AnnaMaysTears Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 Late last year on TCM I saw a black and white movie with Fred Astaire where he was sitting at a bar alone and then began to dance. He danced on the room, on the fireplace hearth I believe and on top of the bar. Does anyone know what movie this is? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ennui Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 I suppose it could be any of them. I found this description from "The Gay Divorcee": Astaire bursts into song. He sings the song once through while sitting on a sofa, then rouses himself to put his words into effect, singing the chorus a second time as he first discards his dressing gown and then selects a tie, with the bemused assistance of his valet (Charles Coleman9). Once Fred gets his tie bar on, he?s ready for some serious dancing. As in many of his best dances, there?s a persistent movement from the mundane to the inspired, as he explores his environment, testing its possibilities for dance and then converting the everyday into art. He raps his knuckles idly on the mantelpiece; the rhythm is conveyed to his legs; the marble slab before the fireplace, he discovers, is an excellent surface for tap. Once he has exhausted the marble, he moves on to the floor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ziggyelman Posted January 26, 2008 Share Posted January 26, 2008 Hi! You are thinking of The Sky's the Limit most likely. Near the end of the movie, he gets smashed and dances on the bar(While destroying much of the bar) while singing, "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)" One of my all time favorite numbers by Fred. I first saw in an excellent Joanne Woodward narrated documentary that ran on PBS back in the early 80s on Fred and Ginger, so I always kept an eye out for this film. Ran a few times on AMC , and just recently on TCM. Wikipedia has a link on just about everything, including the song used in this film, with a photo of Fred on the bar... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_for_My_Baby_(and_One_More_for_the_Road) Edit, just tried the link, you will have to copy and paste instead, sorry. Message was edited by: ziggyelman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnnaMaysTears Posted January 26, 2008 Author Share Posted January 26, 2008 Thanks so much! The Sky's the Limit is the one I was looking for! I went to that link and then did some more looking as the picture was very familiar. YouTube even has a link in very poor quality that took me a while to locate. I purchased Top Hat thinking it was the movie because I had seen several around that same time. I was a little disappointed (only a little though because it's a wonderful film!) that it wasn't the one with this scene. It's one of my favorite Astaire scenes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VInuG98hmrs I always feel breathless when watching Fred Astaire dance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ayresorchids Posted January 28, 2008 Share Posted January 28, 2008 Astaire cut up his ankles somewhat while doing that number, as that was real glass (seconds) he was kicking off that bar. Usually sugar was used to simulate glass in such situations, but it was wartime and sugar was rationed. A nurse and Fred's anxious wife were present during the filming of all that sliding around on the bar and glass-shattering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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