Silver Skates

The tall, gorgeous ice skater Belita, who was also a wonderful ballerina, stars in this skateathon, "Silver Skates," that has a story here and there. Basically, an ice show owner (Patricia Morison) is desperate to save her show, which will fail badly once Belita leaves to get married. Help comes in the form of a pint-sized war orphan from Holland.

It's really kind of an amateur hour, saved by the glorious Belita, the beautiful Patricia Morison, and Frank Faylen, whom I've always loved. Frick and Frack did comedy skating -- which in fact is incredibly difficult to do, but today one just feels like fast-forwarding through it. Some of the skating numbers were on the boring side.

Gene Turner, a two-time national figure skating champion, was the other skating star. I took one look at him and said, "That's the man who doubled for Cary Grant in 'The Bishop's Wife.'" I was right - you can't see a film 100 times and not recognize the skating double. Turner toured with Sonja Henie, was a U.S. medal winner in single skating, pairs skating, and ice dancing, worked as a coach for 60 years, and also wrote a column for a skating magazine. He never competed in the Olympics because during his years of competition, the Olympics were subject to cancellation due to World War II, plus he was busy flying 60 missions over France.

So much accomplishment. Monogram didn't deserve them. Not too much else to say, except that Belita should have been with MGM.