I remember thinking the staging of Julie's version looked intricate and like a lot of it was done in one take without editing. It must have taken a lot of rehearsal to pull off.
Julie's great but STAR! is not. You're either telling Gertie's story (and she also couldn't sing like Julie) or you are full of expensive BS. I prefer this staging.
Who couldn't love Ginger Rogers? She was a fierce combination of sass and class. Wonderful actress, comedienne and dancer..and those legs...hell, even Cyd had nothing on them.
I saw that dress at a costume exhibit at Virginia museum of fine arts. It really is mink, but the sequin work was more spectacular than the luxurious pelts.
This is one of my favorite Ginger Rogers films, and fully displays what great talent this lady had. It also reveals in this particular scene what a great figure Ginger Rogers had. In my personal opinion,Ginger Rogers had as great a figure as the lovely Betty Grable had,and is on my Top Ten List as one of the most beautiful actresses ever to come out of Hollywood.
Missing verse: "Jenny made her mind up at 39/She would take a trip to the Argentine/She was only on vacation but the Latins agree/Jenny was the one who started the Good Neighbor Policy/Poor Jenny, bright as a penny/Her equal would be hard to find/Oh, passion does not vanish/In Portuguese or Spanish/And she would make up her mind!"
I'm completely fascinated with 'Lady in the Dark'. This movie had such potential, but because of a woman hating director who clashed with Ginger, many of the great songs and numbers were cut out that would have made this a spectacular movie. 'The Saga of Jenny' was left in tact thankfully, and Ginger is truly dazzling in it. If the whole film had been like that, this movie would be of of the great musicals of all time in my opinion.
I agree. I'm strongly anti-femifascism as it is conducted today (I love the original idea of feminism but it just drifted so far into extremism that I will not adhere to it). Now that being said, as a woman myself, I was kinda repelled by some of the notions in this film. Ginger smoothed this out very elegantly but I could've punched most of the men in this picture right in the face. Repeatedly. I just saw it for the first time and I love it a lot, just like "Carefree" with Freddie, which I love even more for reason of them playing together. I'm gonna try to get a copy of "Lady in the Dark" though, it's awesome visually and also, surprisingly, the storyline. Ginger is a marvel, I love her so, so much!
Weird you say so. Ginger Rogers was a really problematic actress, and Mitchell Leisen is known to have taken care of any actress that went through his movies (many of them were Oscar candidates because of him, and he got the best out of Jean Arthur.
Ginger is dazzling and gorgeous as always here. I have many of Ginger's songs, and this is definitely her singing, and is not an over dub. Just found a copy of this movie to own, but it took some doing. Incidentally, that costume was the most expensive ever made, and now resides in the Smithsonian I believe.
i LOVE her costume, and she has a knockout figure, when I first saw this movie, thinking she was mainly a 1930s star, i thought she might've been getting a bit old by then, but then, viola! She has curves and long, flawless legs like a ziegfeld folly! Her sequin costume was one of the most expensive of her time, it cost about $43,000,---back then!
The one number in the movie worthy of the source material. In the jury box you'll notice Pepito the Spanish Clown ("Jenny is out of place"), who appeared in the pilot for "I Love Lucy" and then in an early episode.
Julie Andrews did this in the film "Star". The dress is going on display in the "Hollywood Costume" display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London this month, having just been unearthed! it was the most expensive dress ever...$35.000 in 1943!!
What do you mean, 'not Rogers voice'? Of course it's her voice. She's just a little older than when most people think of when they think of her singing. This wasn't dubbed.
I don’t know where the rumor came from that this wasn’t Ginger Rogers singing, but I can tell you right now it’s not true. As far as I know she was never dubbed. It’s also a little-known fact that she was very good at throwing her voice and making it sound different. There’s a reason Walt Disney himself wanted her to voice Alice in “Alice in Wonderland” and why she was sought out for the lead in “The Major and the Minor”. But this was a good movie. I’ve been somewhat interested lately in movies where an attractive character goes out of their way to appear unattractive while secretly wanting to be appreciated for their looks, and then I stumble onto this. It’s actually quite fascinating if you ask me. And here’s the thing. Everybody here keeps talking about how talented and beautiful Ginger Rogers is in this number. And I believe that’s the whole point. The person we see preforming, that IS Ginger Rogers. She can sing, dance, wear pretty clothes, look beautiful without trying, and be charismatic enough to win over a courtroom straight out of a Looney Tunes cartoon. That’s who she WANTS to be. But then when she wakes up she’s just plain old Liza Elliot, the workaholic who’s only talent is being well organized and is never paid any mind by men, and due to her subconscious fears is way too terrified to do anything about it. That’s exactly what she sees herself, and her life in general, as once she snaps out of it. I think we’re all like that to a degree, fantasizing about the kind of people we wish we could be while being stuck as our old, boring selves. But here’s what you gotta remember. Ms. Elliot IS actually capable of becoming the woman she is in her dreams, but it’s her past trauma that crushes her attempts to do anything about it. Just keep that in mind, that you may very well have the capability to become the person you wish you could be, if you just look a little harder at yourself. Also, the design for this scene is fantastic. It looks like something straight out of a cartoon, and frankly like something you would actually SEE if you were having a dream about the circus. Most of it doesn’t make any sense, but it’s a dream, it’s not SUPPOSED to make any sense. And those bright colors, it’s true, what has happened to Hollywood? If this were made today I guarantee the whole thing would be completely CGI and dark. I don’t know why, but all the special effects people today just seem so obsessed with making everything DARK. The golden age of Hollywood just had a kind of whimsy to it that was lost a long time ago. TL;DR: Great movie, great number. Thank you Ginger Rogers, and all of your mostly extinct kind of grace and talent from a bygone era.
Everybody commenting about Ginger's legs-you know Ginger Rogers was a dancer right? Like that was her main thing...??? Fred and Ginger...? Of course she had gorgeous legs! OY.
No, dancing was never Ginger's thing. After her teens hoofing in the chorus, she danced only when the picture demanded it. No musical was ever built round her, and in ten films with Fred she danced for precisely one minute as a soloist. Acting, comedic or straight, was her goal (and her mom's) from the getgo. She was very sporty and fit but her interest in dance as an art was minimal.
@@esmeephillips5888actually those dance routines with Fred Astaire were totally built around the two of them. That's how partner dancing works...she became famous doing that, whether it was her main aim or not.
This costume was intentionally made to be totally over-the-top. In the plot, it's a costume from a Hollywood musical that Ginger's character has access to, at the fashion magazine where she works. As I remember, she's scornful of how excessive it is, but then actually puts it on and kind of gives in to its glamor.
the dress she's wearing,had 30,000 dollars worth of mink on it..the directer mitchell Leihsen had the idea for the dress,and had Edith Head to make it..the earlier version had bugle beads as a lining but ginger said it was to heavy for the dance movements. there was a dress later in the film ..a wedding dress that was so large that inspired giggles rather than awe when ginger appeared in it...k.k.
the first show at the Met Museum costume institute was Romantic Hollywood costumes curated by Diana Vreeland. this costume was in the show,its amazing close up
Hollywood was beginning to take psychoanalysis (too) seriously, but as a Christian Scientist thought it was hogwash. She had already spoofed it twice, in 'In Person' and 'Carefree' with that sparkling episode when she made up a dream about fish and squirrels for Fred's benefit.
What incredibly witty, sophisticated lyrics...look how far we have descended since. Can you imagine any film today doing something like this? Polysyllabic words, psychology...it's practically an artifact from a different civilization.
Ginger looks amazing - the outfit made of male minks - Ginger notes in her book the outfit had to be shortened as she in her 4" heels - found it too long once they changed the flooring on the scene.
This song is like a copy of the song "Lily of the Valley" sung by Mae West in the movie "My little chickadee". Good old time enterteiners. Hard to find today. Thanks a lot for posting this. Greetings from Helsinki, Finland.
If you like music hall entertainment, look up Julie Andrews' rendition of PARISIAN PIERROT in ",STAR!". You may even want to look up Laurence Olivier singing in THE ENTERTAINER, about the fading of a music hall entertainer.
This is an excellent part of Ginger's career and so hard to find these days, no DVD release forthcoming etc! Quite apart from the surreal magic of the number it also has the best pair of legs in the business on show! Ahhh Ginger! Her equal would be hard to find that's for damn sure!!
This is a great sassy version, with the Jazz feel and syncopation well forward. It’s definitely Ginger singing, but I’m betting there were a lot of filters, re dubbing and other tricks in the studio. Also the studio ambient sound was really different than the preceding scene.
It would have been nice to see Danny Kaye reprice his role in this -- ah but by then, he was star in his own right -- he would have played the ring master -- notice how the song "Tchaikovsky" is missing from this version
No, it's Ginger. She was a very talented singer as is apparent in this number. She was the first person to perform such standards as "Embraceble You" and "But Not For Me" when she was just 19 years old.
AHHHH I Always think there is no way I could fall anymore in Love with Ginger and then I find stuff like this. I always have to watch her stuff at least two or three times in a row cause I am so excited I find myself Screaming with excitement through the whole thing.
Really interesting contrast to the Julie Andrews version in "Star!," which is the only one I'm familiar with. And the orchestrations and rhythms are so straight out of the 1940's that I could imagine the Andrews Sisters performing the song, but they still worked just fine.
Does anyone know where to purchase a DVD of this movie. I have been looking for a copy of anything of it forever. I loved this movie when I was a kid. I have to have it. Please!!!!!
Interesting to see Ray Milland in a musical sequence. Otherwise, this version of the song is not one-tenth as good as Julie's performance of the number in the movie STAR!, imho.
This picture is (apparently) in the public domain now, so there are DVDs available on ebay. I'm considering purchasing one, but I have no idea what the quality is like.
No problem, I hate to see people get ripped off! I guess we just have to badger the studio to release the film properly and as I'm a fan in the UK and you are in the USA (I assuming as you mentioned bucks!) we might just do it!
This is Ginger at her commercial peak, the highest paid woman in America. Five years after parting with Fred- who might have played Ray Milland's part in a reunion- she dominated this show as much as Streisand in 'Funny Girl', putting her three anemic suitors in the shade. Those who had called her a chorine who got lucky by becoming Astaire's love interest had to eat their words. The bosses reckoned Gertrude Lawrence, like Ethel Merman or Mary Martin, was too stagy and could not dial down for the camera. Ginger never had that problem.
Please don't make that purchase, I did and the quality of the DVD is shocking, clearly transferred from an old video recording on a TV showing, I would guess in the 1980's. It doesn't do the film justice at all!
Well didn't the same thing happen when instead of Julie Andrews, Audrey Hepburn was cast as Liza Doolittle in "My Fair Lady"? But Audrey was remarkable in her own unique way, and Julie got to do "Mary Poppins".
@kenaco2009, It's easy! First, get the correct genes. Then, start dancing when you're a teenager and win a contest. Go pro at around 16, practicing for hours a day. Then marry a professional dancer and perform on stage night after night. Then go to Hollywood, continue to rehearse constantly and end up partnering with the best, most demanding dancer in the world. And keep dancing throughout your life. See? Easy! ;o)
if you have this whole film, i beg you to give me a copy! i sw it when i was 13 and i have been desperate to see it again. i am an avid kurt weill fan and i have to have it.
I prefer this to Julie Andrews' version in "Star" (although I think "Star" is an underrated movie). There's too much going on in Julie's version. It distracts from the wit of the lyric which is the whole point of the song. And I think this is probably closer to what Gertrude Lawrence did on the stage.
The movie cut 80% of the score but certainly made up for it in production values! Rogers was no Gertrude Lawrence but neither was Ann Sothern in the just-released 1955 TV version. As for Julie Andrews take on the number in STAR! - let's just say Mary Poppins as a Bitch was NOT the way to go.
Because Julie Andrews's voice is an anomaly. That woman had a practically infinite range. It's no secret that Ginger isn't the best singer. She just performs the heck out of it.
Definately Gingers voice, no question. The only time her singing voice was dubbed was in the movie Professional Sweetheart, which she absolutely objected to.
The set and costumes are beautiful but the prelude to the song is embarrassing to watch and the whole production is leadan and very dated even for that year. I actually prefer Julie Andrews version of the "Saga of Jenny" song in the movie "Star", although, much like this film, it was a failure too.
