By Steven Suskin
17 Jul 2011
After six straight Astaire-Rogers hits, the 1937 Damsel in Distress [Warner Archive] didn't have Ginger Rogers. It did, however, have Fred Astaire seemingly free-er and easier than in his prior films; the final full Gershwin score, being released six weeks after George's death, including "A Foggy Day" and "Nice Work If You Can Get It"; a refreshingly zany duo performance from George Burns and Gracie Allen, who not only demonstrate their once-famous brand of hilarity but work especially well with Astaire; and a true marvel of a number — the "Fun House" sequence built around the song "Stiff Upper Lip" — that won Hermes Pan an Oscar. (That year, the Dance Direction category nominated choreographers for a specific number, rather than an entire film's worth of work.)
There is also an actress in distress, in the form of Joan Fontaine. She was to burst into stardom in Hitchcock's "Rebecca" (1940) and her Oscar-winning performance in "Suspicion" (1941); but "Damsel in Distress" was back in 1937, when Joan was only 19 and not quite up to partnering with Fred.
But the damsel doesn't matter. This is a surprisingly dandy film. And the "Fun House" — in which Fred and Gracie perform the "run-around" step that Fred and his sister Adele featured in their vaudeville days, later incorporating it into the "Swiss Miss" number in their 1924 Gershwin musical Lady Be Good — is something to be seen.
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Cocteau (1889-1963) was one of those artistes who flourished in Paris between the wars, a poet, playwright, novelist, filmmaker, and well-known opium addict. Intimate of other one-name legends ranging from Picasso to Piaf. Cocteau's range of interests help make "Beauty and the Beast" unparalleled. When he made a film, he didn't just write it and direct it; as was the case with the best of Chaplin and Welles, this 1946 "Beauty and the Beast" seemed to spring from his unrestrained mind and unbridled imagination.
The tale, as you know, is about a girl, an enchanted castle, and the beast within. Josette Day is the Beauty and Jean Marais the Beast. Seeing as how this new release is a Blu-ray from Criterion, Cocteau's visual feast is now even more tasty. Watch Cocteau's "Beauty and the Beast" when you're in the mood for something entirely original and entirely enthralling, with no singing teapots.
(Steven Suskin is author of the recently released Updated and Expanded Fourth Edition of "Show Tunes" as well as "The Sound of Broadway Music: A Book of Orchestrators and Orchestrations," "Second Act Trouble" and the "Opening Night on Broadway" books. He also pens Playbill.com's Book Shelf and On the Record columns. He can be reached at ssuskin@aol.com.)
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