Second Chorus

SECOND CHORUS 1940 Vas Good? ... Vas Pair-fect. (but not so the film.)

The Wonderful Fred Astaire and the vibrant, young, healthy and sexy Paulette Goddard struggled valiantly with this picture. Unfortunately there were no Irving Berlin or Cole Porter melodies to hang it on. If you are an Artie Shaw fan, then you will be content. As to the acting ability of Artie Shaw, I found nothing wrong with it. He was quite natural and, as a band leader, seemed quite at home . However, he was right up there, as a dramatic actor, with Xavier Cugat and Harry James. Fred was not at his best with the love song (even Paulette looked rather dubious about it) They looked good as dancing partners but it was obvious Fred taught her what little terpsichorian skills she possessed. (nice legs, though ... but then that is my weakness) I liked the little Russian number that Mister Astaire had some fun with.

Burgess Meredith and Fred Astaire actually were pretty snappy as a comedy team. Burgess had that same glitter in his eye as Paulette (they were later married in real life)

The video that I saw was a poor copy and suffered accordingly. Perhaps it would fare better with a clear one.

With all its faults and a minimal plot, I still would recommend that you get a good copy and watch some attractive young people show the present day, minimal twits what comedy should be.

Has anyone else noticed a resemblance between Burgess Meredith and Harpo Marx? Maybe it's just the attitude. Thank you for your patience with my ramblings. Comments are welcome. OLD DAD from Babbling Books (babblingbooks@shaw.ca)

There are not many strong points to "Second Chorus", and it is really only watchable because of Fred Astaire, whose talent and charisma provide for some good moments. The writing is noticeably weak, and the rest of the production is not strong enough to overcome the faulty story-line and the mediocre dialogue. The whole premise of the college band does not work for a moment, and there is never a time when the viewer is not overly conscious that the whole situation is contrived.

To be sure, some of Astaire's most enjoyable pictures have lightweight plots, which allow him and the rest of the cast to be the center of attention. But the good ones are much more creative than this, and they also come with much better characters and dialogue. As slight as the story lines may be in "Top Hat" or "Swing Time", you don't think about it while you are watching them, because everything else is of such high quality. "Second Chorus", on the other hand, seems thrown together, as if they just hoped that Astaire could keep it afloat by himself.

That's not to criticize the rest of the cast, who do their best. Paulette Goddard can be very charming, but her character here gives her very little to work with. She does manage to get a couple of nice moments out of it, anyway. Burgess Meredith is stuck with a character who is both ill-defined and annoying, so he never has any chance to show what he could do.

It's worth watching once, as is practically anything that stars Astaire. There is at least one very good number, and most of the time it is watchable, as long as your expectations are not too high.

After Fred Astaire finished his RKO contract in 1939 with The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, he freelanced for the rest of his career. His first film under the Paramount banner was Second Chorus which had him co-starring with marrieds to be Paulette Goddard and Burgess Meredith and big bandleader Artie Shaw. There seems to be a consensus among the reviewers that this was Astaire's worst musical film and I'm not going to dispute that.

Of course second rate Fred Astaire is better than most and he does have some nice dance numbers, but even they're not up to his usual creative genius. I think Astaire realized he was in a turkey and walked through it to collect his paycheck and move on to something better.

Poor Paulette Goddard however. She was just beginning her career and she had gotten good notices for Modern Times and The Women. She had been in stage choruses before so it wasn't like she didn't have any musical training. The following year she was in another musical disaster, the independent United Artist film Pot O' Gold with Jimmy Stewart. That was with another bandleader, Horace Heidt. Something about Paulette and bandleaders. Anyway she got a long term Paramount contract for the Forties and much better parts including three DeMille films.

As an actor, Artie Shaw was a great clarinetist and bandleader. Of course he joins other great contemporary thespians like Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, and Benny Goodman all who made Hollywood films at the time. His band has a few great numbers though I would have liked to have seen Shaw reprise his all time classic instrumental hit, Begin the Beguine.

The film starts off kind of dumb to begin with. We're asked to believe that the 41 year old Fred Astaire and his pal Burgess Meredith are a pair of perennial college students who keep flunking courses to stay in college so they can advertise their band as a college orchestra. Even Jack Oakie didn't stay in college forever.

After horror of horrors Meredith graduates they have to start looking for work and they keep trying to get a break with Artie Shaw. Of course it all works out in the end, but for those interested in seeing the film, I shan't say how.

Charles Butterworth is on hand to play another of his droll eccentrics and he gets a few laughs. But unless you like Fred Astaire and/or Artie Shaw you might well skip Second Chorus.

... with the first act being his dance partnership with his sister and his second act being his RKO years.

"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.

The things that are not so great about this film are 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.

Attention all musicians (it doesn't matter if you're any good or not), you will LOVE this movie. Everyone else, I'm afraid you may not catch the full effect. Browsing through these reviews, I see a lot of negative posts from people who were expecting Astaire's usual powerhouse dancing numbers. It's a shame that these reviewers missed the musical subtlety of the performance--a slightly different but equally powerful direction for Fred.

For example, there's one number where Astaire dances a fabulous romp while conducting a band. Priceless! Anyone who's played in a band (even if it's your high school marching band) should get a thrill out of this routine. The beauty is that most conductors are stereotypically the most lifeless, brooding, nose-in-the-score dead weights you've ever seen. And to see Astaire conducting the band with pirouettes, arabesques and fancy footwork is just classic.

Another musical inside joke happens early on when a trumpet solo is sabotaged by a rival trumpeter. The rival scribbles out the proper notes and pencils in the most horrifically atonal arrangement you've ever seen or heard. Again, musicians will recognize (and "hear") what is about to happen just by looking at the butchered score. The hilarious payoff comes at the actual performance. It's a fear all musicians have when blindly sight reading a sheet of music. Once again, CLASSIC!

Then there's "poor Mr. Chisholm" and his lazy mandolin. Anyone who's ever played in a band knows about the hanger-on who's not very good at his instrument, but for whatever reasons the band leader doesn't boot him out into the street. (Btw, if you don't know the guy I'm talking about, chances are IT'S YOU.)

All in all, this was a fantastic, hilarious & inspiring experience for me, and I'm sure anyone who has dabbled on an instrument may feel the same. It has certainly motivated me to pick up my old trumpet and squeak out a few notes (much to the despair of my upstairs neighbour, I'm sure).

Musicians, don't miss this. Other great movies for musicians: Five Pennies (1959), Swing Girls (2004), Eddie and the Cruisers (1983), and of course the mack daddy of them all, This is Spinal Tap (1984).