I Heart Ginger Rogers
Okay, it's obvious. Like all too many people who view YouTube, I'm in love with a dead woman. And the woman in question is actress Ginger Rogers.
I liked her in 42nd Street. I liked her in Gold Diggers of 1933 and I liked her in the Fred Astaire movies. I also liked her in Vivacious Lady, Stage Door, Bachelor Mother and The Major and the Minor but for some reason, I didn't care for her too much in Roxie Hart, Kitty Foyle or I'll Be Seeing You. I guess I like the comic Ginger much more than I like the dramatic Ginger. For that matter, I liked the plebian Ginger better than the patrician Ginger and the blonde Ginger of the 1930s better than the red-headed Ginger (the ginger Ginger?) of the 1940s.
There's something about the expression on her face when she's skating in that "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" number in 1937's Shall We Dance which touches my heart. I don't know if she's actually having as much fun as that expression suggests or whether she's just a really good actress but that scene does tend to sum up Ginger Rogers's basic appeal as the type of woman most people would like to have fun with. Not "fun" in the dubious way fun is normally interpreted by so-called sophisticates but the traditional kind of fun. I love it when she wise-cracks and I love it when she shows she's a good sport. And of course, I love it when she starts singing and dancing.
I don't much care for the movies where she's too obviously the butt of the joke as in the conclusion of Roxie Hart. And I definitely don't care for movies like Kitty Foyle and I'll Be Seeing You. Both of those movies mean well but there's something about the way Ginger Rogers's character in those movies appears to be doing penance for all the "frivolous" musicals she did in her youth that really irritates the hell out of me. I never expected Ginger to make the exact type of movies in the 1940s that she made in the 1930s but I also didn't expect to see her to make movies that were so gloomy.
Oh, well. She won the Oscar and I didn't. As for her most recent work, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Okay, it's obvious. Like all too many people who view YouTube, I'm in love with a dead woman. And the woman in question is actress Ginger Rogers.
I liked her in 42nd Street. I liked her in Gold Diggers of 1933 and I liked her in the Fred Astaire movies. I also liked her in Vivacious Lady, Stage Door, Bachelor Mother and The Major and the Minor but for some reason, I didn't care for her too much in Roxie Hart, Kitty Foyle or I'll Be Seeing You. I guess I like the comic Ginger much more than I like the dramatic Ginger. For that matter, I liked the plebian Ginger better than the patrician Ginger and the blonde Ginger of the 1930s better than the red-headed Ginger (the ginger Ginger?) of the 1940s.
There's something about the expression on her face when she's skating in that "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" number in 1937's Shall We Dance which touches my heart. I don't know if she's actually having as much fun as that expression suggests or whether she's just a really good actress but that scene does tend to sum up Ginger Rogers's basic appeal as the type of woman most people would like to have fun with. Not "fun" in the dubious way fun is normally interpreted by so-called sophisticates but the traditional kind of fun. I love it when she wise-cracks and I love it when she shows she's a good sport. And of course, I love it when she starts singing and dancing.
I don't much care for the movies where she's too obviously the butt of the joke as in the conclusion of Roxie Hart. And I definitely don't care for movies like Kitty Foyle and I'll Be Seeing You. Both of those movies mean well but there's something about the way Ginger Rogers's character in those movies appears to be doing penance for all the "frivolous" musicals she did in her youth that really irritates the hell out of me. I never expected Ginger to make the exact type of movies in the 1940s that she made in the 1930s but I also didn't expect to see her to make movies that were so gloomy.
Oh, well. She won the Oscar and I didn't. As for her most recent work, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Labels: Actrices, Bailarinas y Bailarines, Ginger Rogers, Novias, Pensamientos Acerca de Películas I
posted by Tonio Kruger at 7:46 PM
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