You'll Never Get Rich

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They don't make the most obvious screen couple--if you squint, you might think Stan Laurel had gotten together with Lauren Bacall--but their differences only serve to make this effervescent musical all the more entertaining. You'll Never Get Rich is the first of two that Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth made together (followed by You Were Never Lovelier). Astaire, who stars as choreographer-turned-soldier Robert Curtis, has rarely been looser, and Hayworth, as dancer Sheila Winthrop, has rarely been more graceful. As in Royal Wedding, Astaire also engages in some fancy solo footwork. Robert Benchley and Frieda Inescort provide priceless support as Robert's philandering boss and his clever wife, and Cole Porter composed the music, including "So Near and Yet So Far," "Dream Dancing," and the Oscar®-nominated "Since I Kissed My Baby Goodbye." You'll Never Get Rich is timeless, escapist fun that also serves to prove that sometimes opposites don't just attract--they can make beautiful music together. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Customer Reviews:

Astaire and a Dazzling Hayworth Amid Boogie-Woogie Beats and Pre-WWII Shenanigans.......2007-09-06

Barely five minutes into the film and only thirty seconds long, a small jewel is not to be missed in this vintage 1941 musical, as it ranks among the best dance numbers to be seen from the golden age of Hollywood. It's where Fred Astaire casually asks Rita Hayworth to follow him on a complex tap routine set to Cole Porter's "Boogie Barcarole". That Astaire performs flawlessly is to be expected, but the stunning 23-year old Hayworth is startling in her precision and élan. Not only is she absurdly beautiful in her crisp rehearsal togs, but she matches Astaire step for step with unbridled confidence and with her long, gorgeous gams perfectly synchronized with his. The rest of the number, performed with an army of similarly dressed dancers, is not nearly as exhilarating especially since the fusion between boogie-woogie and classical feels forced.

The movie itself, directed by Sidney Lanfield and written by Michael Fessier and Ernest Pagano, is a silly mistaken identity affair that feels lifted from one of Astaire's earlier pairings with Ginger Rogers and then retrofitted into a military theme. Hardly a stretch, he plays Bob Curtis, a Broadway dancer and choreographer who works for philandering producer Martin Cortland, played by Algonquin wit Robert Benchley. Cortland has his eyes on chorus dancer Sheila Winthrop and attempts to give her a diamond bracelet until his wife Julia mistakes the gift for her. He pretends the bracelet is from Curtis, which of course, leads to larger complications, especially when Curtis gets drafted and his superior officer turns out to be Sheila's intended fiancé. Off the dance floor and in her first leading role, Hayworth, already in her 38th film, is charming as Sheila, although Frieda Inescort easily steals all her scenes as the deadpan Julia, a perfect match to the acerbic Benchley.

Lowbrow comic shenanigans are interspersed with the Robert Alton-choreographed musical numbers. The highlights are an impressive Astaire tap solo set to "Since I Kissed My Baby Goodbye" and two more duets with Hayworth - the alluring rumba, "So Near and Yet So Far", and the infectious "Wedding Cake Walk" where the pair get married amid a dress-alike chorus, do a mean Harlem shuffle and tap-dance atop a white cake shaped like a tank. In fact, opening two months before Pearl Harbor, the film portends the upcoming war with similarly patriotic ensemble numbers like "Shootin' the Works for Uncle Sam". The 2003 DVD includes trailers for this film as well as two classic Hayworth vehicles, the career-defining Gilda, and future husband Orson Welles' pulp classic, The Lady from Shanghai. The movie is very lightweight, but Astaire's artistry is always worthwhile in any setting, and it's easy to see why Hayworth became the fantasy figure of many an American soldier.

You'll Never Get Rich.......2007-05-18

This is a wonderful movie. If Fred Astaire danced with his other partners first, there would be no arogant, self centered, egotistical etc. Ginger Rogers. I have found that the dancers after Ginger are much better in all respects. Fred and Rita are just terrific together. I also purchased their second movie, You'll Never Be Lovelier". What class!!!!

Hayworth seems a bit too "grand" for Astaire's self-effacing style..........2007-01-17

Released shortly before America's entry into the war, Columbia's "You'll Never Get Rich" is one of Fred Astaire's better films during the relatively dry period that extended from his last RKO film with Ginger Rogers to his first films at MGM...

Since leaving RKO and Ginger Rogers, Astaire had danced with Eleanor Powell in "Broadway Melody of 1940" and with Paulette Goddard in "Second Chorus."

In "You'll Never Get Rich," he had a new partner in Rita Hayworth: a lushly beautiful redheaded actress who was being prepared for stardom in mostly low-budget films... She was a talented dancer who had worked with her family for many years in a vaudeville act called the Dancing Casinos...

"You'll Never Get Rich" cast Astaire as Robert Curtis, a Broadway dance director who is drafted into the army... He becomes involved in an on-again, off-again romance with Sheila Winthrop (Hayworth), a beautiful chorus girl whose fiancé is a captain in the army... The not-very-interesting plot is often interrupted for musical interludes... Astaire and Hayworth dance together twice--to the sensuous Latin beat of "So Near and Yet So Far," and in "The Wedding Cake Walk," a military finale which has a chorus of war brides and soldiers, plus the two stars, dancing atop a huge tank...

Astaire and Hayworth make an attractive dance team, although Hayworth seems a bit too formidable, too "grand" for Astaire's self-effacing style.... Astaire also has several numbers without Hayworth: most notably, a dance in a guardhouse to the song "Since I Kissed My Baby Goodbye," in which he combines several kinds of dazzling footwork...

"You'll Never Get Rich" is lightweight but amiable entertainment, and it kept Astaire dancing...

Astaire and Hayworth are great together, "So Near and Yet So Far" is a fine Cole Porter song, but the movie has many weaknesses.......2006-07-23

If you are a committed Fred Astaire fan and, with his movies, an Astaire completist, you'll want to have You'll Never Get Rich. It's the story of Robert Curtis (Astaire), a Broadway choreographer and dance star, who gets involved in the love-nest machinations of his married producer, Martin Cortland (Robert Benchley), and a chorus girl, Sheila Winthrop (Rita Hayworth). This results in Sheila and Robert mixing up each other's motives, Robert going into the Army and then spending the rest of the movie in boot camp. There's one romantic misunderstanding after another, visits from Sheila, two comic side kicks and an exasperated top sergeant. There also are six Cole Porter numbers and a romantic resolution that has Robert and Sheila tap dancing in wedding clothes on top of a white tank. The movie only takes 88 minutes and, I'm sorry to say, it seems twice as long.

What it has going for it, of course, are Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth. Astaire was an extraordinary dancer, a uniquely gifted singer and had a winning personality. Hayworth was a gorgeous creature and, as a dancer, was one of the best around. Based on talent, personality and just plain grace, she probably was Astaire's best partner

The screenplay of this 1941 service romantic-comedy, however, is simply not very funny and not very romantic. The movie's comic relief is provided by two fellow recruits, played by a double-talking comic, Cliff "Swivel Tongue" Nazarro, who sounds like an incomprehensible Joe Pesci, and Guin "Big Boy" Williams. The two just don't bring much to the party. Nazarro's shtick gets tiresome quickly. Two genuinely funny actors follow along in their trail, Donald MacBride as the exasperated sergeant, and Robert Benchley as Cortland. Considering Cole Porter's phenomenal output of luscious melodies and clever lyrics, his work in this movie is just workmanlike. He was incomparable when writing sophisticated songs for clever people, and part of his genius was in making these songs so attractive to everyone else. But when he tried to write "soldier" songs, as he did in the early Forties, or "hip" songs, as he did in the Fifties, in an effort to stay contemporary, I think his instincts sometimes failed him. In my view, of the six songs in this movie only one begins to reach what Porter was capable of.

With an Astaire movie that features Cole Porter songs, what do we have?
--"Boogie Barcarolle." Here Astaire works briefly with Hayworth to show her some steps, then leads all the dancers in a rehearsal of a big number. It moves from fast tap to awkward ballet and back to tap. Astaire was one of the best tap dancers around, perhaps the best, and anything that has his feet moving fast is worth watching.
--"Shooting the Works for Uncle Sam." Astaire is at Grand Central Station waiting for the train that will take him to boot camp. Suddenly, all the dancers arrive in taxis, throw off their coats, form up and start marching in this send-off number. Astaire leads them in the dance and sings the song.
--"Since I Kissed My Baby Goodbye." Astaire is in the brig. A group of soldiers plays and sings this easygoing song of longing, then Astaire picks it up with a fast tap routine that, for me, doesn't quite match the tone of the song.
--"A-stairable Rag." Astaire, still in the brig, does one of the fastest extended tap routines he ever filmed.
--"So Near and Yet So Far." Astaire and Hayworth perform this lovely song of romance with a latin beat. Astaire sings it to Hayworth and off they go into an expert dance where the two are matched perfectly. It should have had a much better production background than it receives.
--"The Wedding Cake Walk." This is the finale to the movie and to the show which Cortland has brought to boot camp and Robert, now out of the brig, and Sheila headline for the soldiers. The song isn't much to speak of, but it provides lots of opportunities for the dancers. It finishes in an endearingly awkward Hollywood idea of love and patriotism, with Robert and Sheila in their formal wedding attire tapping away on the movie designer's idea of a tank turret.

For an Astaire fan, any of his movies is worth having. I even have a VHS tape of him and Betty Hutton in Let's Dance. If in doubt about this one...go ahead and get it. And be sure to get the second and last movie Astaire and Hayworth co-starred in, You Were Never Lovelier. It's a gem.

The black and white DVD transfer is first rate. There are no extras.

What a beautifull couple........2006-03-20

There can only be one Ginger Rogers. But after her, Rita Hayworth is an excelent partner for Fred Astaire. I have never been a fan of the "military" comedies or dramas, but this one is full of good moments. Ritas' performance is incredible and her timing is marvelous. They could have easily become the new duet for musicals in the fortys. It is a shame they only made two movies together.

In a few words, an excelent movie, beautifull dancing and a great chemistry between Rita and Fred. I truly recomend this film.

Average customer rating:

Astaire and a Dazzling Hayworth Amid Boogie-Woogie Beats and Pre-WWII Shenanigans
You'll Never Get Rich
Hayworth seems a bit too "grand" for Astaire's self-effacing style...
Astaire and Hayworth are great together, "So Near and Yet So Far" is a fine Cole Porter song, but the movie has many weaknesses
What a beautifull couple.

You'll Never Get Rich [Region 2]
Starring: Fred Astaire , Rita Hayworth , Robert Benchley , John Hubbard , and Osa Massen
Director: Sidney Lanfield
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0000BZNMA