Jervis comes across
an orphanage. While waiting for a car Jervis sees a young girl named Julie
Andre (Leslie Caron) teaching the younger kids. She is eighteen and Jervis sees
she has a lot of potential so he decides to become her benefactor and send her
to a good school in America. Before he gets into his car one of the kids sees
Jervis’s shadow. The kid runs to Julie and says her benefactor looks like a
Daddy Long Legs.
Julie comes to America and attends an all girl’s college.
Throughout school Julie writes to
“Daddy Long Legs” not knowing who he really is. Jervis receives the letters but
he never writes back. He finds out that his niece is roommates with Julie. He
arranges for himself and Julie to meet. Jervis begins to love her and Julie
begins to fall for him.
This being an old Hollywood film and a love story Julie
and Jervis wind up getting together.
Daddy Long Legs
was good. It was an hour way too long for my attention span (well, let me be
honest, I was exhausted and I started to fall asleep through most of it). The
story was alright. What bothered me about is the thought that Fred Astaire was
so much older than Leslie Caron and knowing their age difference kind of
creeped me out. But apparently in the play this film is based off of the age
difference is not too bad. I have to give a mention to some of the dresses that
Leslie Caron wore because they were gorgeous. I wanted her clothes so bad! Daddy Long Legs is a film I will
recommend seeing only if you really like musicals, Fred Astaire or Leslie
Caron.
“Do
anything so long as you make my wife believe I was telling the truth when I was
lying to her!”
You’ll Never Get
Rich is one of those classic films that drive me crazy. There is a lot of
lying, misunderstanding, and utter craziness. It started off decently and then
just spiraled into a huge WTF and bombed big time.
Theater impresario Martin Cortland traveled into New York
City to buy his wife a present for their anniversary. He bought his wife an
unremarkable back cheap back scratcher while he bought his potential mistress a
diamond bracelet. Martin has his eye on a chorus dancer named Shelia Winthrop
(Rita Hayworth).
In dance practice Shelia purposefully messes up the
routine a little bit so she can get to dance one on one with the choreographer
Robert Curtis (Fred Astaire). After rehearsals Martin calls Shelia into his
office to give her the bracelet. Unfortunately before he can give the present
to her Shelia leaves and his wife walks in. She takes the bracelet from his
pocket and looks at it. The bracelet has Shelia’s name on it so Martin tries
very hard to cover for himself by saying he bought it for Robert since he is
the one who likes Shelia. After the wife leaves Martin tells Robert he needs
him and Shelia to pretend they are in love and to go to a club that night so
his wife will hopefully be convinced.
At the club while they are dancing Robert confesses to
Shelia he likes it when she messes up so he can dance with her. When Martin and
his wife arrive the situation gets a little messy. Shelia does her best to be a
little over the top in her affections for Robert to make him uncomfortable to
get back at him for playing along with Martin. When they both leave the table a
reporter comes by and asks the wife who Robert and Shelia were. The wife tells
the reporter they are happily in love and engaged.
The following day Shelia is furious when she sees the
announcement in the paper about her “engagement” to Robert. She thinks he is
the one who told a reporter the story. Her brother Tom is in the army and has
been placed at training camp close to their home. He comes down to the city to
see Shelia and their aunt. Tom comes by just as Robert is driving up. Shelia,
Tom, and their aunt play a game to get back Robert. Their game scares Robert
right out of the apartment.
Robert has enough of Martin and is scared to death of
Tom. He hears he has been drafted and has to report for duty immediately.
Robert is thrilled because it means he will be away from all his problems.
Unfortunately at camp bigger problems arise after he punches one of the commanding
officers in the face while still in a nightmare one night and Tom comes to the
base. He also digs himself into a deeper hole by impersonating an officer.
Other stuff happens that I cannot remember- well nix that
“I cannot remember” bit it is more like I stopped paying attention.
You’ll Never Get Rich quickly got very boring and very
messy. I did not like Fred Astaire’s character at all. Robert was a little
silly and not very entertaining. Rita Hayworth was the only decent actor and
character in the whole film. I will say that Astaire and Hayworth’s dancing
scenes together were amazing. She kept right in sync with him. If you did not
know Hayworth was a dancer before she became an actress. She made dancing look
so effortless. Unless you are a fan of either Fred Astaire or Rita Hayworth You’ll Never Get Rich not a classic film
that is a must see.
Several classic films
have the story of two guys fighting for the attention of one girl. Usually the
guys are a little childish and do stupid stuff to each other to make the other
look bad to the girl. Well, A Second
Chorus is exactly like that, but not only are the two guys fighting for the
attention of the one girl they are also fighting for attention of band leader
Artie Shaw. Silly, yes I know I just finished sitting through the film.
Danny O’Neill (Fred Astaire) and Hank Taylor (Burgess
Meredith) have been in a college band for the past seven years. The only reason
they have been in the college band for so long is because they have been
failing all their classes purposely. At a gig one night Danny notices a woman
making eyes at him. Hank also takes notice of the woman and he likes her. After
Danny performs his number he goes over to the woman whose name is Ellen Miller
(Paulette Goddard). Turns out, Ellen is from a collections agency and she hands
him a summons under the table.
The following day, Danny and Hank go to the collections
office to try to sweet talk their way out of paying. They both flirt with Ellen
like little school boys. The collections agent tells them that one of them
bought a group of Encyclopedias seven years prior and never paid for it. Hank
and Danny want Ellen to be their secretary so they mess with the collector that
Ellen put them up to try to bribe him. The guy gets upset he fires Ellen and
throws the two men out of his office. Danny and Hank then offer Ellen a job as
their band’s secretary.
As soon as she gets to the school Ellen is on the phone
booking the band bigger and better gigs. Whoever she speaks to Ellen puts on an
act and talks the band up to fit the venues and the owners. The band eventually
gains such a reputation that word gets round to band leader Artie Shaw (playing
himself). The school band kind of becomes a rival to Artie.
At the end of the school year Hank becomes upset because
he passed a class and he now has to graduate. Danny admits to Ellen that he had
a hand in helping Hank pass by writing a paper so that he could be alone with
her. Hank gets Danny back by proving to the dean of the school that Danny, not
him, was the one who wrote the paper. Now Danny has been kicked out of the school
and neither one of them can be in the band.
Artie wants to see the band. Danny and Hank duel it out
with their trumpets to try to get Artie’s attention. Unfortunately their
dueling is to no avail as Artie just wanted to speak to Ellen. He wanted to
speak to the band’s manger since she had been getting them so many gigs. Artie
wants Ellen to be his new manager and she accepts. At the station the following
day Ellen really does not want to leave for New York City. She and Danny kind
of wait for the other to say the magic words “I love you don’t go” but neither
of them say the words.
At the station Danny and Hank claimed they were going
back to their hometowns to work at their families’ businesses. They both go to
New York City to see Artie just after Ellen convinced Artie to let them
audition for the band. Danny gets to the audition before Hank. He messes with
Hank by telling the doorman to not let Hank in. Hank catches on so he messes
with the notes for the song Danny is going to play on stage. Danny gets Hank
back by pulling him off the stage in the back and the two of them get into a
major brawl. Ellen is furious with both of them and Artie does not even want to
hear their names.
The same night at the same club where Danny and Hank
audition, there is an older gentleman named Lester Chisholm who has been at
several performances. Artie is a little unsettled with Lester always being
there so he has Ellen go over to see what Lester’s deal is. The older man
reveals that he just really likes music and that when he was younger he was
forced into the family business instead of following his passion for music.
Ellen gets Lester to back a concert for Artie. The only reason Lester is even
backing a concert is because he believes he will be able to play his mandolin at
the show.
Danny tries to see Ellen one night. He calls to her apartment
asking to come up and she tells him that he cannot it is not a good time.
Lester is in her room to go over the concert. Danny thinks Hank is in her room
so he leaves the building and climbs up to her room. He hides under her bed in
her room where Hank also happens to be because he though Danny was in the room.
They both think Ellen is being taken advantage of by an older man so they
devise a plan where Danny distracts Ellen and Hank comes out of the room
pretending to be her husband. Lester runs out of the room and pulls out of
backing the show.
Danny promises Ellen he will have the whole situation
fixed with Lester in one hour. He goes to see Lester with Hank claiming they
are there to clear Ellen’s name. They make up a song for Lester to think he can
play on the mandolin for the show. They do that so they can be the only ones
who can play the song and for Lester to insist on it being in the show. Danny
goes to see Artie and Ellen and he makes up a song on the spot. Artie likes the
song and sees if there will be a spot in the show for it. Both Danny and Hank
want Lester to stay away from the show. Danny wants both of them to stay away
so he has Hank keep an eye on Lester. Hank says he will try only if Danny can
get him a place in the orchestra.
Things happen that I cannot really remember. Danny gets
in the show with a different number. Hank and Lester get left at the hotel
passed out on the couch from exhaustion from practicing nonstop. Danny of
course winds up with Ellen.
All the praise goes to Paulette Goddard. She is such an
underrated classic actress. I loved her with Fred Astaire. Goddard had this
wonderful tough chick attitude in pretty much all her films and she definitely
had it here. When Astaire worked with Ginger Rogers she always gave his
characters such an attitude. Her attitude was snarky and sassy. Goddard’s, as I
said, was tough chick but not snarky or sassy. I liked seeing that kind of
attitude against Astaire’s character’s boyishness and annoyingness. I have no
idea if any of that made sense. I guess to put it plainly Goddard’s attitude
was perfect compared to Astaire’s annoyingness. Burgess Meredith really does
nothing for me and never does in whatever film I see him in.
This film what to me is an absolutely underrated Fred
Astaire dance number. The number is called “Dig It” and he dances it with
Paulette Goddard. I am just going to go right ahead and say that Goddard is one
of Astaire’s best dancing partners. The woman is not out of sync with Astaire
for one moment. She also looks like she had a blast dancing. The song is so
much fun. The horn section on this song fantastic I love listening to it. I actually
get the horn and the drumbeat mixed with it stuck in my head all the time. I
actually watched “Dig It” by itself a few years ago and I never forgot it I loved
it so much. I am sure that is mostly due to Goddard just being beyond brilliant
with her dancing. And also the horns and drum mix as I have mentioned.
A Second Chorus
was alright. Fred Astaire’s and Burgess Meredith’s characters were so annoying.
I will say that Danny O’Neill is a character that is not a typical one for Astaire.
In many of his films with Ginger Rogers he was usually the love sick little boy
chasing the girl. He is the same way in A
Second Chorus but his character was much crueler and devilish than his
other love sick little boy roles. It was interesting for me to see Artie Shaw
in a film. I love Ava Gardner and she was married to him for a while. I had no
idea he was even in a film and I had never heard any of his music before this. It
is hard to imagine Shaw being such an ass to Ava and even to Lana Turner whom
he married later on after seeing him in this film but I will believe it. A Second
Chorus is worth watching if you love and adore Paulette Goddard or if you
want to see Fred Astaire in an atypical role.
