‘Swing Time’ or — Choking Hazard?

I’d fallen so heavily in love with ‘Top Hat’ (1935) when I finally saw it last month that I was left ravenously greedy for more Fred and Ginger, although I can now understand why Greed is a deadly sin because gorging on ‘Swing Time’ (1936) left me almost choking to death on it. And for several reasons.

So I wanted more Fred and Ginger and I certainly got more Fred and Ginger as ‘Swing Time’ follows an almost identical format to ‘Top Hat’ as Fred, dance in human form, meet cutes Ginger. At first she finds him annoying until he destroys her sanity by dancing with her only for Ginger to then find Fred annoying again so she agrees to marry someone else, a marriage that Fred can only destroy by dancing. All this is accompanied by coy smiles, wonderful music and a cadre of humourous sidekicks.

There’s such an innocent charm to it all that by the time Fred sings ‘The Way You Look Tonight’ I was on the point of choking up with tears from the breezy emotion, even if the gag at the end of the song doesn’t quite work because Ginger looks just as gorgeous with shampoo in her hair that I only buy Fred’s reaction of disgust to her with a massive suspension of disbelief. I also had to suspend my disbelief when Fred tries to get a free tap dancing lesson from Ginger by pretending he knows nothing about tap dancing at all, despite that fact he’s wearing top hat, tails, spats and tap shoes.

I also became excited when Ginger gives Fred a kiss… and it is SO cute! We don’t actually see, and neither should we because that’s not what Fred and Ginger’s relationship is about, them kiss but, instead, we just see her lipstick on his lips (did this gag inspire ‘Big Trouble in Little China’s similar one?) and the massive, delirious grin on his face. He’s ecstatic. I was ecstatic! In fact, Fred is so happy, in such a state of rapture that in giddy celebration he rushes over to his dressing table, looks in the mirror with a beaming smile and immediately starts… blacking up?!

That was the second point in ‘Swing Time’ that I started choking up except this time not with tears but on my mint tea which had went straight down my wind pipe in shock. I then spent the next two minutes desperately hoping that, while the chorus danced their introduction to his appearance, Fred wasn’t actually back stage blacking up but was only putting on an awful lot of moisturiser instead. Yet I knew that was in vain because it was obvious what he was doing.

Okay, to be fair I did look into the Bojangles from Harlem sequence once the film was over and discovered that it was meant as a loving and affectionate tribute to Bill Robinson, an African American dancer who was a major inspiration and beloved mentor to Astaire. This in no way excuses the sequence but it provides a rationale and context but it’s still very uncomfortable to watch.

Not that that’s my only issue with ‘Swing Time’ because whilst all that insanity is going on the art department have collectively lost their minds and have completely went to town constructing the most extravagant, outlandish, dazzling nightclub set ever made for Fred and Ginger’s big closing number. It’s incredible! The problem, for me though, was it was TOO big, too full on that some intimacy was lost in the process as futurism, modernism and excessive style furiously conspired to take its place. The reason I adore The Piccolino in ‘Top Hat’ is because my entire attention is focused on Ginger, Fred, their dancing, the music and how it all fits and blends perfectly together. Here, however, I felt the huge set intruding, threatening to dominate the two. After all, it’s hard to experience intimacy when it feels like you’re watching an Art-Deco version of ‘Triumph of the Will’.

I’m really going to have to watch ‘Swing Time’ again because it’s simultaneously so inadvertently offensive and so advertently overwhelming that my head was spinning faster than Ginger’s heels by the end that I can’t quite think about it straight or put it coherently together in my mind. Fortunately it is also such a funny, sweet, uplifting movie that a revisitation isn’t just needed but also desired. And at least this time I’ll be prepared.