Tonight's Movie: Blue Skies (1946) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby star in BLUE SKIES (1946), available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.

BLUE SKIES followed Astaire and Crosby's successful teaming in the now-classic Irving Berlin musical HOLIDAY INN (1942). In BLUE SKIES they once again perform music from the Berlin songbook, but although beautiful Technicolor is added, this reteaming is frankly a bit of a misfire.

Most of the film is presented in flashbacks, as Jed Potter (Astaire) tells his radio audience the story of his love for pretty chorine Mary (Joan Caulfield), who in turn fell in love with nightclub owner Johnny Adams (Bing Crosby).

Despite Jed's entreaties for Mary to marry him and Johnny's habitual inability to settle down, constantly selling off his nightclubs, Mary is stuck on Johnny.

Eventually, after a long separation, Mary and Johnny wed and have a baby (played by Karolyn Grimes as an older child). Johnny, however, continues to constantly make business decisions without consulting Mary, who eventually is exhausted by the instability, leading to another separation.

Jed hopes to reunite his friends thanks to his radio show. Will it work?

This is a movie I've returned to periodically over the years, hoping to like it more, which is one reason I wanted to revisit it via the new Blu-ray. However, after a fresh look at it it must be admitted that it simply never quite works.

There are wonderful moments, to be sure, from Bing singing the memorable title song to Astaire's dances to songs like "Puttin' on the Ritz" and "Heat Wave"; the latter is danced with one of the film's bright lights, Olga San Juan, who also does a great job putting over the song "You'd Be Surprised." Whenever San Juan is on screen the movie gets a nice little jolt of energy.

The Technicolor cinematography of Charles Lang and William Snyder is beautiful and Caulfield is stunningly gorgeous...yet despite the visual beauty and the great music, the movie is dreary, with one downer moment after another.

Jed may be somewhat pushy, but honestly Mary would have been much better off with him than Johnny, and I had no confidence at the final fadeout that Mary and Johnny would be any happier going forward than they'd been in the past, which was not much. The screenplay by Arthur Sheekman, based on an idea by Berlin, is way too downbeat for what should be a smile-inducing musical.

The sadness extended off the screen, as director Mark Sandrich, who had directed several Astaire-Rogers films along with HOLIDAY INN, died on March 4, 1945, early in this film's production. The film was finished by Stuart Heisler, who is the credited director.

I used to think perhaps part of the movie's problem was Caulfield, but I've come to really appreciate her over the years in films such as DEAR RUTH (1947), LARCENY (1948), and THE PETTY GIRL (1950). I've come to realize that the issue isn't with Caulfield herself but with her insipid character, who deliberately chooses a path doomed to unhappiness. There really wasn't anything more Caulfield could have done with Mary.

The new print is so crisp and clear that I also noticed that Crosby looks rather worn out at times; perhaps it was behind-the scenes stress, or the weight of playing an unlikeable character.  I don't recall Crosby's appearance being an issue with his previous film, THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S (1945). It's been rumored that offscreen Crosby wanted to leave his wife for Caulfield but ultimately did not, so it seems possible that his personal life had an impact on his appearance, though any offscreen stress certainly didn't detract from Caulfield's looks in this film.

Finally, the movie is also hampered by Billy DeWolfe's comedy, which isn't to my taste.

A note on the running time: IMDb says the film is 99 minutes long, but it's actually 104 minutes.

Kino Lorber's BLUE SKIES Blu-ray is from a brand-new 2K master, with newly mastered audio. It looks wonderful. The earliest releases of this disc had an issue with the sound for some of Astaire's tap dancing which was promptly corrected; replacements were offered to those who had purchased the initial disc.

Extras consist of a gallery of four trailers for other films available from Kino Lorber, along with a commentary track by Simon Abrams.

This is a lovely disc and Astaire-Crosby completists will doubtless want to pick it up for that reason. I'll definitely be rewatching some of the musical highlights in the future thanks to this beautiful print...but I think when I want a full dose of Astaire and Crosby in the future, I'll stick to the beloved, joyous HOLIDAY INN.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.

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