The Ginger Rogers Thread

[ClassyCo]

I bought two Ginger Rogers movies today at Goodwill: her Oscar-winning vehicle KITTY FOYLE (1940) and the romantic comedy ONCE UPON A HONEYMOON (1942). I've seen the former before when I recorded it off TCM, but it's been years. I don't recall seeing the latter.

This all got me to thinking: we don't have a Ginger Rogers thread already going, and come to think of it, I don't believe I've seen her get too much verbal traffic on the forums. She had a long, successful career and was the biggest star for RKO Studios in the 1930s and 1940s.

Any Ginger Rogers fans lingering around?

 

[ginnyfan]

I'm a fan. Ginger was in many great and enjoyable movies that I always like to revisit. BTW, out of all her Astaire musicals I only saw the last one, The Barkleys of Broadway (1949) so I'm a drama/comedy Ginger fan and am yet to get into these 30s Astaire/Rogers musicals.

Ginger's best/peak period was late 30s/early 40s period during which she was able to do what only few others could ever - transition from musical/comedy to drama and with great success, even winning an Oscar.

When it comes to the Ginger movies I've seen, I'll try to list them all. She has a vast filmography so there's a lot of stuff I'm yet to discover!

42nd Street (1933) and Gold Diggers of 1933, Busby Berkeley early 30s Warner musicals in which she had supporting roles.​

Stage Door (1937) is a perfect movie with an amazing cast and Ginger shines opposite Katharine Hepburn, the other 30s RKO queen of the lot!



Bachelor Mother (1939) is a cute Christmas movie that's perfect for the holiday season.

friendship poems with authors

Fifth Avenue Girl (1939) another cute, funny movie with a typical RKO feel of the time. There's something special about these movies that makes them such great comfort viewing.



Primrose Path (1940) is one of her first real dramas and it feels very pre/code, despite being made in 1940. Ginger is the girl from the wrong side of track, coming from a family of prostitutes, trying to go straight with a hunky Joel McCrea.



Lucky Partners (1940) is great on paper but in reality kind of drags on and is sort of average. Still the pairing with Ronald Colman is good.



Kitty Foyle (1940), Ginger's Oscar winning performance, maybe one of the first of those typical 40s women picture dramas that Bette, Joan etc will go on to rule. Ginger did well but she had better movies and performances.



The Major and the Minor (1942) is a comedy classic that never gets old. Billy Wilder's first directorial job and Ginger nails it playing a teenager and I always feel like she's really a teen while watching. Sort of a Some Like it Hot situation of mistaken identities and hilarity that ensues. Ginger's mother, the infamous Lila Rogers appears in the end as her character's mother.

words hurt poem

I'll be Seeing You (1944), another Christmas classic and one of my favorites. Ginger gives a tender performance as a woman on Christmas furlough from prison who falls in love with a traumatized soldier played by Joseph Cotton. A lot to unpack here but it's done well and Shirley Temple co-stars.



The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), final Astaire pairing but this time at MGM and in technicolor.



Storm Warning (1951). I always thought Doris Day looked like Ginger's younger sister and in this movie they actual star together, as sisters. Quite a departure for both, a noir drama about a small town terrorized by KKK. Has that Streetcar Named Desire vibe. A must see for sure!



Monkey Business (1952), Ginger's last great movie and comedy. Also the last one I saw. Howard Hawks fast paced , screwball, with a great cast that includes Cary Grant and Marilyn Monroe, just before she explodes.



Ginger made 10 more movies after Monkey Business but I don't remember seeing any of them, except for maybe Black Widow (1954) but I can't remember much about it so I don't really count it. None of these made an impact and I guess after 2 decades she entered that declining phase that happened to most of her fellow actresses of the same age.

 

[ClassyCo]

If I'm being honest, I'm not really sure I'd call myself a fan of Ginger Rogers. Sure, I've seen some movies of hers over the years that I like, but I'm not sure any of those had to do specifically with Ginger or her performances in said films. I've hard the Astaire & Rogers complete film collection for a couple of years now, but I've yet to watch any of them. I've heard fabulous things about them, but I've just never found the time to watch them -- even though the wife and I had anticipated doing so a number of different times.

Of Rogers' earlier work, I really enjoy STAGE DOOR. I've always liked movies -- especially classic movies -- that have ensemble casts or deal with a group of men or women occupying the same space. I also have a fondness for movies using the movie or stage industry as plot devices. So STAGE DOOR wins on a few different accounts. Ginger is fabulous in the movie, and she and Katharine Hepburn have strong on-screen chemistry. The movie is full of quips and one-liners and has some good early performances from the likes of Lucille Ball, Eve Arden, and Ann Miller. We also have strong performances from Constance Collier, Andrea Leeds, and Gail Patrick. STAGE DOOR is a good movie, although I wish they hadn't had Leeds' character commit suicide. Maybe she could've just went home heartbroken instead. I always forget that happens and every time it makes me like the movie a little bit less.

KITTY FOYLE is really Ginger's crowning achievement, even if some parts of it has dated very well. It's the type of soapy early-'40s women's picture that actresses like Davis and Crawford would end up perfecting throughout the decade, and I'd argue that Ginger sometimes seems to be a tad out of place. KITTY FOYLE is certainly a "departure" from her typical musical comedy fare, and it's clear she was ready for the task of proving she could carry a heavier piece of cinema. Her competition for the Oscar in 1941 was strong, and I'm sure there were many that felt Davis and maybe even Hepburn got snubbed. Even so, Ginger got her Oscar, and I'm glad that she did.

Thinking back, MONKEY BUSINESS is probably the first movie of Ginger's that I saw. But the only reason I watched it originally was because Marilyn Monroe has a supporting role as Charles Coburn's secretary. It's a fairly silly screwball comedy and Ginger shows strong chemistry with Cary Grant. Funnily enough, this movie always flies right under my radar. I never think about it and I've always been a tad indifferent towards it, without ever really knowing why.

WE'RE NOT MARRIED is another movie Ginger made nearing the end of her film career. It concerns the story of multiple couples learning that they are not legally wed because the justice of the peace that married them did so before his license were valid. It's a hilarious little romp, and contains something of an all-star cast, including Rogers, Fred Allen, Marilyn Monroe, Victor Moore, Eve Arden, Paul Douglas, Mitzi Gaynor, Zsa Zsa Gabor, and Louis Calhern among others. I've watched this movie numerous times. It's witty and enjoyable.

Outside of those, none of Rogers' other films are ringing a bell right now. I'm sure I saw WEEKEND AT THE WALDORF some time back, but I haven't any memory of it outside Rogers and Lana Turner being in it.