Yolanda and the Thief (1945) User Reviews

Bizarre....just plain bizarre.

[MartinHafer · 4/10 · 9 September 2012]

This MGM musical might just win the award for the weirdest musical of all time...or at least until the film "The Apple" debuted in 1980. It's a one-of-a-kind strange film...that's for sure.

The film is set in the mythical South American nation of Patria. A young lady in a convent (Lucille Bremer) is about to reach her 18 birthday and assume control over a HUGE corporation that practically owns the nation. However, she's feeling completely overwhelmed and prays for divine assistance. Well, it happens that a devilish thief (Fred Astaire) heard her prayer and decides to become her guardian angel--and thereby rob her of her fortune. However, like you'd expect in an old time musical, Fred is torn and just can't bring himself to hurt poor Lucille. What's next? Well, I won't say but I will say it gets a lot weirder yet!! This is brainless fun...but clearly brainless. It's not a particularly good script and the film also suffers from a couple dance numbers that are too long and time-consuming--most likely to cover for the fact the film just hasn't got much of a plot. Worth seeing for Astaire lovers---all others be careful!

By the way, if you do see the film look at the opening number. This must be the most sexually repressed imaginary country on the planet, as the folks shower while dressed!! You wonder how (and IF) they make love!

Has a lot to enjoy, but essentially a case of style over substance

[TheLittleSongbird · 6/10 · 1 July 2015]

When Yolanda and the Thief is good it is great, but when it is not so good it does significantly underwhelm, a case of having a lot of style and not enough substance. Like The Belle of New York, Yolanda and the Thief is one of Astaire's weakest films, but has a number of virtues that is enough for one to stick with it.

Yolanda and the Thief does look glorious, with positively exotic colours, lavish cinematography and opulent costumes. In this regard, the best and most interesting scene visually is the dream sequence, which looks really stunning. The songs are not enough and they are not the most memorable in the world, but they are pleasant and fun and don't drag the film down too much, the best song being the riotous Coffee Time.

Vincente Minnelli directs very imaginatively, his sense for storytelling has been much stronger in his other films but in terms of style and visual imagination he triumphs. Choreographically, Yolanda and the Thief dazzles as much as the visuals, especially in the dream sequence, which is very colourfully and elegantly choreographed and superbly danced, and Coffee Time, which has the most energy the film ever gets. Fred Astaire is in a different role to usual(very like Three Little Words, except his performance is better in that) and while it does seem like an ill fit at first, he plays it with real grace, suavity and charm while his dancing is magnificent as always. Lucille Bremer proves herself one of his most elegant partners and she dances exquisitely, while Mildred Natwick has fun as the Aunt.

The story however struggles to sustain the running time, is very predictable even for a 40s musical and strains credibility quite badly. The opening sequence is unnecessary and clumsily handled and the ending felt abrupt and under-explained. The script manages to be even thinner and the attempts at humour are leaden and unfunny, while the film shamefully wastes Frank Morgan and Leon Ames, two very reliable actors when with good material but their roles here do nothing for their talents at all. Outside of the musical numbers the film also struggles maintaining momentum, and while her dancing is delightful Bremer seemed very overtaxed and cold in her acting.

All in all, one of Astaire's weakest but has enough to partially recommend it. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Scamming The Aquaviva Fortune

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 28 May 2009]

One of Fred Astaire's lesser musicals from the Forties is Yolanda And The Thief. A charming film in spots, but somehow the whole package just doesn't ignite.

Part of the problem is Lucille Bremer. After a few films in the Forties she never caught the fancy of the movie going public. She sang beautifully with Trudy Erwin's voice in this film and was a graceful partner for Fred. But when not dancing and singing she was too cloying as the naive young girl from the convent and heir to the Aquaviva fortune.

Fred Astaire and Frank Morgan are a pair of likable grifters traveling by train through the South American country of Patria. They read about Bremer returning home from the convent where she was raised since her parents died. They decide she's an easy mark.

But what a scam they work, they hear Lucille in the garden praying for her guardian angel and Fred assumes the guise. But something works on his conscience and even more so on his libido. He's falling for the sweet young thing.

Yolanda And The Thief came from the Arthur Freed unit at MGM and Freed supplied the lyrics to a most forgettable score with Harry Warren's music. I will say the sets and color cinematography have an Oz like quality to them. I expected to see Judy Garland's companions pop up any minute. Another good thing about the film is the portrayal of Leon Ames as another stranger in this strange land who seems to be constantly popping up.

But Yolanda And The Thief ain't anything close to the Wizard Of Oz.

The convent girl and the con-artist...

[moonspinner55 · 5/10 · 29 May 2006]

Canned magic from MGM and director Vincente Minnelli. Lushly-produced, if studio-bound musical about convent-school graduate who unknowingly inherits family fortune, and the con-artist who tries duping her out of it. Certainly an eyeful, "Yolanda" is tuneful and colorful yet aloof, never quite achieving its ambitions to be a romantic musical-comedy. The awkward prologue featuring South American schoolchildren gets the picture off to a clumsy start, although director Vincente Minnelli stages some beautiful production numbers. Fred Astaire and Lucille Bremer are not magnificent together, but they are charming, and their "Coffee Time" number is glorious. Mildred Natwick is hilarious as Bremer's batty aunt and there's a humdinger of a fiesta sequence. The colorful costumes are knockouts, but the film's finale seems truncated, tampered with (the plot threads are tied up off-screen). The cinematographer was Charles Rosher, whose beautiful colors evoke the best parts of "The Wizard Of Oz". Unfortunately for him and everyone else, the confines of the studio are in evidence throughout and one feels boxed in by the wall-to-wall whimsy. ** from ****

Dirtier, more rotten scoundrels!

[TxMike · 14 December 2004]

Fred Astaire established such a reputation as a "good guy" (i.e. "Daddy Longlegs"), it is a bit of a shock at first to see him playing a scoundrel. In "Yolanda and The Thief", Astaire (45) plays Johnny Riggs, a second rate con man. But he gets more than he bargained for in this light, formulaic romantic comedy with a nice twist at the end. I had not heard before of Lucille Bremer who plays Yolanda Aquaviva, just turning "of age" (probably 18 or 21, even though she was 28 here), and leaving the convent and orphanage run by the nuns, to travel to the fictitious Hispanic country where she was to assume oversight of her inheritance, land and a beautiful home with an old aunt and a full staff. As she was leaving the old Mother Superior gave her a talk, and warned of the "dishonest" people she might encounter. So sheltered and naive was Yolanda, she had a bit of trouble comprehending the idea of "dishonest" people. This movie came out in 1945, the year I was born. It was shot in color, and is very natural looking. Not a great movie, but a fun movie for fans of Astaire, and he does a couple of dance numbers with Bremer, who also was a gifted dancer and an adequate singer.

The rest of my comments contain SPOILERS, BE WARNED. As Johnny and his sidekick Victor Trout (Frank Morgan, who earlier played the Wizard in Oz) were looking over a wall for an opportunity, he heard Yolanda praying in the garden to her guardian angel, for help managing the money and business of her estate. Johnny decided to play "Mr Brown", her guardian angel, meets her, she takes it all in, and agrees to sign papers to give Johnny power of attorney over all her wealth as her sign of trust in him. He and Victor plan to run away and cash out the $Million in bonds that they lifted from her residence, but keep running into Mr. Candle, who just won't get out of their way. Also, it seems that the custom in this small country is, signing over power of attorney is a sign that the two are getting married. As Johnny and Victor try to leave the country by train, Mr. Candle is there again. It turns out that Mr. Candle really is Yolanda's guardian angel, and insists that Johnny marry her, which he does, knowing that he had better treat her right, because Mr. Candle would always be watching!

gorgeous, boring MGM musical fantasy

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 7 June 2007]

Lovely Lucille Bremer is Yolanda and Fred Astaire is the thief in "Yolanda and the Thief," a 1945 musical directed by Vincente Minnelli and also starring Frank Morgan, Leon Ames, and Mildred Natwick. Astaire and Morgan are con men in a Latin American country called Patria which is practically owned by the Aquaviva family. The heir to the fortune, Yolanda (Bremer) has just left convent school to take over the estate, and Johnny (Astaire) decides to get it away from her. He hears her praying to an angel statue how worried she is about all the money, etc., and decides to pose as an angel. This, of course, is in keeping with one of the major themes of the day during and after World War II - angels, the dead coming back to life, heaven.

This is a beautiful film to look at with some good dance numbers. Minnelli was a brilliant director, even with less than great material. Alas, the stunningly photographed Bremer wasn't much of a presence. She and Astaire are okay together but the whole thing never really gets off the ground. A few nice moments, but one expects more from both Minnelli and Astaire.

Unusual fantasy directed by Vincente Minnelli was a box-office dud...

[Doylenf · 22 May 2001]

Perhaps a wittier script and some really good songs would have made a difference. As it is, "Yolanda and the Thief" is an over-produced mishmash of unashamedly corny situations (even for 1945!)

Fred Astaire is a dapper con man who travels to a mythical South American country where he overhears a young woman (Yolanda, Lucille Bremer) praying for a guardian angel. He and his fellow rogue, Frank Morgan, attempt to fleece the rich young woman and--well, basically, that's the thin plot.

Fred and Lucille have a couple of dancing highlights ("Will You Marry Me?" and "Coffee Time"), the latter being a dazzling display of artistry from set decorators and costume designers, a feast for the technicolor camera. But the script is full of painful attempts at humor that only make Mildred Natwick look foolish as a dotty Aunt, and even the reliable Leon Ames can do little with his role as Mr. Candle. Most of the songs are dreadful, particularly an opening number called "Patria" (fictional name of the country), so bad it gives what follows the look of amateur night at the studio. Not one of Vincente Minnelli's finest hours.

Stealing Heaven

[writers_reign · 5/10 · 12 July 2008]

It's a given that the best musicals, be they stage or screen, feature the best music, best lyrics and best books; think of (to confine ourselves to movies) Meet Me In St Louis, A Star Is Born (Garland version), Young At Heart, High Society. All with strong books, flesh-and-blood characters, great music, great lyrics. It's possible to get away with one weak element, usually the book, again think of the Astaire-Rogers series, barely a credible book between the lot of them but more than redeemed by the scores and, of course, the dancing. Astaire fared badly also with the book of Royal Wedding but again the score cancelled it out but when you have a weak book, weak music and weak lyrics - think Astaire in Second Chorus - then you don't even have a weak prayer. Yolanda And The Thief is weak in all three departments. Arthur Freed was arguably the worst lyricist Harry Warren was ever saddled with. But hold it a minute, isn't that the SAME Arthur Freed who produced all those classic MGM Musicals and ran, in fact, the Freed Unit? You got it in one; Freed is like the only boy on the block who owns a cricket bat, ball and set of stumps so even though not terribly gifted either he gets to play or no one does. To be fair to Freed he'd just worked with Warren on This Heart Of Mine heard in Ziegfeld Follies - this was Astaire's first MGM movie and actually shot before Yolanda though released after - and turned in a serviceable lyric albeit far inferior to Warren's melody but here he seems to be anticipating the 'modern' musicals that make a virtue out of dreary, uninspired lyrics. The book is a joke and somehow Minnelli and Freed combine to make even Astaire's dancing seem pedestrian. What id did have (apparently) was lavish colour, hardly surprising given Minnelli's penchant for colour but the print I saw was washed out so I'll have to take it on trust. I'm glad I saw it but I'd pay good money to see Astaire in The Passing Of The Third Floor Back.

Very surreal

[HotToastyRag · 3/10 · 2 February 2020]

An American in Paris has become one of the most revered dance movies of the silver screen, but the more movies of that era you watch, the more you realize it's not that special or unique. Yes, it spent a lot of the studio's money, but it wasn't the first to do anything except introduce Leslie Caron. The famous 17-minute dream sequence ballet was, some argue, a direct copy of the 15-minute dream sequence ballet from Yolanda and the Thief. While I don't particularly like either movie, it's worth noting.

Fred Astaire takes the helm in this odd, artistic musical that will remind you far more of Salvador Dali than Fred's usual fare. The colors are intense, the art direction is bold, and the costumes and sets will set you reeling. The songs themselves aren't particularly memorable, and there aren't that many of them. If you appreciate artistry more than anything, this might be your favorite Fred Astaire movie. I didn't really like the experimental jazz and the surreal tone of the dance numbers. To each his own, but I will leave you with one more warning: if you tend to get seasick, you might want to avoid this movie, since it often attempts to hypnotize the audience at the same time Lucille Bremer is hypnotized by Fred's dancing.

DLM Warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, like my mom does, this movie will not be your friend. During the "Coffee Time" number, the set designs include wavy lines that will make you sick. In other words, "Don't Look, Mom!"

thief or angel?

[didi-5 · 6/10 · 20 July 2008]

A piece of Hollywood hokum, this musical has Lucille Bremer as an heiress who has been sheltered all her young life in a convent, and Fred Astaire as an enterprising thief who (stay with us here) presents himself, and is accepted as, Yolanda's guardian angel! Of course his aim is to get all her money and disappear over the border, but he's foiled along the way by fate (or is it?). The good thing about this hard to swallow fable is that there are two or three really enterprising dance numbers, and they are worth your time. But there are no real story surprises - the 'twist' you can probably see coming a mile away and of course, there is always a happy ending and a quick resolve in an MGM movie.

Coffee Time Saves the Day

[drednm · 10 October 2009]

This is a totally misconceived musical fantasy that never knows what direction it's heading in. Parts of it are sticky-gooey religious drek with heiress Yolanda Aquaviva (Lucille Bremer) graduating from a convent to take her place at the head of the country's richest family. The other story thread concerns grifters (Fred Astaire and Frank Morgan) entering the country (it looks like Bolivia) to escape the American police. With assistance from an archangel (Leon Ames)the stories meet.

Mildred Natwick, as the loony aunt, comes off best in a delightfully comic performance. Ames and Morgan have almost nothing to do. Astaire, with his worst toupee in a major film, seems bored. Bremer (of the twitchy eyes) has almost zero acting talent. The color cinematography and set decoration will knock your eyes out, but as the scenes run from obvious artsy sets to real back drops, there seems to be no consistency or authorial vision.

Aside from a few comic moments (which belong to Natwick) the only things that saves this film from total failure is the musical number "Coffee Time." The set up is a carnival where Astaire and Bremer get pushed into doing a dance together. The oddly syncopated "Coffee Time" catches the viewer off guard because it's so damned good and quite arresting.

The number is introduced by three girls who clap in counter beat to the slightly South American sounds of the main melody. Then swirls of dancers join in, also clapping their four-beat counter tempo. Finally Astaire and Bremer take the spotlight and for a few moments they both come alive as they dance across the amazingly psychedelic floor of black and white wavy streaks. This is a great song/number stuck in a lousy film.

After the song, we resume the dreary narrative. I have no idea what director Vincente Minnelli was trying for, but nothing works. It's not a fantasy, it's not funny, and the religious angle is a total dud. Thank heaven for Mildred Natwick, the color cinematography, and "Coffee Time."

This film is primarily a product placement puff piece for . . .

[tadpole-596-918256 · 7/10 · 14 May 2021]

. . . Big Tobacco. Throughout YOLANDA AND THE THIEF, the first-mentioned title character's REAL Guardian Angel (aka, Mr. Candle) smokes like Chimney Rock on Pow Wow Eve. At one point this proponent of emphysema and cancer compels Johnny-the-Thief to light a half dozen cigarettes for him (one for each of his spider-like six arms). When he's not spreading terrible toxins from a mouthful of Coffin Nails, Candle is gassing his captive audience with the stench of his ubiquitous lung-clogging cigar. More fading stars of Mr. Astaire's generation died from being smitten and smote by smoking than in car, train and plane crashes combined. (Though Big Booze claimed more than its share of Tinsel Town luminaries, Demon Rum ran a distant second to the number succumbing to ball-and-chain smoking.) But as YOLANDA sings, "Smoke, smoke, smoke your butt; cut off your air stream . . . "

maybe just enjoy it anyway?

[ptb-8 · 7/10 · 25 May 2006]

Imagine if Pufnstuf married Mary Poppins at MGM in 1945. Hmmm. This eyegoggling Technicolor extravaganza set in South America is basically the movie version of the box of chocolates Forrest Gump's Mum warned us about. Unsuspecting viewers might be initially puzzled at the setting and the ideology of the characters. But if you are willing to be patient and be generous about the casting and look forward to a sumptuous feast of color MGM musical effervescence... Well YOLANDA is possibly one of the three top visual treats from that studio. WIZARD OF OZ and THE PIRATE are my votes for the other two. This puts us firmly in a fantasy mode of dreamy musicals with some bitter edges and sexual undercurrent. Read the other comments on this site for YOLANDA they quite well describe some odd things and mostly agree on the film's triumphs: the art direction and the 'Coffeetime' dance number. For me there is an extra musical bonus: The song called "I've An Angel": its breathtaking romantic excitement, the swoon-worthy sexual beauty of Lucille Bremer emerging from her bath to dress in ultra sheer imagery of famed Vargas Girl style.. and the song itself hummed and sung as she bathes, dresses, leaves the house and rushes through the night for a possibly breathless encounter. YOLANDA has many delights, like that chocolate box itself, and it is over ripe and heady. But I am so happy it exists, so delicious a cinematic fruit salad. It cost a mammoth $4million dollars in 1945 and did not return its cost. Made in the days when 'Art for Arts sake" the MGM motto on the ribbon over the growling lion logo, actually meant what it said. YOLANDA (and THE PIRATE) are both genuine art musicals. Know that and you will enjoy.

Surreal and Not Entirely Successful

[LeonardKniffel · 6/10 · 11 April 2020]

Fred Astaire plays a con man in a fictitious Latin American country who attempts to dupe a girl to get at her father's millions. Directed by Vincente Minnelli, the film is best remembered for its surrealistic "Dream Ballet," with Astaire, costar Lucille Bramer, and others set against scenery reminiscent of artist Salvadore Dali. ---from Musicals on the Silver Screen, American Library Association, 2013

Vincente Minnelli unbound in garish, one-of-a-kind musical phantasmagoria

[bmacv · 5/10 · 20 May 2002]

If Yolanda and the Thief isn't the damnedest thing ever committed to film, it's hard to say what is. Vincente Minnelli took a wisp of whimsey from Ludwig Bemelmans and turned it into this overblown fantasy musical that pushes the flap of the envelope wide open.

Most musicals – the best of them, anyway – grow out of show business lore and derive their pluck and sass from the raffish traditions of show-must-go-on troupers. But Yolanda and the Thief invents a Latin-American Ruritania (called Patria, or fatherland) out of stereotypes which verge on the offensive but stay simperingly coy. It's a kind of squeaky-clean utopia of the clueless Lost Horizon sort run by a benevolent family of oligarchs called the Aquavivas.

Their only daughter (Lucille Bremer), having reached her majority, leaves the convent school where she is allowed to wear full Hollywood makeup. The vast family fortune becomes hers to administer with the help of a dotty aunt (Mildred Natwick, and the best thing in the movie). Alas, the good sisters have not equipped her to cope with the wicked ways of the world, as personified by a couple of American con-artists (Fred Astaire and Frank Morgan) who arrange an introduction and plan to abscond with a sizeable chunk of her assets. Astaire poses as an angel for the impressionable girl, and almost gets away with it, except he – inevitably – falls for her. Plus, on the fringes of the action, a real angel operates....

Harmless enough piffle, but get a load of the musical numbers. Full-tilt phantasmagorias that look like Busby Berkeley on acid or crystal or absinthe, they get bigger and more grandiose and ever loonier, with colors so brash that sunglasses are in order (was this the first head movie?). The set and costume designers must have had field day, what with Minnelli extending them a carte blanche they certainly never had before and would never have again until the debut of the music video. But the songs stay resolutely uninspired, which takes the starch out of the dancing (even much of Astaire's). It's safe to say nobody strode out of the theaters in 1945 whistling snappy tunes from Yolanda and the Thief.

It's not exactly fun to watch but you can't take your eyes off it, either. A one-of-a-kind Technicolor extravaganza, it makes you wonder how – not to say why – it ever got made. Astaire's reputation must have taken a nosedive after its release, and as for Bremer? She makes you long for Ginger Rogers – even the very late Ginger Rogers.

Minnelli in Paradise

[harry-76 · 22 January 2003]

Vincent Minnelli loves pure beauty, and in "Yolanda and the Thief" he's in heaven.

Here he has the unbridled luxury of reveling in rich colors, stylish costumes, imaginative dream sequences, and a carnival dance scene that's breathtaking.

With Arthur Freed and Harry Warren's tuneful songs, music supervision by Roger Edens and direction by Lennie Hayton, the score simply glows.

Right from the start, "This is a Day for Love" spans a colorful countryside, moving into a processional and to a lovely convent setting. At midpoint, there's a fantasy through cobblestone streets, to a "magical" pond (from which a remarkable "apparition" emerges) to a multileveled plane with assorted choreographic groupings.

This complex fantasy undoubtedly inspired Gene Kelly six years later in developing his great ballet sequence of "An American in Paris." The expansive MGM sound stages are fully utilized in both executions to their fullest.

Then the show-stopping "Coffee Time" choreography by Eugen Loring, and deftly danced by Fred Astaire, Lucille Bremer and company, is a masterpiece of concept and execution.

Starting off with a lone female trio stepping and clapping off-beat in 5/4, a startling 4/4 song is suddenly superimposed upon the "ground"--with dance and clap movements clearly continuing in 5/4. To add to the "tour de force, a slower pas de deux emerges in the irregular meter, only to be followed by the corps' return to the regular, with everything "taken out" in combined meters.

It's really something to see this dance, which is obviously the result of many weeks of painstaking work from a number of departments, so smoothly executed. Astaire is on top of his form, with Bremer right there every step of the way. They make as beautiful a pair here as in the lovely "This Heart of Mine" number from "Ziegfield Follies."

As for Minnelli, he must have been ecstatic throughout this picturesque production. Mildred Natwick shines in her hilarious role as Aunt, and Frank Morgan and Leon Ames provide able support.

The script itself is a serviceable backdrop for the art departments' joining the music team in having a field day crafting a very beautiful production.

As for Minnelli, this was certainly among his happiest hours in filmmaking.

VERY nice musical fantasy

[kijii · 8/10 · 23 November 2016]

This is a VERY nice musical fantasy about a couple of thieves (Fred Astaire and Frank Morgan) going through a very rich mythical country and trying to steal money from an innocent, recently-in-a-convent young woman (Lucille Bremer).

The mythical country looks like it might be somewhere in the northern part of South America (Bolivia, Peru, or Columbia???), but that's up to us to guess. It's mythical after all......

So what's Leon Ames's role in the movie? You will have to see it and find out.

This is a nice musical in beautiful color with lavish sets and costumes and good production numbers.

Lucille Bremer is not a household name because she retired from show biz after getting married.

Technicolor steals the show!

[gregcouture · 12 January 2005]

I'd always been curious about this one, especially considering its rather unhappy reputation as a major disappointment in the Fred Astaire/Vincente Minnelli canon, and it's fairly easy to see why. Turner Classic Movies scheduled it recently and I tuned in to watch something that certainly made me glad Technicolor was invented but which fell somewhat short of its intended mark.

The story is absolute piffle, almost redeemed by Mildred Natwick's genuinely funny portrayal of a dotty aunt. (Check out the sequence where she welcomes Yolanda home from her years at a convent school.) M-G-M stalwarts Leon Ames and Frank Morgan (Was he in every single class "A" Metro production from the late Thirties through the early Fifties?) lend reliable support with the little they're given to do. And Fred Astaire and Lucille Bremer get (only) two opportunities to display their dancing compatibility. Astaire, of course, managed to complement all of his dancing partners with his patented style and grace (even the miscast Joan Fontaine in "A Damsel in Distress") but, as a matter of personal opinion, I think that Ms. Bremer runs a very close second to the gorgeous Cyd Charisse as one of his most elegant and beautiful co-stars. She's too old for her role in this one, admittedly, but she's nevertheless quite charming and a prime object for the luscious Technicolor cinematography of Charles Rosher.

The real star of this misbegotten show, however, is the opulence of the very artificial art direction, set decoration, and costuming. It's Hollywood at its most baroque and Minnelli keeps his cameras gliding through it all as if on angels' wings. If you're not looking for one of the Arthur Freed's unit's bona fide musical classics, this one will provide a phantasmagoria of color and motion that's rarely been equaled.

"That's it. I quit!"

[topitimo-829-270459 · 4/10 · 4 November 2019]

Fred Astaire wanted to retire in 1945. And can you blame the guy? MGM gave Gene Kelly something as youthful and energetic as "Anchors Aweigh" (1945) while Astaire was stuck in a plastic make-believe country with a terrible screenplay. I would have quit too, but thankfully the gorgeous "Blue Skies" (1946) was only a year away and would bring Fred back ready to start his 'second golden age'.

In "Yolanda and the Thief" (1945) Astaire plays a con-man who arrives in a fictional South American country because the country does not have an extradition agreement with the United States. There he meets a millionaire-heiress played by Lucille Bremer, whom he starts romancing. In the mid-40's there was clearly a South America boom in the US, which is visible in the successful films of Carmen Miranda, Disney's "Three Cabarellos", as well as Jose Iturbi's out-of-place appearances in "Anchors Aweigh" and other MGM films. "Yolanda" is a film dedicated solely for this craze, and therefore it is a very light narrative.

Which is fine. Fred could carry or even benefit from a light, dumb story-line, if the writing was at least funny, if the chemistry with the dance partner was good, if the dancing was his usual level, and if the songs were decent. Unfortunately, this is not the case with "Yolanda". I found Bremer to be one of Astaire's more-forgettable dance partners. Also the fact that the female lead is a schoolgirl at a monastery in the beginning of the film makes the romance kind of icky. In actuality, Bremer was ONLY 18 years younger than Fred, so he would by the late 1950's have more alarming age differences in his films.

In the dance sequences, there are many techniques visible that Minnelli would master in his later musicals, such as the way camera movements correlate with the changing scenery. The dancing itself was not very memorable, and I couldn't remember the songs even just a day after the viewing.

A Lighter than air story, yet one that fails to get of the ground.

[Scaramouche2004 · 5/10 · 27 October 2008]

My guess is that Fred Astaire was having a bit of a tough time in Hollywood in the early 1940's. The studios just didn't have a clue in what vehicles and what roles he should be cast in.

I mention this as it seems that in most of his offerings between 1940 and 1945, he is sadly miscast as rogues, liars, thieves, con-men, and friends who are so two-faced that they will stab you in the back at a moments notice.

Some examples of these miscast roles see Fred play a scheming back-stabbing trumpeter(Second Chorus), a man who is out to steal his best friends girl (Holiday Inn), and a flyer gone AWOL, lying through his teeth in order to get his way with a girl (The Sky's the Limit).

Even one of the 'sketches' in Zeigfeld Follies, has Fred playing a thief and a Pick-Pocket. I guess Hollywood casting executives must have seen a seedier side to Fred Astaire than his ardent fans ever did.

Yolanda and the Thief is no exception as once again Fred is cast as a con-man, trying to swizz Yolanda (Lucille Bremmer), a Latin American heiress out of her cool seventy-two million dollar fortune, by taking advantage of her religious beliefs and pretending to be her guardian Angel.

Of course the two fall in love...a little too quickly as to be believable I fear, which is why Fred finds redemption, returns her money and acts a noble hero. Its all so predictable. So predictable in fact that I knew who Leon Ames' character was meant to be from the first.

No surprises here and despite Fred's miscasting the story is passable and enjoyable enough to be successfully entertaining.

However, I always found that the story lines of these Hollywood musicals tended to be on the duff side anyway, and overall the one and only reason to watch was to see the stars do what they did best; sing and dance.

Yet unfortunately 'Yolanda' even fails here, with only 'Coffeetime' set during a street carnival, exciting enough to watch without drooling and snoring, and as it is the last of only three dances in the film there is little else to hold your attention.

About forty minutes in we are presented with a dream sequence that lasts forever and a day and just seems to go on and on without anything great happening. I felt that this sequence was so awful and prolonged that it would have felt more at home in a Gene Kelly movie.

I just felt that this wasn't Fred's thing. Give him a girl to twist, turn, lift and spin, he was the master, Give him an empty stage a hot beat, a prop or two and a pair of tap shoes, then you needn't invite anyone else to the party. But this?????

Two things really stand out in this film however and that is the glorious war-time Technicolour (this was Fred's first colour film) and Mildred Nantwich, who's scenes as Yolanda's aunt, are both funny and refreshing and a real treat to watch.

This film understandably bombed at the box-office and is considered by many to be one of Fred Astaire's career low points which may have influenced his decision to retire soon after, However after just two years of retirement he returned in 1948 for Easter Parade and with a new permanent home at MGM, he was at last given the roles he was suited to best; roles that had served him well throughout the 1930's and were destined to be just as kind to him for the remainder of the 40's and 50's

In short, this film is purely for avid Astaire completists.

Colorful Fantasy

[girvsjoint · 8/10 · 25 April 2020]

Strikingly lavish Technicolor and spectacular sets make this film a feast for the eyes if nothing else. Fred is his usual suave self as a con man, along with pal Frank Morgan, out to fleece the naïve Lucille Bremer of her fortune, it's a silly plot, but a fantasy, so cut it some slack. Mildred Natwick looks more glamorous than usual, the first dance number is a bit odd, but the big final one is worth the price of admission. A film that will grow on you with repeated viewings!

A beautiful nightmare.

[movibuf1962 · 17 November 2003]

It was shown on TCM this past weekend. It's a fantasy musical which has sort of unanimously been regarded as a mild stinker-- but amazingly has been amalgamated with a cult following over the years. (What're you gonna do?) It's not a serious piece of movie- not even in the Hollywood-attempting-a-certain-atmosphere vain. One look at the artificial sets, the candy-box Technicolor, and the performances and you need- I repeat NEED- to suspend yourself for 106 minutes and just let go. Lucille Bremer was actually a fine dancer (if you watched her and Fred Astaire in ZIEGFELD FOLLIES), but her abilities are not put to best use here. Record it (as I did), and just fast-forward to "Coffee Time," a sensational, four-minute hand-clapping dance performed in a Latin Carnival, on a floor of swirling black-and-white zebra stripes, easily the best thing in the movie.

Unusual and enjoyable

[aberlour36 · 7/10 · 25 June 2000]

This is an extraordinary film for 1945. The story, a fantasy, is sort of sappy and the music is forgettable. Frank Morgan and Fred Astaire play themselves. And yet there is an overall quality about the film, a box office disaster, that makes it highly enjoyable. Perhaps it's the way Vincent Minelli handled the production. Perhaps it's Lucille Bremer's almost dazzling beauty. The dance numbers are a whole cut above the usual tap dance routines we expect with Astaire. The special effects are haunting at times.

It's Astaire's "Invitation to the Dance." Well worth watching.

So much promise - so few rewards

[eschetic · 5/10 · 16 August 2005]

It's impossible to hate any film with Fred Astaire, Frank Morgan and Mildred Natwick giving their considerable all, but it's awfully hard to like any film with such forgettable songs (out of Harry Warren's bottom drawer), forgettable dances inspired by them from choreographer Eugene Loring (except for the promising percussive *introduction* to an ultimately dreary number called "Coffee Time") and a script that never pays off on a single one of its satiric possibilities.

At it's best, the old "studio system" of production by second guessing and committee could produce masterpieces. At its muddled worst, it produced things like YOLANDA AND THE THIEF and blamed them on the cast. Coming at about the middle of Fred Astaire's long film career, and early in Lucille Bremer's four year one, it couldn't ultimately hurt Astaire who would be back on top in three years with EASTER PARADE (interesting that his brief "retirement" in response to this turkey is not remembered in the same way Bette Davis's similarly motivated walkout from another studio is for his being "difficult"), but it did nothing to promote Bremer's career despite what looked like acceptable dancing and at least minimal acting skills and a certain homogenized beauty.

Chief blame would appear to lie with Irving Brecher's script from Ludwig Bemelmans & Jacques Thery's nasty little fairy tale of a story. Trading on the worst stereotypes of the evils of a Convent education (not that a too sheltered education isn't a bad thing), Bremer's "Yolanda" is too naive to be believed and a victim looking for a crime. Only those ALMOST as naive in the audience will not recognize Leon Ames's "Mr. Candle" character immediately for what he turns out to be, and the simple (even expected) plot twists which could make his character and Mildred Natwick's "Aunt Amarilla" interesting are never forthcoming.

Only Natwick's self centered monologue when Bremer returns to her home from the convent rises above the rest of the script and is very funny - creating hopes for what follows that never pay off. The final scene of the film is so perfunctory you get the impression the studio told Minnelli to wrap up filming regardless of what was left to do - but fans of the British sci-fi sitcom "Red Dwarf" may be amused to note that the central gimmick of the scene (and the film's only moment of misdirection or real irony) was stolen years later as the basis for a Red Dwarf episode in its first season.

Among things which ARE of interest in the film: the man who went on to become the great Broadway dancer and choreographer, Matt Mattox, is buried somewhere in the innocuous mess as an unbilled "featured dancer." One wonders if the (uncredited) "Dilettante" played by an actor calling himself "Andre Charlot" is any relation to the great British producer who introduced Gertrude Lawrence and Beatrice Lillie to U.S. shores for the first time in the 1920's?

If Fellini had made a musical

[joclmct · 9/10 · 25 February 2021]

It was a flop and it deserved better but is as typical of Americans, they need to be lead around by a ring in their nose and have everything explained to them as if they were dumb. This is a feast for the eyes. The extravagant color. The magnificent Irene Sharaff costumes. The superb talent. A plot is barely there but who cares? It's a fantasy musical. It unfairly ruined the career of the multi-talented Lucille Bremer when it's box office failure squarely rested on the shoulders of Arthur Freed who pushed it to be made as a vehicle to promote Miss Bremer. Did it ruin the careers of any of the men involved? Of course not. Men in Hollywood rarely paid for their failures. And even though it failed @ the box office, it didn't fail as a musical film. Look @ it as you do a painting. You don't have to know what the artist meant or his inspiration to paint it. You take it in and appreciate it for the emotions it stirs within you. Yolanda and the Thief is a brave, bizarre, glorious musical overflowing w/ extraordinary talent throughout. If you can't see that, I pity you. Go back to the movies that need to be watched by realist people w/ no imagination and no appreciation of art. This one is spectacular.