text by Arlene Croce – images from “Night and Day” in The Gay Divorcee (1934) – edited by Joel Bocko
If writing about movies is like dancing about architecture, then writing about musicals is like trying to draw a blueprint for a tap dance. Here I try to make both ends meet.
The words below the fold are from Arlene Croce’s seminal “Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers Book.”
The images (some fragments, some fully framed) are from a single number, “Night and Day,” the only sequence in the film where Fred & Ginger dance by themselves, three minutes out of nearly two hours but the very essence of the picture and their partnership.
Make sure to check out a full clip of the dance on You Tube. Music and lyrics by Cole Porter, choreography by Fred Astaire, dancing by you-know-who.
Ideally, senses sharpened by the indirect evocations of Croce’s prose and the lingering snapshots of motion, you will view the dance with renewed appreciation. Much as one might press one’s nose up against a pointillist painting, viewing all those little dots as isolated phenomena before stepping back to take in the big picture, all without losing sight of the magical details which give it its essence.
As Arlene Croce says, opening her study of the sequence, “This incomparable dance of seduction is a movie in itself.” Enjoy.
“They’re alone in a ballroom.
It is night with an ocean park in the background.
Abruptly she turns and crosses the set; he blocks her.
She crosses back and he blocks her.
She turns away,
he catches her wrist,
their eyes meet
and he dances ingratiatingly.
Again she turns,
again he catches her
and she walks into the dance.
When she stands away, he pulls her by the hand
and she coils against him, wrapping herself in her own arm, and the free hand holds that wrist.
In this position, together as if cradled, they just drift…
Astaire adopted the stage choreography, and no more thrilling or more musical dance had ever been presented on the screen. The song was already a classic; to watch it danced almost forty years later is to hear it for the first time.
Like all great choreographers, Astaire frequently works against the music. The steps are in perfect counterpoint, and the tension builds like a dramatic undertow.
There is one extraordinary occurrence:
the moment when she makes a sudden decision and strolls away from him.
(Rogers never walks,
she always strolls.)
When he approaches,
she appears to strike him,
and he staggers back
slipfooted
the length of the stage.
Mysteriously, the moment is on the same level with everything else – it’s a dance moment and it tells us much about Astaire and Rogers. They never break their stride. They don’t act when they should be dancing.
Rogers at this point in the series dances a little stiffly and she loses her line in her turns. But her style is brilliant and she knows exactly what she’s doing.
The wonderful ending is all her:
The way she gazes up wordlessly at this marvelous man she’s been dancing with exalts him, her, and everything we’ve just seen.”
– Arlene Croce, The Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers Book, published 1972
How The Gay Divorcee made the ‘Elite 70′:
Greg Ferrara’s No. 8 choice
Pat Perry’s No. 35 choice
Allan Fish’s No. 35 choice
Joel, a lovely photo essay. This kind of post rarely does much for me, but this one is an exception, the images so well mated to Croce’s text that it really does embody the film in microcosm.
Thanks, R.D. I do tend to like visual tributes, but this is admittedly a different beast altogether. I’m just glad it came together in the end, as it almost didn’t (thanks to WordPress and my own procastination). Now to go to bed…
Joel,
I like your unique approach here on this visual essay. I actually watched this film yesterday. I admit that it’s not my favorite Astaire Rogers film, but it does have some fascinating song/dance tunes. The opening finger dance seen is a hoot, as is the Let’s Knock Knees number. Also the Continental sequence is very influenced by Busby Berkeley’s numbers and this one here seems to pale a bit by comparison. Also what bothered me a bit was the saggy plot that just goes on too long, even for an Astaire Rogers film, of which plot is never the point. I was wanting the film to be better, and I think it could have served them better if Astaire and Rogers would have danced more here instead of letting others do the dancing.
Yeah, I’m fond of this one too though it isn’t at the level of Top Hat & Swing Time. Still, Night and Day is one of their best, if simplest, numbers. Croce’s pretty tough on the screenplay and has some humorous things to say, but I find it amusing and pleasant enough. Still, it’s the musical numbers, particularly this one, that are the real heart of the film.
I’m interested that Allan ranked it so highly. I’d love to hear more from him on what put it up there for him.
A great approach, Joel. I haven’t seen this in years, but liked it well enough. No Top Hat nor Swing Time, but still a sparkling film with some beautiful sequences.
Fred and Ginger *smooth as silk*
Thanks guys. I understand the post is taking quite a while to load for many people. Unfortunate, as on my screen it goes pretty fast (and I did not think this computer I was using was particularly speedy). Sorry to anyone this is affecting – is the problem widespread?
Joel–
I am presently at a classroom computer, and it seems to be loading reasonably well. But I know this has stretched word press capabilities to the max. I don’t think any further images would have been successfully negotiated.
Anyway, you have surely raised the bar for the visual essay with this lovely presentation. Your goal was obviously to make the reader ‘see the film,’ to feel and hear it’s tapping, to understand it’s remarkable chemistry, and fully understand it’s sensory allure. I agree with R.D. that some essays don’t connect, and are esentially space fillers for the lazy writer, but this is an entirely different situation in every sense.
No words you could have written could have matched this in making yourreaders experience THE GAY DIVORCEE.
I’m wondering if it may be an issue with mobile devices (I know that when I checked out the site on my friend’s iPad, it had a totally different format, which looks really cool for regular pieces but probably is not able to reproduce picture essays like this). I did have a hell of a time loading these pictures though – I wonder why WordPress seems to have such issues; on Blogger these pieces are not very difficult to put together.
Re: visual tributes, there seems to be an interesting divide on this (though I’m glad that everyone, or at least more than usual, seem to be on board for this which is admittedly more of a hybrid than a straight-up photo-only essay). I am completely of the camp that thinks a good visual tribute is as valuable, or sometimes even better, than a prose essay (just taking random screen-caps, of course, doesn’t make it good – they have to be striking shots that can stand in isolation and, for me, at least there usually has to be some kind of flow to the images, almost as in video editing). Maybe this can be the breadcrumbs in the Hansel & Gretel forest to lead some of you to the gingerbread house of liking visual tributes more? 😉 We’ll see.
I also have something visual planned for another piece in the countdown, but luckily the image/prose split will be heavier on the latter this time, and the number of images should probably be less than a dozen.
This is captivating visual essay. Mr. Bocko has pieced together images to replicate the dancing that defines the film. I agree that words could hardly do as well.
Inventive and touching tribute to the chemistry of Fred and Ginger, Joel.
They were, in addition to being great and very successful entertainers, a revelation about the kinetic poetry underlying material prose, and managed, for novelist, Paul Auster, at least, to inspire a series of remarkable and troubling literary tributes.
“kinetic poetry underlying material prose” – a nice turn of phrase there, and one that really captures the simple magic of Astaire & Rogers. Sure, their numbers got more ambitious when time went on and there was too much glamor in their films (well, some of them at least – Swing Time & Follow the Fleet, for the most part, were admittedly a bit more humble though that’s a relative statement) to call them “earthy.” But their dances were centered around the human (vs. Berkeley whose dances transcended that, and mostly used people as objects) and seem to grow out of the everyday with an effervescent grace.
And thanks to Dee Dee as always for her fantastic sidebar work. I’ve said it before, but now that my own piece is the focus, an extra thanks is in order.
Hello! Joel Bocko…
You’re welcome and if you don’t mind me saying so very impressive stills from the 1934 film “The Gay Divorcee” with that being said, and in my personal opinion…
[ed.note: I know that Ginger Rogers fans are about to “kill” me, but I always had the feeling that actress Ginger Rogers, was just one step off-kilter when it came to her dancing with “The Mister” actor Fred Astaire.
I must admit that I think she approved her dancing abilities as time went by, but dancing seemed to come so naturally for “The Mister” [Fred]Astaire. Hence, the reason that I focused on him [dancing alone…lol] in that video clip on the side-bar.]
I think these female dancers would have probably, matched him step-for-step: Betty Grable, Rita Hayward, Cyd Charisse, Ann Miller or Audrey Hepburn.
However, I guess in the end, her [Ginger Rogers] strong personality made-up for her lack Of dancing abilities. lol
[editor’s note: She still can’t dance!]
deedee 😉
DeeDee,
True Ginger was not as classically trained as Cyd Charisse, but she is a much better actress than most of those you mentioned and that is why she is a better partner in my opinion. I like her effusive improvisation and the way she continues acting during the songs. This is what elevates her as a partner for me.
Thanks for your perspective Dee Dee. I have no technical dance expertise, so while I can occasionally notice a misstep or lag I’m more taken with the general spirit of the thing and that’s where, like Jon, I feel Ginger wins in spades. Croce notes this above, too, I think: there’s a personality which makes up for some technical weaknesses. Her expression at the end practically makes the number. Oddly enough, I never really thought of Hepburn being a better dancer, but I’ll have to watch Funny Face again; the last time I saw it I hadn’t watched much Astaire-Rogers.
I really like all the Astaire-Rogers films and it was difficult to decide which ones to vote for. Also must agree with you that Arlene Croce’s book, which I’ve just read in the last couple of weeks, is wonderful.
Your passion for ‘Night and Day’ comes across in this posting and I definitely agree. Just to add that for me Astaire’s singing of this is as memorable as the dancing (I love his voice anyway and here it is so perfectly fitted to the song). I was interested to see that he sings a snatch of it to himself in the later musical ‘Blue Skies’, which at the time was supposed to be his swansong, though luckily it didn’t turn out that way.
I don’t feel the rest of the film quite lives up to ‘Night and Day’ though… must admit I get a bit fed up with some of the comedy involving Eric Blore etc, which gets a bit repetitive, and I also think The Continental dance goes on for too long, and as for Let’s Knock Kneez… least said about that one the better. There were more Cole Porter songs in the original stage production ‘The Gay Divorce’, but as with so many Porter shows they got lost somewhere between stage and screen.
Just saw this, Judy (the comment, I mean, though I watched the film recently too). Yes, Night and Day is by far the highlight of the film and the rest can’t really be seen as “great” like, say, Top Hat or maybe Swing Time with everything congeals a little nicer – which is why I was surprised Allan ranked it so high and I’d love to hear more from him on that.
However, last time I watched it I actually found the comedy bits fairly amusing and though dated, I enjoy the weird antics ofHorton and Blore. Croce had a funny line of them in the book, saying that while the censors were worried about calling a movie “The Gay Divorce” (that’s why they had to change it to “divorcee” because a divorcee can be happy, but a divorce can’t), perhaps they should have worried more about the first part of the title than the second.
And yes, it isn’t just the dancing that charms – I’ve got Astaire’s version of this on my iPod (though it doesn’t hurt that you can hear the hoofing lightly in the background – it seems to be taken directly from the soundtrack rather than recorded separately).
Thanks, Joel – I agree that Top Hat is probably their greatest. There seem to be several different recordings around of Astaire singing most of his movie songs, some taken straight from the soundtrack with the sound of the dancing, as you say, and others recorded separately with jazz bands.
Like that great philosopher, humourist (Sp) and he sometimes leave comments [Who shall remain nameless…] sometimes say, “So said, you…” I never said, that she can’t act…I say she can’t dance!
By the way, and in my humble opinion…she still can’t dance! lol