You'll Never Get Rich

Fred and Rita were a dream partnership, even better than Fred and Ginger, but with a stumbling script and so-so Cole Porter score, this musical never really gets off the ground. Astaire and Hayworth, he a star Broadway dancer, she in the chorus, are involved in one of those irritating on-off romances, courtesy of misunderstandings generated by their producer Benchley's penchant for pursuing chorines and then putting the blame on Astaire to pacify his wife. Astaire is drafted, and the misunderstandings then come wrapped up in acres of leaden boot camp comedy (much of it involving Nazarro, a dire double-talk comedian). Astaire has a joyous two-part solo while languishing in the guardhouse, and shares a fine, romantic Robert Alton routine with Hayworth to Porter's 'So Near and Yet So Far'. Otherwise, the pickings are thin.