Justice is a simple matter of giving one what's his, or her, due....in the case of Fred and Ginger...his, AND her, due. Books purportedly accurate to the facts of their partnership have rarely yielded the just result...and left knowledgeable readers dissatisfied. The typical author has weighted his/her inquiry towards Astaire's genius...all too often, at the expense of Rogers. Hyam's book puts an emphatic end to this bogus line of thought...and she does it without the least diminishment to Astaire's well earned reputation.
After wandering a critical desert of error, inaccuracy, obtuseness, and occasional outright malevolence...I've finally found the book that tells it like it is. This book is THE ONE.
In any partnering, there exist balances and imbalances...differences between the man's and woman's role. In a great pairing however, two individual dance personalities merge as one...one soul inhabiting two bodies. There is a reciprocity...Hyam (and Croce) calls it complimentariness...that when combined with ingenious choreography, wonderful music, and brilliant execution, yields a result that is much greater than the sum of two parts. To achieve this goal in performance, took extraordinary vision, creativity, and discipline, built upon a foundation of plain hard work. In the case of Astaire and Rogers, their result is, not only so seemingly natural and spontaneous, it realizes an artistic level than can rightly be described as sublime...the "primum mobile" of dance...ephemeral, beautiful, and very rarely attained.
Only, in the case of this great pair, we have it all on film. And it's on the films, that Hyam spends most of her time.
She treats the dances, songs, and plots in a unique and fresh way. Unlike the usual chronological order of the films considered in toto, she organizes them under these separate headings. Under dances for example, she separates the playful duets from the romantic duets. This is an analytic tool that allows the reader to focus and deepen understanding. It's through this approach, that she is able to reach a startling, and very true conclusion, that their artistic level is so very high, one loses the desire to rank one against the other. She's very right in stating that the thirty-two primary A-R duets, ALL rank, in their particular ways, as masterpieces.
In addition, she reveals the essence of the classic A-R plot formulas. She therefore is rightly able to put "Flying Down to Rio", "The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle", and "The Barclays of Broadway"...enjoyable as segments of them are...in a category outside the A-R standard repetoire. This is also a contribution to clearer understanding...for the seven remaining films then become the main focus of her efforts.
Next, she takes on the issue of Astaire's other best dance partners. Once again, Hyam does not diminish the reputation of any of the top ladies: from Vera Ellen, to Eleanor Powell, to Rita Hayworth...and especially, to Cyd Charisse. I shall not linger here, for it's up to the reader to evaluate the justice of her claim that Ginger Rogers was...far and away...the greatest of them all.
One quibble: In regard to the plots, I do wish that the wonderful dance critics that Hyam wisely builds upon, in their focus upon dance, like Arlene Croce and John Mueller, would recall the days of their own youth, when seeming implausibility and irrationality, had its place in the ritual that is courtship. (See my review of Croce's book, and of the VHS of "Swing Time".) In fact, the plots, upon close inspection, are not quite as fragile, as they have supposed...for quite powerfully, do they simply thrive on human imperfection in a very upbeat way. And, as a contrast, it is well to note, just how far they are from today's cool and rational "hooking up", accommodations of convenience.
As Roger Ebert stated, correcting Katherine Hepburn's simplistic statement on the A-R pairing: "They both had class and sex was never the point." For as chaste as the A-R formula was, it is positively triumphal, in all its pure fun, humor, vivacity, wisdom and spirit. Croce and Mueller's rather methodical conceptions of courtship, as pure plausibility and rationality, ought to be laughable in themselves! It's well to note the French saying: "Le coeur ha ses raisons, che La Raison ne connait pas.".
For all their high-jinx, there is indeed, a kind of quiet wisdom in these films, that, one day, will bear further exploration. For now, and forever, it is the high art of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers that point their universal audiences, towards the mystery and magic that is the underlying "logic" of the human heart...for it is in this context, that these supremely brilliant, rich, and nuanced dances...within these joyful films...will have their immortal appeal.
As a man who discovered them only a year and a half ago, and who has since done a fair amount of reading on Astaire and Rogers...I strongly recommend this book.
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Top reviews from other countries
Mr. K. J. Fielding
Great detail of F&G
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 20, 2009