Second Chorus / That's Dancing!

Starring:Fred Astaire, Paulette Goddard, Artie Shaw, Charles Butterworth, Burgess Meredith, Frank Melton, Jimmy Conlin, Don Brodie, Marjorie Kane, Joan Barclay, Willa Pearl Curtis, Ben Lessy, Heinie Conklin, Bus Bassey, Jack Cathcart, Adia Kuznetzoff, Spec O'Donnell, Charles R. Moore, Bobby Barber, Joseph Marievsky
Director: H.C. Potter
Studio: PASSPORT VIDEO
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
Second Chorus has one little gem of a moment that has found its way into many Fred Astaire highlight reels. Astaire sings and taps "I Ain't Hep to That Step but I'll Dig It" then tries to coax Paulette Goddard onto the floor. She declines, twice, then joins him in a joyous dance. The rest of the movie is not as enticing. Astaire and Burgess Meredith portray trumpet players vying for a spot in Artie Shaw's orchestra and for the affections of Goddard. The interplay among the three stars has its charms, and there's plenty of toe-tapping big-band music from Shaw, who plays himself in a substantial part and wrote the Oscar-nominated "Would You Like to Be the Love of My Life" with Johnny Mercer. Filmed in 1940, Second Chorus pales in comparison to the nine-film Astaire-Ginger Rogers partnership that had just ended. Astaire doesn't dance enough, and a tedious subplot involving Charles Butterworth stretches the movie about 15 minutes too long. No great surprise that like Royal Wedding, Second Chorus has slipped into the public domain and is generally available in poor-quality prints. --David Horiuchi
Description
Second Chorus Fred Astaire stars in this swing musical. He plays a trumpet player in competition with another musician for the affections of their manager (played by the beautiful Paulette Goddard), who fends off their attentions while struggling to get them paying gigs. But who can resist being swept off her feet by the elegant Astaire? Goddard (at the time wife of movie legend Charles Chaplin, who starred with her in the classic comedy Modern Times) dances the light fantastic with Astaire in this delightful treat from the heyday of movie musicals. Songs include the Oscar-nominated "Would You Like to Be the Love of My Life?." A fine musical for all fans of Fred Astaire!

Amazon.com

Second Chorus has one little gem of a moment that has found its way into many Fred Astaire highlight reels. Astaire sings and taps "I Ain't Hep to That Step but I'll Dig It" then tries to coax Paulette Goddard onto the floor. She declines, twice, then joins him in a joyous dance. The rest of the movie is not as enticing. Astaire and Burgess Meredith portray trumpet players vying for a spot in Artie Shaw's orchestra and for the affections of Goddard. The interplay among the three stars has its charms, and there's plenty of toe-tapping big-band music from Shaw, who plays himself in a substantial part and wrote the Oscar-nominated "Would You Like to Be the Love of My Life" with Johnny Mercer. Filmed in 1940, Second Chorus pales in comparison to the nine-film Astaire-Ginger Rogers partnership that had just ended. Astaire doesn't dance enough, and a tedious subplot involving Charles Butterworth stretches the movie about 15 minutes too long. No great surprise that like Royal Wedding, Second Chorus has slipped into the public domain and is generally available in poor-quality prints. --David Horiuchi

Description

Second Chorus Fred Astaire stars in this swing musical. He plays a trumpet player in competition with another musician for the affections of their manager (played by the beautiful Paulette Goddard), who fends off their attentions while struggling to get them paying gigs. But who can resist being swept off her feet by the elegant Astaire? Goddard (at the time wife of movie legend Charles Chaplin, who starred with her in the classic comedy Modern Times) dances the light fantastic with Astaire in this delightful treat from the heyday of movie musicals. Songs include the Oscar-nominated "Would You Like to Be the Love of My Life?." A fine musical for all fans of Fred Astaire!

Customer Reviews:

Of special interest to Astaire fans.......2007-04-03

"Second Chorus" is not a widely known film, but it will probably be enjoyable to any fan of Fred Astaire. If you're not particularly fond of Astaire, you might want to pass on this one since seeing Astaire in action in an unusual role is the main attraction. The story is that Danny O'Neill (Fred Astaire) and Hank Taylor (Burgess Meredith) are leaders of a band. The two have been intentionally failing in college, because they like the atmosphere, and also because as long as they are officially students they can spend their time running the band and making a pretty good living at it. When Ellen Miller (Paulette Goddard) enters the picture, they both get greedy and want her attention for themselves. Thus they each double-cross the other and both wind up getting expelled from the university, thus ending their cozy arrangement with their band. They spend most of the rest of the film continuing to double-cross one another, this time over trying to get into Artie Shaw's band as well as trying to win over the affections of Ellen, who now works for Shaw. In the end, Danny and Hank patch things up and decide to work together, with good results coming from their teamwork.

The things that are not so great about this film are mainly the quality of the video, the less than great comic timing, and the tiresome scenes with J. Lester Chisholm, played by Charles Butterworth. Mr. Butterworth is no Edward Everett Horton, and as a less-than-adequate character actor you just want to shoo the guy off stage every time he turns up. Also, if you're watching this film to see lots of Astaire's wonderful dancing, you'll likely be somewhat disappointed. He does do some singing and dancing, but this film mainly shows off his comic abilities, of which the mischievous Astaire has plenty. This part would have been better if the comic timing of the script had been tighter, though.

As for the second feature, "That's Dancing" is a documentary made in 1985 along the same lines of "That's Entertainment". However, in my humble opinion "That's Entertainment" did it before and did it better. Actually, this documentary seems a bit drawn out and lacks the excitement of its predecessor. However, you do get to see some good shots of Astaire and others doing some pretty impressive dancing. Considering the low cost of this double feature, for the ardent Astaire fan it is probably worth it.

never seen this film look better!!.......2006-10-24

this hal roach studios dvd release of 'second chorus' has to be the best restoration of this film so far. not top of the line spectacular, but very, very good!! on the back cover it says the dvd is "mastered from original 35mm nitrate camera negative", and indeed the images are clean and crisp, no spots, specs, or lines. those who have seen the inferior prints of this film in the past will be pleasantly surprised. it's well worth the money.

for me, astaire is hollywood royalty; a peerless dancer and entertainer. all of astaire's body of work is great --- he never fails to deliver fresh, original interpretations of music through his singing and dancing. his films should be in every dvd library, that's why THIS DVD EDITION is such a find.

and while the film itself is not a classic, it does have some wonderful moments, starting with the toe-tapping tune by the artie shaw orchestra that accompanies the opening credits. this, along with "i ain't hep to that step but i'll dig it" and "love of my life" and the instrumental band music ... they're all upbeat, peppy tunes. it's a shame there's not more of them, they're just great to listen to.

paulette goddard's sweet-tart personality also works well with astaire, and her one dance (a jitterbug!!) with astaire is well done and fun to watch. again, we could use more dancing, even the great astaire has ONE solo dance number. goddard herself was just reaching fullblown stardom at this time (1940). burgess meredith, brilliant as always. artie shaw, charles butterworth and the supporting cast, excellent.

with more music and dance numbers (this film seems to have fewer numbers than your traditional musical), and perhaps better production values (paramount studios would do better by astaire in later films) this could have been a classic musical. but even so, as it is , it's still well worth a look!!!!

bummer.......2005-10-04

How can I review the movie "Second Chorus" when I have never received it?

The Movie Has Some Redeeming Qualities, And One Great Song.......2005-09-05

What did Fred Astaire have to say about Second Chorus? "The worst picture I ever worked on."

Looking at it now the movie has some redeeming qualities, but on balance we have a Fred Astaire musical with only two real dance numbers, and the second is near the end of the movie, plus it's a musical with only three songs...and each of the songs has a different composer with Johnny Mercer doing all the lyrics. The musical has the earmarks of an idea that went wrong. Still, if you're an Astaire fan it's worth watching all the way through once, and then using your fast-forward clicker several times to the three musical numbers, which are good.

Trumpet player Danny O'Neill (Fred Astaire) heads The University Perennials, a reasonably successful college band made up of musicians who deliberately fail each year to graduate. His best friend and competitor is a fellow trumpet player, Hank Taylor (Burgess Meredith). They both fall for Ellen Miller (Paulette Goddard), whom they hire to manage the band, and they both compete for a spot with Artie Shaw. There's plenty of plot complications, friendly but under-handed double dealing and lots of misunderstandings. Eventually, Danny and Ellen wind up together, Danny wins a place with Shaw...and probably so does Hank.

The fast-forward button is essential because the plot just goes on and on. What the movie has going for it is Astaire, when he's given the opportunity to dance and to sing, the music of Artie Shaw, trumpet players Bobby Hackett dubbing for Astaire and Billy Butterfield dubbing for Meredith, and Johnny Mercer's lyrics. Mercer collaborated with Shaw on the one romantic swing number Astaire sings to Goddard. It's a knock-out. Unfortunately, the song has been long forgotten, but it's worth the price of the public domain DVD. "Would You Like to Be the Love of My Life?" goes like this:

Would you like to be the love of my life for always,
And always watch over me?
To square my blunders, and share my dreams
One day with caviar, next day a chocolate bar.

Would you like to take the merry go round I'll lead you,
I'll need you, wait and you'll see

I hope in your horoscope
There is room for a dope who adores you,
That would make
The only dreams of my life come true,
For the love of my life is you.

Astaire's dance number with Goddard to "I Ain't Hep to That Step But I'll Dig It" (music by Hal Borne) is a fast charmer. Goddard was no dancer, and it's interesting to see how cleverly Astaire positions her to make her look good. What's frustrating is that one number that evidently was very good was cut to make more time for the story and for Artie Shaw and his band. The number was called "Me and the Ghost Upstairs" with music by Bernard Hanighen and words by Mercer. Hermes Pan danced the part of the ghost. The number was filmed but the only things that survive, as far as I know, are a couple of rehearsal out-takes and the song track by Astaire. It features some of Mercer's cleverest lyrics:

Once upon a midnight dreary
While I pondered weak and weary
From a long trip on the Erie
Comes a rappin' on my chamber door

It's an ectoplasmic tapping
That disturbs my nightly napping
Like a shroud that's gently flapping
Emanating from the second floor

Buddies are we, me and the ghost upstairs
Sipping our tea, me and the ghost upstairs
But he's inclined to moan when left alone
So I think of things that'll tickle his funny bone

Lonely old ghost upstairs

Regular folks, droppin' our worldly cares
Swappin' our jokes, me and the ghost upstairs
And then he slaps his shroud and laughs out loud
And says "Oh boy, that'll paralyze all the crowd"

Jolly old ghost upstairs

He's quite a cook, he serves a beautiful drink
He wrote a book and in invisible ink
I took a look and the title 'pon the page
Was 'The Groups of Wraith'

Once in a while he brings a gang of friends
Does it in style, careless of what he spends
And though the place is small we have a ball
'Cause you know those spooks don't require no room at all

We have some mighty fine affairs
Me and the ghost upstairs
We have some mighty fine affairs
Me and the ghost upstairs.

My copy of the movie is from Passport Video. It's watchable but not much more than that. There are chapter stops but they aren't keyed to the musical numbers, which is an irritation. Still, if you're an Astaire completeist (and I am) and like Johnny Mercer and Artie Shaw, you might want this. And don't forget "Would You Like to Be the Love of My Life." It really is a first-class, sophisticated, swinging love song.

One of the best!.......2003-04-24

This was the second Fred Astaire movie I ever saw, and I thought that it was very good. The plot is extremly humorus. Fred Astaire is brilliant, as usual, and delivers several award winning numbers including "I'll Dig It" (with Paulette Goddard) and "Poor Mister Chisholm". A must see.

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