Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers endure in the American imagination. The charm and grace of their dancing in the ten films they made together, including Top Hat and Swing Time, elicit nostalgia today. Most books about the Astaire-Rogers films focus exclusively on the music and dance scenes, but this book shows that the films are much more than the sum of those scenes, which after all only account for approximately one-third of their films' running times. Gallafent argues that, contrary to received opinion, the musical numbers are not discrete, generic moments dropped in to enliven the films. Instead, the music and dance routines advance the movies' themes. Gallafent shows how dialogue, plotting, and the audience's perception of this striking professional couple affect the context, and thus meaning, for the song and dance routines. The book examines how the Astaire-Rogers musicals, which were produced and originally viewed as a series, relate to one another and to other musicals of their day. Gallafent also provides an illuminating account of the films Astaire and Rogers made separately during the 1940s before their final reunion in The Barkleys of Broadway. Astaire and Rogers concludes by tracing the development of their star personas both together and apart, and shows how the films were designed around those personas.

This is the first book to pay tribute to the genuine cinematic contribution of these magnificent performers. Gallafent traces the development of Astaire and Rogers' star personas both together and apart and how the narratives of their films were designed around those personas.

About the Author
Edward Gallafent lectures on film studies at the University of Warwick. He is a member of the editorial board of Movie magazine and has written numerous articles, as well as the book Clint Eastwood: Actor and Director.

Reviews
A comprehensive account. Variety An appropriately elegant new book. -- Linda Rosenkrantz Copley News Service A thoroughly researched consideration of the famous film couple's various works... The book is full of judiciously constructed analyses and imaginative juxtapositions of this idea and that image. Washington Post Book World Gallafent's book deserves a special place in the body of scholarship on Astaire and Rogers. His reading of their films brims with insights. CineAction Gallafent offers some intriguing insights. He is right to stress the importance of viewing the ten films as a (somewhat) coherent series. The Weekly Standard



Book Information
ISBN 9780231126274
Author Edward Gallafent
Format Paperback
Page Count 256
Imprint Columbia University Press
Publisher Columbia University Press