Bing Crosby was enormously popular over several decades, with a style that comes across as either smooth and debonair or smug and arrogant, depending on your taste. Here, he's paired with Fred Astaire, whose appeal as a dancer is obvious. With a retrospective of music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, this movie couldn't lose. "Puttin' on the Ritz" is one of the best Astaire dance numbers ever captured on film. Watch him twirl up a staircase during "A Pretty Girl Is like a Melody." The tunes just keep coming, one after another: "You'd Be Surprised" sung by adorable Olga San Juan, who gained fame briefly as the "Puerto Rican Pepperpot"; "All By Myself" sung by Crosby and costar Joan Caulfield; "Cuba" with it's interesting comment on prohibition; "You Keep Coming Back like a Song," "How Deep Is the Ocean," and, of course, the title song. "A Couple of Song and Dance Men" is a tour de force that Crosby and Astaire make look effortless, and "Heat Wave" is unbeatable. Billy de Wolf's musical monologue as a lady is a must-see. This show could have been called "The Irving Berlin Review." It even drags in "White Christmas." ---from Musicals on the Silver Screen, American Library Association, 2013
Review of Blue Skies
