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Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
The incomparable, magical Fred Astaire has tapped his way through some 212 musical numbers during his career. Following his vaudeville days, when he was teamed with sister Adele, he went to Hollywood to star in his first musical film, Dancing Lady, in 1933. Since then, he has partnered Cyd Charisse, Leslie Caron, Audrey Hepburn, Rita Hayworth and Ginger Rogers, in such film classics as Flying Down to Rio, Top Hat, Holiday Inn, Silk Stockings and Daddy Long Legs. Mueller, author of Dance Film Directory, extols Astaire's dedication to his art, describes the choreographers and directors he worked with, his roles and working methods, his relationships with various leading ladies and dance partners, his devoted marriage, which was ended by his wife's death from cancer at the age of 46 (he remarried at 80). The author covers every Astaire film, with discussion of the choreography of each of the dances, accompanied by stills from the movies. A fitting celebration of a national treasure. November 8 (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
One of the most satisfying, rich and witty film books ever written, with superb commentaries on all of Astaire's 31 musicals and elaborate frame enlargements (2,300 in all) that pin down each step or gesture. Seen large like this, with every accomplishment and shortcoming duly noted, Astaire becomes no mere song-and-dance man but one of the most profoundly inventive artists of the century. No exercise in sentimentality, the book looks hard at what works and doesn't work in Astaire's agonizingly perfected routines. Astaire has never been the happy-go-lucky character he so often plays. He'd think nothing of waking a co-worker at 4 a.m. to reveal an inspired new turn or bit; might spend three or four days of rehearsal working out ten seconds of a routine. Even so, he can't believe his work is any good. Says sister Adelle: ""So when people tell him they like it, he thinks they're being nice. Trying to let him down easy."" During the filming of Top Hat, he broke 12 canes over his knee in pique. Says Astaire: ""I've never got anything 100% right. Still, it's never as bad as I think it is."" The well-over 200 dances he choreographed contained some anecdote that advanced the plot. They also made his partners look marvelous, since a good dance team is only as wonderful as its weaker partner. And the dances made songs bloom with a specificity and detail that had their composers in rapture. The acme for songwriters was to work on an Astaire musical. Mueller, a dance enthusiast and director of dance films himself, charts every nuance of interpretation with a light hand but X-ray vision. ""What holds everything together,"" he says, ""is Astaire's distinctive sensibility: the casual sophistication, the airy wit, the transparent rhythmic intricacy, the apparent ease of execution, the consummate musicality. . . The constant quest for originality, for doing something new and fresh in each dance, was almost an obsession. . ."" A book whose sheer (but thoughtful) delight can never fade. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Fred Astaire is considered to be one of the greatest American dancers. His major career was in films and so has been preserved. Mueller, professor of film studies, attempts to show Astaire's brilliance through a combination of stills and frame enlargements (more than 2400) from his musical films, 1933-68. He uses a system of keys that link the text decribing the dances and music to the corresponding pictures. He also presents the plot and production history of each film chronologically and provides an overview of Astaire's career, personal life, and ideas about filmmaking, especially the filming of dance numbers. This is a meticulously written and entertaining work; though it cannot rise above the inherent limitations of depicting dance through words and pictures, it will appeal to those interested in dance and cinema history and is recommended for general collections. Roy Liebman, California State Univ. Lib., Los Angeles (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
