Blue Skies

Fred Astaire's dancing and Bing Crosby's singing: wow, not a bad combination! As good as Bing's voice was, I preferred seeing Fred dance so the picture is only so-so for me. Either way, you'd think with these two stars, this musical would be tremendous, but it isn't.

Astaire has three of his four dance numbers in the first half of the movie. One of them, "Puttin' On The Ritz," is one of the most impressive performances, if not THE best, he's ever done. It is absolutely spectacular. The movie is worth seeing for that performance alone. For the next hour, there is a romance gone sour and Crosby's crooning (some good songs, some bad).

The film's intent was to pay tribute to Irving Berlin and all the music he gave us, and it succeeds on that level. There are nothing but nice people in the movie and tons of music.....but the whole thing lacks something.