Flying down to Rio 1933 - Historically important for its star making pairing of Astaire & Rogers

IMDB Link
IMDB rating: 6,8

Director: Thornton Freeland
Main Cast: Dolores Del Rio, Gene Raymond, Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire

"The top-billed stars in the extravagant RKO musical Flying Down to Rio are Dolores Del Rio and Gene Raymond. Forget all that: this is the movie that first teamed Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. We're supposed to care about the romantic triangle between aviator/bandleader Raymond, Brazilian heiress Del Rio and her wealthy fiance Raul Roulien, but the moment Fred and Ginger dance to a minute's worth of 'The Carioca', the film is theirs forever. Other musical highlights include Rogers' opening piece 'Music Makes Me' and tenor Roulien's lush rendition of 'Orchids in the Moonlight'. Then there's the title number. The plot has it that Del Rio' uncle has been prohibited from having a floor show at his lavish hotel because of a Rio city ordinance. Astaire and Raymond save the day by staging the climactic 'Flying Down to Rio' number thousands of feet in the air, with hundreds of chorus girls shimmying and swaying while strapped to the wings of a fleet of airplanes. It is one of the most outrageously brilliant numbers in movie musical history, and one that never fails to incite a big round of applause from the audience - no matter what the date is. Together with King Kong, Flying Down to Rio saved the fledgling RKO Radio studios from bankruptcy in 1933. The film was a smash everywhere it played, encouraging the studio to concoct future teamings of those two stalwart supporting players Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers." - www.allmovie.com

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Suicide fleet 1931 - Fighting sailing ships

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IMDB rating: 5,8

Director: Albert S. Rogell
Main Cast: William Boyd, Robert Armstrong, James Gleason, Ginger Rogers

"Coney island vendors Baltimore Clark (Bill Boyd), Dutch Herman (Robert Armstrong) and Skeets O'Reilly (James Gleason) spend their off-hours (and some of their on-hours) carrying on a friendly rivalry for the affections of the pert Sally (Ginger Rogers). But when America enters WW1, our three heroes leave Sally behind and join the Navy. Before long, Baltimore, Dutch and Skeets find themselves smack in the middle of an ongoing conflict between the German U-boat fleet and a shadowy 'mystery' ship. Naturally, the boys are crewmen on the aforementioned mystery vessel, which is used as a decoy to bring the enemy out into the open. Despite this tense situation, the film spends a goodly amount of time showing the three protagonists cheerfully cheating on Sally with fetching foreign damsels in other ports of call." - www.allmovie.com

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Young man of Manhattan 1930 - "Cigarette me, big boy!"

Claudette Colbert & Norman Foster in Young Man of Manhattan (1930)

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021568/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 6,8

Director: Monta Bell
Main Cast: Claudette Colbert, Norman Foster, Ginger Rogers, Charles Ruggles

"Sometimes a film can be remembered for one thing. In the case of Young Man of Manhattan, it's not because of Ginger Rogers' feature debut (although that is certainly noteworthy). It's for Rogers' unforgettable line, 'Cigarette me, big boy', which became one of the most copied catch phrases of the era. While it's not an especially witty piece of dialogue, if the rest of Young Man's script had at least been at that level, it might have been a good movie. As it is, it's an adequate and fairly forgettable film, distinguished only by the very early presences of Rogers and star Claudette Colbert. Neither one gives a world-beating performance, but it's fun to see Rogers in her nascent wisecracking, flapper role and Colbert using her charm to carry her through some rough patches that she doesn't yet know how to navigate. Monta Bell's direction is sluggish and perfunctory, but he does take advantage of the sports setting of the film to include a number of interesting 'action' shots." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/young-man-of-manhattan-v118101/

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Stage door 1937 - A superb, realistic, behind-the-scenes film about show business

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029604/
IMDB rating: 7,8

Director: Gregory La Cava
Main Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou, Gail Patrick, Constance Collier, Andrea Leeds, Lucille Ball

"Stage door is notable for its predominantly female cast, predating George Cukor's The women by two years. Adapted from the Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman stage hit, the sparkling dialogue comes at the audience rapid-fire as each stellar performer steps forward. The film shifts easily between comedy and drama, with Ginger Rogers in particular showcasing her versatility. Director Gregory La Cava successfully pulls together a strong-willed cast that includes Katharine Hepburn, Lucille Ball, Eve Arden and Ann Miller. He puts the boarding house setting to good use, keeping the interplay brisk and the story lines moving quickly. Ironically, the film's only Oscar nomination for acting went to the lesser-known Andrea Leeds, who, unlike her character in the movie, would later marry a rich man and retire from the screen. The film was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/stage-door-v46386/

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Swing time 1936 - Heavenly dancing from Astaire & Rogers

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028333/?ref_=nv_sr_1
IMDB rating: 7,7

Director: George Stevens
Main Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Victor Moore, Helen Broderick, Betty Furness

"Perhaps the perfect example of the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers appeal, Swing Time is a charming romantic-fantasy that's almost impossible to resist when its musical set pieces are in motion. The plot, however minimal, only distracts from the classic melodies and entertaining dance sequences. Directed by the venerable George Stevens, Swing Time was the fifth Astaire-Rogers film, and came out during the peak of their popularity; it's of a piece with the duo's other successes, and in fact markedly resembles their earlier hit, 1935's Top Hat. Perhaps the most cherished dance number is "Bojangles of Harlem," during which Astaire dances with shadows and pays tribute to famous dancer Bill Robinson. The Jerome Kern-Dorothy Fields score also includes such standards-to-be as 'Pick Yourself Up', 'A Fine Romance', 'The Way You Look Tonight', and 'Never Gonna Dance. The peerless supporting cast of Swing Time includes Helen Broderick, Victor Moore, Eric Blore, and Landers Stevens, the actor-father of the film's director, George Stevens." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/swing-time-v48170/

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Top Hat 1935 - One of the best Astaire & Rogers musicals

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027125/
IMDB rating: 7,9

Director: Mark Sandrich
Main Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton

"Top hat is classy, Depression-era escapism, with great tunes, witty choreography, and the charismatic screen chemistry of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. It is an excellent example of the fine work of director Mark Sandrich, who today is less remembered than the musical stars who had some of their greatest successes in his films. The film's story, cast, and style are largely derivative of The gay divorcee, which also starred Astaire and Rogers and was directed by Sandrich a year earlier. The supporting casts are pretty much the same, although Top hat has the distinction of adding Lucille Ball in a small role. RKO pulled together many of its best resources to produce the film, including songwriter Irving Berlin, dance director Hermes Pan (superlative choreography with Fred Ataire), and art directors Carroll Clark and Van Nest Polglase. The result was a film that proved popular with audiences and critics alike. Top hat was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/top-hat-v50447

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The gay divorcee 1934 - The king and queen of Carioca at their best!

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025164/
IMDB rating: 7,6

Director: Mark Sandrich
Main Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Alice Brady, Edward Everett Horton

"The Gay Divorcee (Based on Dwight Taylor and Cole Porter's play of the same name) is a good example of Depression-era escapism at its best. The glamorous Ginger Rogers was already a big star and the debonair Fred Astaire was on his way to becoming one. The viewer is treated to a feast of opulence free from the cares of the world - except the ones necessary to provide the film with a plot. The film's happy ending is welcomingly contrived in a way that protects the morality of the primary characters, providing the audience with a guilt-free, feel-good conclusion. The music and the dancing of Astaire and Rogers are the primary reasons why current-day audiences continue to enjoy The Gay Divorcee. Among the musical highlights are 'Night and Day', the only song from the original Broadway musical included in the film, and 'The Continental", a witty and sophisticated exercise in flirting that brought the first-ever Best Song Academy Award to Con Conrad and Herb Magidson.
Directed by Mark Sandrich, the film features supporting performances by Alice Brady and Edward Everett Horton." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-gay-divorcee-v19311

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42nd Street 1933 - The quintessential backstage musical

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024034/
IMDB rating: 7,8

Director: Lloyd Bacon
Main Cast: Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels, George Brent, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Una Merkel, Guy Kibbee, Ginger Rogers

"If MGM's 1929 The Broadway Melody invented the musical, Warner Bros.' 42nd Street saved it. The four years between the two movies had seen the genre driven practically into the ground, as the studios, still struggling with synchronized sound and what to do about it, ground out one ill-advised musical after another, few terribly good as music and most even less impressive as movies. It had gotten so bad that by 1932, theater owners were protecting their box office with signs announcing, for any 'suspect' title, 'NOT A MUSICAL!' It was into that environment in 1933 that Warner Bros. released 42nd Street, directed by Lloyd Bacon and choreographed by Busby Berkeley - and it revived and revolutionized the whole musical genre, by taking it to the long-delayed next step. It was during the making of The Broadway Melody that filmmakers discovered that they could separate the shooting of a musical number from the recording of its music. Berkeley and cinematographer Sol Polito took this notion to the next step by removing the camera from the studio floor. Under their direction, shots were done from overhead angles and other locations from which no person could ever actually observe in real life, and the dancers' motions were, in turn, designed to exploit those angles; in effect, they created the true movie musical, as opposed to a musical that happened to be on film. Bacon's direction of the dialogue portions of the story, with both dramatic and comic content, was also very sure, no surprise for a man later responsible for dramas like The Fighting Sullivans and comedies with Red Skelton, which meant that the movie held up even when there was no dancing or singing on the screen; and when there was, the music by Harry Warren and Al Dubin was downright clever; and the acting, though a little broad by modern standards, was of first caliber, also unusual for a musical, ranging from serious dramatic lead Warner Baxter to comic relief from George E. Stone as the mousy, lecherous stage manager and Guy Kibbee's befuddled, lecherous backer, with Bebe Daniels, Ruby Keeler, and Ginger Rogers at their most delectable.
Based on the novel by Bradford Ropes (which was a lot steamier than the movie censors would allow), 42nd Street is highlighted by such grandiose musical setpieces as 'Shuffle Off to Buffalo', 'Young and Healthy', and of course the title song. The audience devoured it, and Warner Bros., Berkeley, and company rose to the occasion of delivering more and better musicals like it for much of the rest of the decade.
Nearly fifty years after its premiere, it was successfully revived as a Broadway musical with Tammy Grimes and Jerry Orbach." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/42nd-street-v258

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Gold diggers of 1933 (1933) - The show of a thousand wonders

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024069/
IMDB rating: 8,2

Director: Mervyn LeRoy
Main Cast: Warren William, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Ginger Rogers

"The second talkie version of the Avery Hopwood's theatrical war-horse The Golddiggers of Broadway, Gold Diggers of 1933 was the second of three back-to-back 1933 Warner Bros. musicals benefiting from the genius of Busby Berkeley. Gold Diggers of 1933 adroitly intertwined a light-hearted yet gritty look at backstage shenanigans involving unemployed showgirls and potential moneymen with choreographer Busby Berkeley's outrageously lavish production numbers, replete with fluid camerawork and overhead compositions. Using the Great Depression rather than ignoring it, Mervyn LeRoy's crisply directed story hinged on survival in hard times, as romance blooms when the pragmatic chorines use their 'assets' to charm backers for a new show. Berkeley's 'We're in the Money', featuring coin-clad chorus girls and Ginger Rogers singing in pig Latin, and the cheekily smutty 'Pettin' in the Park' indicate the movie's dual focus on fiscal troubles and carnality. The downbeat finale, 'Remember My Forgotten Man', keeps the film rooted in 1930s reality, despite the escapism offered by Berkeley's visually innovative set pieces and the sweet Ruby Keeler-Dick Powell love story. Other Berkeley-staged musical highlights include the neon-dominated 'Shadow Waltz', all written by the prolific Harry Warren and Al Dubin. As spectacular as Gold Diggers of 1933 was, it would be topped by the last of Berkeley's 1933 trilogy, Footlight Parade." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/gold-diggers-of-1933-v20140

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