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The Bargain Nexus - Roberta (1935)
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List Price: $14.98
Our Price: $8.99
Your Save: $ 5.99 ( 40% )
Availability:
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Starring: Irene Dunne, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Randolph Scott, Helen Westley
Directed By: William A. Seiter
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780790749556
Format: Black & White
ISBN: 0790749556
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Release Date: 2000-05-02
Running Time: 106
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1935-03-08
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Lesser Astaire-Rogers is still worth seeing.
Comment: I own all of the Astaire-Rogers films on DVD. I can watch any of them, even this one,the least of their movies.
John Kent(Randolph Scott)is a football coach who is visting Paris with his best friend,Huckleberry Hanes(What a name that is!He is played by Fred Astaire),a bandleader. While in Paris, John visits his rich aunt Roberta(Helen Westley),the owner of a fashion business. John falls in love with Roberta's assistant,Stephanie (Irene Dunne). When Roberta dies,she leaves the business to John, who enlists Stephanie's help in running it. Lizzie (Ginger Rogers) is Stephanie's friend at the fashion house.
For some reason, Stephanie is really a Russian princess and Lizzie is pretending to be a Polish countess. The reason why isn't explained very well. The plot of this one moves like a snail, and Scott seems stuck saying the word "swell" so much, you can't keep count.
The music and dancing are so excellent, however,it makes it worth seeing.
The nice score by Jerome Kern includes such classics as "Yesterdays", "Lovely To Look At", and "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes", all sung by Dunne in the operetta format.Fred and Ginger dance to "I'll Be Hard To Handle" and "I Won't Dance". These are the best reasons to see the movie.
The DVD includes two short subjects, one a cartoon.It also has a radio show promoting the movie, and the (badly worn) trailer. The print of the movie is pretty good.Mostly worhty of you time if you are a Fred and Ginger fan.
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the best!
Comment: As others have noted, the negative criticism of this excellent film is both uninformed and off-point. Randolph Scott is "wooden" because he's playing a former football player, contrasting with the irrepressible vitality of Astaire & Rogers, and the awesome talents of Irene Dunne, which must have taken some effort for Scott, who could be quite unreserved off-camera. It's also a film full of interesting historical perspectives, from emigre Russian aristocrats in Paris, to Astaire's aspersions against the outfits he's supposed to be selling in the fashion show, itself a staple of films of that time and after, e.g., "The Women" and "How To Marry A Millionaire." Yes, the dancing doesn't occupy quite as much time as it does in other Astaire-Rogers films, but with Dunne and Scott on the set, who cares? And then there's Jerome Kern's music, which should make any discerning mind wonder exactly what happened to American theatrical composition and popular song between his era and the present. But that's the stuff of a documentary, not the engagingly pure, multifaceted entertainment that "Roberta" offers. More than two thumbs up: this one gets a double high-five!
Customer Rating:
Summary: fun movie/musical
Comment: DVD arrived promtly and is in great shape. Fun movie, but about all those furs the ladies were wearing-ugh.
Customer Rating:
Summary: lovely to look at, and just as wonderful to behold!
Comment: Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers share their spotlight with beautiful songbird Irene Dunne in this pleasant version of the Kern/Harbach musical theater hit ROBERTA.
When American football player John Kent (Randolph Scott) inherits his Aunt Roberta's fashion boutique in Paris, he finds himself falling in love with lovely assistant Stephanie (Irene Dunne, hiding Russian royal blood) and fighting off the clutches of a nasty former girlfriend (Claire Dodd). Also on board for the ride are fun-loving bandleader Huck Haines (Fred Astaire), and the phoney Polish cabaret sensation Comtesse Scharwenka (Ginger Rogers)!
The Otto Harbach/Jerome Kern score contains such delights as "Yesterdays", "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and "Lovely to Look At" (a new addition for the movie). Fred and Ginger trip the light fantastic with "Let's Begin", "I'll Be Hard to Handle" and "I Won't Dance".
The perfect movie for a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Customer Rating:
Summary: enjoy, have a light heart
Comment: I read the reviews you have. It seems no one picked up the Mae West bit that Ginger did with Randolph. Not too campy but obviously having some fun. There are a few other insider moments as when
Fred says he has to get out of the dressmaking business because his voice is going up an octave!! There are others which I will let you have the fun of discovering on your own. Irene Dunn is a class act and Smoke Gets in Your Eyes is tops. I felt Randolph was a bit wooden, but nice to look at. Ginger and Fred have a free energy that is wonderful.
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Editorial Reviews:
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When Huck Haines (Fred Astaire) and his jazz band of Wabash Indianians find themselves stuck in Paris without a paying gig, it's up to his buddy John (Randolph Scott) to appeal to his aunt, the legendary dressmaker Roberta (Helen Westley), for help. He also finds a Russian princess (Irene Dunne) working in the shop and a down-home American girl (Ginger Rogers) masquerading as a Polish countess because it's the best way to get a singing job. Roberta was the third RKO collaboration between Astaire and Rogers, and it's one of the more tepid, with too much time spent on 1930s Parisian fashion and the romance between Dunne and Scott. Dunne gets top billing and the best Jerome Kern ballads ("Yesterdays," "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"), but as the second-banana couple Astaire and Rogers still get a tap battle, a romantic duet, and plenty of comic banter. In short, the Fred and Ginger magic is there, but not nearly enough of it. For more, watch the films immediately preceding and succeeding, The Gay Divorcee and Top Hat. --David Horiuchi
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