(Anthem Art and Culture), by Gary Morris (Editor), Bert Cardullo (Introduction), Jonathan Rosenbaum (Foreword). London and New York: Anthem Press, 2009.
— David Hudson, IFC.com
Does it count as a labor of love if you don't work very hard? That's the question that has to be asked about Joseph Epstein's slim little volume, Fred Astaire. As a Fred Fancier of long standing, I may be a little picky, but as I see it Mr. Epstein has done little more than skim the relevant literature. For some reason, actually watching Fred's movies seems to have been too much for him.
Otherwise, as I say, Joe doesn't work too hard. He spends a lot of time quoting other people about who was better, Fred or Gene, a lot of time bitching about a bitchy article about Fred written by the bitchy Helen Lawrenson,4 and a lot of time running down Fred's post-Ginger partners, pushing it way too hard, in my opinion.5 He does note that none of the post-Ginger flicks had scores to match those of the glory years, but doesn't close in on the central fact — to me, at least — that once Fred was free of Ginger he never sought to create a dance that had emotional development and movement, which you do get in "Night and Day" from The Gay Divorcee, "Cheek to Cheek" in Top Hat, "Let's Face the Music and Dance" from Follow the Fleet, and "Never Gonna Dance" from Swing Time.6 Unlike Mr. Epstein, I loved Fred's dancing with Paulette Goddard ("I Ain't Hep to That Step but I'll Dig it" in Second Chorus,), not to mention Rita Hayworth ("So Near and Yet So Far" in You'll Never Get Rich and "I'm Old Fashioned" and "The Shorty George" from You Were Never Lovelier) as well as the tap dancing extravaganzas from Broadway Melody of 1940 with Eleanor Powell. But these dances, though deliciously spirited and forever young, don't have the development of emotion that occurs in his best dances with Ginger. Why Fred stopped dancing with his heart he never bothered to tell us. Perhaps he had said what he had to say. Perhaps, consciously or unconsciously, he felt that he had gotten too old, and the girls too young, for him to sell it. 
Though he, of course, never wanted to admit it, Astaire agonized over his performances to the point that many of those who worked with him were convinced that he would have been happier as a choreographer rather than a dancer. Yet, like other compulsive performers, he simply could not endure not being in the public eye — appearing in TV specials in his sixties when he could scarcely do more than stare at Barrie Chase's legs and, finally, appearing in bottom-barrel flicks like The Over-the-Hill Gang Rides Again and The Amazing Dobermans. Anything to hear those magic words "They're ready for you on the set, Mr. Astaire."71. Yes, this is how Joe writes. He also refers to Fred as "the subject of the slender disquisition now in your hands." El yucko, n'est-ce pas?
2. Joe faults Fred for wearing an identification bracelet on the same wrist as his watch in several of his movies: "a minor mistake — a small vulgar thing." Excuse me for living, but I never noticed. I guess I have better things to do than stare at Fred Astaire's wrist.
3. My idea of heaven is pretty much watching Ginger sing "I'll Be Hard to Handle" because I know that once she stops singing she and Fred are going to start dancing.
4. It was a shitty article, but it ran thirty years ago. Who gives a damn?
5. Worst of all, he insists on referring to Judy Garland as "Miss Garland" (none of the other chicks merit the honorific). I'm sorry, but calling a female star "Miss Whomever" is simply shorthand for saying "I have no life, and I prefer it that way."
6. The sole exception is Fred's solo turn in "One for My Baby" (right) from The Sky's the Limit (1943, still unavailable on DVD), easily his best solo performance.
7. One hopes it wasn't "Put your teeth in, gramps! You're on!"
8. A staple of American popular entertainment during the thirties was a radio show called Your Hit Parade, which presented the top ten songs in the country each week. When Top Hat was released in 1935, all five of the songs, including the seriously subpar "Piccolino," were in the top ten.
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