Damsel in Distress | 
| Director: George Stevens
Actors: Fred Astaire, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Joan Fontaine, Reginald Gardiner
Studio: Turner Home Ent
Buy New: $39.99
New (2) Used (7) from $14.99
Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 2646
Format: Black & White, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: VHS Tape
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 101 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 0780615093
UPC: 053939639537
EAN: 9780780615090
ASIN: 6304212038
Theatrical Release Date: November 19, 1937
Release Date: November 5, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: FACTORY SEALED - SHIPS DAILY IN BUBBLE ENVELOPE
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
A Damsel in Distress is a lighthearted romp to showcase the classic comedy team of George Burns and Gracie Allen, the classic songwriting team of George and Ira Gershwin, and the classic dance team of Fred Astaire and... Joan Fontaine? Damsel was filmed in 1937 when Astaire was taking a break after his seventh film with Ginger Rogers, so the 19-year-old Fontaine plays Lady Alyce Marshmorton, a young British woman whose scandalous love life leads to a mistaken-identity problem with American Jerry Halliday (Astaire). OK, so the romance falls flat and Fontaine can't really dance, but Burns and Allen provide their usual screwball comedy (especially in a funhouse sequence) and Astaire is as charming as ever, such as his dance with a drum set (an idea he revisited in Easter Parade) to "Nice Work if You Can Get It" and his rendition of "A Foggy Day," which set the standard for all singers to follow. Those songs are among the finest film songs the Gershwins ever wrote, and they're complemented by "I Can't Be Bothered Now" and "Things Are Looking Up." Fontaine, incidentally, got out of the musical-comedy business and over the next few years landed some pretty fair gigs in Gunga Din and The Women, and securing one Oscar nomination and one win for her work in two Hitchcock films, Rebecca and Notorious. --David Horiuchi
Description
Astaire teams up with Burns & Allen to bring some good ol' American music and mayhem to stately England. There, lovely Joan Fontaine pines for a husband and finds Astaire. Naturally, A Damsel in Distress becomes a lady in love. Enjoy George Gershwin's last completed score, including the pensive "A Foggy Day" amd "Nice Work If You Can Get It" plus the famed Astaire-Burns-Allen fun house dance and other inspired stepping-out that earned dance director Hermes Pan an Academy Award(R). Renowned "Jeeves" humorist P.G Wodehouse writes and George Stevens (Giant, Shane) directs. Year: 1937 Director: George Stevens Starring: Fred Astaire, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Joan Fontaine, Reginald Gardner, Ray Noble
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 Just enjoy it - please! January 13, 2001
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
This is one of the most delightful movies, and it preserves the flavor of Burns & Allen. Since we have so little film of Vaudeville, this movie shows us what we missed. The wiskbroom routine surely came from the stage, and the dialogue between Gracie and George and Fred surely came from the stage. Come on folks. Don't compare this film with Ginger and Fred. Its not supposed to be like Top Hat. I personally like Damsel more than Swing Time which doesn't feature enough dancing in the first hour. Sure Joan Fontaine is lost but she's only 19!! Look where she went from here. Get the movie, pop the corn and relax. This is a feel good, just dang fun movie, and you'll be happy you saw it.
 The #1 Fred Astaire movie... September 6, 1999
Ryan (Florida)
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
Well, that's my opinion. Sure, it was his first to lose money. But that's because the 1937 public had a hard time accepting the genius of a man without Ginger. This film contains great solo dancing by Astaire, and for comical dancing he is joined by George Burns and Gracie Allen. We'll just leave out that outdoor dance he did with Joan Fontaine, though the song was a beaut. We see Astaire pounding away on the drums in every way imaginable for "Nice Work if You Can Get It", avoiding the bobby with "I Can't be Bothered Now", and spending time with George and Gracie in a fun house during "Stiff Upper Lip." Those songs, by George and Ira Gershwin are legendary. "Nice Work if you can Get It" is first sung by a madrigal choir that Astaire introduces to swing. "Things are Looking Up" is a romantic tune Astaire delivers to Joan Fontaine. We also hear "A Foggy Day," George Gershwin's last completed score is a can't miss. Pick this one up as soon as you can. You won't forget Gracie Allen's hilarious line: "Well, I don't blame him, if I were Art I'd object too."
 How Long, I Wondered, Could This Thing Last? November 4, 2000
5 out of 15 found this review helpful
A Fred Astaire musical, with a book by P.G. Wodehouse and a score by the Gershwins. Who could ask for anything more? Plenty of people, as a matter of fact. This was Astaire's first flop, and the reasons are still obvious 60 years later. Without Ginger Rogers to stimulate and challenge him, he's forced to dance up a storm -- in and out of traffic, through the woods (twice), and inside a drum kit -- all in a vain attempt to pump some life into this fairy tale. The damsel in distress is Joan Fontaine, 19 years old at the time and grasping at pieces of the set in an apparent attempt to keep herself from fleeing in terror. Finally, and most fatally, there's a kid playing Young Albert who gives the most annoying performance in the entire history of musical film... he turns Wodehouse into the Ritz Brothers. On the plus side, Burns and Allen's vaudeville energy helps break up the tweedy, foggy, oh-so-classy atmosphere a little. As for the score, it's full of classics... so buy "Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Gershwin Songbook" and skip the movie.
A comic gem overlooked! March 28, 2006
DouglasLeland
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
There are several things of importance about this film. Most importantly.......it's George Gershwin's LAST COMPLETE score. He did write 1 more song for 38's GOLDWYN FOLLIES but never completed it (Ira Gershwin and Vernon Duke did.....OUR LOVE IS HERE TO STAY) but A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS is choc a bloc with gags and songs and great comic performances. Fred Astaire really seems so much more at ease here than with his former dance partner Ginger Rogers. The storyline is bright and breezy and filled with great character actors Constance Collier,Ray Noble(yes, the British band leader),Reginald Gardner and Harry Watson.The charming if wan Joan Fontaine but most importantly George Burns and Gracie Allen at the top of their game....GB:(criticizing Gracie for her forgetfulness) "Gracie, sometimes I think that their's nothing up here" (indicating his brain)to which Gracie replies: "Ah George , you're self conscious!"
The Gershwin songs are some of his best...A FOGGY DAY, NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT,I CAN'T BE BOTHERED NOW and STIFF UPPER LIP
Burns and Allen and Fred Astaire have two dynamite dance numbers as a trio......most impressively is the "fun house" sequence which contains bits from his Broadway days with sister Adele...take note of the "Swiss Miss" section in the fun house! It's the closest thing to actually seeing Fred and Adele Astaire actually dance on film. Point of interest: Adele had retired from the stage and had refused to team up with Fred in films because she met and married British nobility and retired to live in Britain before the start of WWII.
Hermes Pan is credited with the dance direction but you can see Fred Astaire's mark all over the film. This also may have been one of the last films to feature any actual British countryside footage before the blitz!
A charming film, wacky story and hilarious performances and Oh those Gershwin songs! Ok so it didn't have Ginger but it is a great cup of English Musical Comedy tea and crumpets!
When will Turner finally release this on DVD???? Come on guys! This is a classic awaiting rediscovery!
What could be better: Fred Astaire, George Burns and Gracie Allen, and the Gershwins. Everyone to the fun house! August 13, 2006
C. O. DeRiemer (San Antonio, Texas, USA)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
From 1933 with Flying Down to Rio to 1939 with The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, Fred Astaire made 10 movies. All except one had him partnered with Ginger Rogers. By 1937 he decided he wanted a break, and the result was A Damsel in Distress. Who was his new partner? Well, he didn't really have one. The closest in the film would be George Burns and Gracie Allen. Joan Fontaine, who was the love interest, simply doesn't register strongly. Probably deliberately, Astaire chose Fontaine because she couldn't sing and couldn't dance. She was the antithesis of Rogers. At 20, she was sweet, shy and attractive. She makes a pleasant love interest, but the movie works as well as it does because of Astaire, Burns and Allen, and some great George and Ira Gershwin songs.
Lady Alyce Marshmorton (Fontaine) met an American she thinks she loves, but her mother is having none of it. Lady Marshmorton is determined Alyce will mary Reggie, a proper British twit. She's keeping Alyce closely watched at the the family manse, Tottleigh Castle. But Alyce runs off to London with the family's butler, the obsequious Keggs (Reginald Gardiner) in pursuit. In London, Alyce meets Jerry Halliday (Astaire), a famous American dancer who has been promoted into a heart throb by his publicity agent, George (George Burns), assisted by George's secretary, Gracie (Gracie Allen). One confusion leads to another, with Jerry, George and Gracie arriving at Tottleigh Castle. Then there are misunderstandings, reconciliations and leaps from a balcony. Things aren't helped by a pool set up by Tottleigh Castle's servants to pick who will eventually win Lady Alyce's hand. Kegg and a young houseboy, Albert, are determined each of their own candidates will be the winner and win the pot for them. They take turns stirring the pot. However, is there any doubt who eventually wins the lady's hand?
Joan Fontaine doesn't sing a note in the movie. Only briefly and cautiously does she share a simple but elegant dance with Astaire. She was probably the most obviously non-dancer he ever worked with. The most complicated steps she's called upon to do are a few simple, graceful jumps. In every case Astaire is there guiding her with his hand or an arm around her waist. For a young woman with no dancing ability, it must have been a petrifying experience for her.
But with Burns and Allen, two pros, Astaire has one excellent routine and one classic. With the "I've Just Begun to Live" theme (there's no song), the three of them do a complicated and amusing three-way dance that is part soft shoe, part tap. The classic is danced to "Stiff Upper Lip" and takes place in an art deco fun house. The number was put together by Hermes Pan, who won an Academy Award for it. The three of them dance on and with every device Pan could think of for a fun house: Moving walkways, collapsing stairs, slides, turning tunnels, rubber doors, distorting mirrors and a circular turntable. It's inventive, surprising and great fun to watch. And pay attention to Gracie Allen. She and her husband were one of the great comedy teams in America. At best they probably are only faded memories now. Gracie, however, was not only a skilled comedienne, she was a very good dancer. She used small gestures and never lost the ability to look "lady-like" while dancing. She could be almost as funny dancing has she was delivering her ditsy lines.
The Gershwins wrote five songs for the movie and there's not a clunker among them. The songs are smart, amusing and clever. Even the one romantic song, "A Foggy Day," is best appreciated by literate lovers:
A foggy day in London town,
Had me low, and had me down.
I viewed the morning with alarm.
The British Museum had lost its charm.
How long, I wondered, could this thing last.
But the age of miracles hadn't past.
For suddenly, I saw you there
And through foggy London town
The sun was shining everywhere.
The songs are:
--"I Can't Be Bothered Now," a fast tap number that takes Astaire into the London streets. He turns his umbrella into an animate object. The number is shot with daytime fog swirling around.
--"Stiff Upper Lip" is a collection of amusing cliches, sung by Gracie. It sets up the fun house number.
What made good queen Bess
Such a great success?
What made Wellington do
What he did at Waterloo?
What makes every Englishman
A fighter through and through?
It isn't roast beef, or ale, or home, or mother.
It's just a little thing they sing to one another.
Stiff upper lip, stout fella,
Carry on, old fluff.
Chin up, keep muddling through.
Stiff upper lip, stout fella,
When the going's rough.
Pip pip to old man trouble
And a toodly-oo, too.
Carry on through thick and thin
If you feel you're in the right.
Does the fighting spirit win?
Quite, quite, quite, quite, quite.
Stiff upper lip, stout fella,
When you're in the stew.
Sober or blotto, this is your motto,
Keep muddling through.
--"Things Are Looking Up," sung by Astaire to Fontaine and then danced by them by the streams and trees of Tottleigh Castle.
--"A Foggy Day." Astaire sings of the first meeting he and Fontaine had while she watches him from her balcony as he strolls and dances in the fog-swept woods.
--"Nice Work If You Can Get It," is a close harmony rendering sung as entertainment at a party at Tottleigh Castle. Astaire joins in. It morphs into a fast tap and drum number for Astaire at the close of the movie, just before he and Fontaine sweep arm and arm out of the castle.
The movie can be located on VHS. The copy I have looks very good. For Astaire fans, it's a must have. The fun house number alone justifies the purchase.
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