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Originally conceived as a reunion of Fred Astaire and Judy Garland after the success of Easter Parade, The Barkleys of Broadway instead ended up being the coda for the Astaire and Ginger Rogers duo. Garland was amid a breakdown due to her addictions and Rogers was a last-minute replacement. This also holds the distinction of being their lone film in color.
It had been ten years since their last film, The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, and there were rumors that their working relationship was closely related to the one depicted here. The truth of the matter was probably too complicated for us to boil down to a few sentences. She wanted and tried to escape the song-and-dance routine with deeper dramatic parts, he didn’t want to be perpetually defined by being half of a duo, and I’m sure they had their share of fights. Would she have presented him with his honorary Oscar if they hated each other? Maybe, but I doubt she’d readily rejoin him during a decade that started with her winning an Oscar and doing some of her most diverse work up to that point.
Why am I spending so much time exploring the behind-the-scenes drama of this movie? Because it is possibly more interesting than the movie itself.
Their one pairing outside of the Depression and away from their home studio, RKO, The Barkleys of Broadway substitutes the breezy formulas for MGM’s mechanics. Frankly, I miss the dizzy lovesick heights of the RKO years and would gladly trade the glossy banalities found here for it. The Barkleys are a squabbling theatrical duo that breaks up before they inevitably reunite and twirl off to happily ever after.
The entire scenario feels ripe for playing for laughs but the script plays things straight. There’s a noticeable lack of laughs for Astaire and Rogers to play, but there’s plenty of room for Oscar Levant to mug for the camera and deliver sardonic barbs. The Barkleys of Broadway ends their union with a bit of an anticlimactic bang, but it’s still Astaire and Rogers doing their thing.
