Broadway Melody of 1936

'She put 'em down like a man, no ricky-ticky-sissy stuff with Ellie,' Fred Astaire once observed of Eleanor Powell, a dancer he admired enormously. She blazes through this otherwise routine (if very luxurious) MGM musical. Moss Hart's contrived story (unaccountably nominated for an Oscar) casts her as a struggling actress who pretends to be a famous French star in order to land the plum role in Robert Taylor's forthcoming Broadway extravaganza. Comedian Jack Benny, in a role modelled on newsman Walter Winchell, plays a columnist with a grudge against Taylor. And yes, as always in these backstage musicals, everything comes right on the night.