The Barkleys of Broadway
Charles Walters
This film has no current screenings
After ten years apart, Fred and Ginger got the old act back together for one last hurrah—this time in Technicolor and with the help of MGM’s high-gloss Freed Unit. Originally designed as a vehicle for Astaire and Judy Garland, it turned out to be a fitting reunion piece with its story of a husband and wife song-and-dance team whose professional partnership and marriage hit the rocks after she decides to pursue a career in the “legitimate” theater. Fred tapping amidst a legion of disembodied shoes is sheer delight, while the ballroom number “They Can’t Take That Away from Me”—reprised from 1937’s Shall We Dance—recaptures the old magic with a new poignancy.