Broadway Melody of 1940
Fred Astaire, Eleanor Powell, George Murphy, Frank Morgan, Ian Hunter
| released: 1940 Feb 08 | duration: 1:41:42 |
In New York City, the dance team of Johnny Brett (Fred Astaire) and King Shaw (George Murphy) are at the bottom of the heap, and barely scraping by in dance halls. When a producer, Bob Casey (Frank Morgan), catches sight of Brett's moves, he wants to cast him as the dance partner of the Broadway star Clare Bennett (Eleanor Powell). However, after some misdirection and confusion, Shaw becomes Bennett's partner instead, but Brett still has some dancing to do when Shaw fails to perform.
At 0:23:55, Trixie Firschke does
ball spinning and juggles 6 plates,
followed by some mouthstick and ball tricks, in a scene with Fred Astaire
lasting almost 4 minutes.
At 1:01:04, Fred Astaire begins a 2 minute 15 second dance routine
containing 2 sequences of
1 ball manipulation,
one near the beginning and one near the end. This may be the closest
Astaire ever got to juggling in his films.
At 1:12:31, unicyclist Blair Woolstencroft appears for an audition
after a big build-up, and immediately falls off the stage.
The entire movie may be seen here.
