Home Entertainment : A Fred and Rita Double Bill: Never Lovelier

Fred Astaire danced with practically every female movie star who could move her legs, but for purists, there was only one partner good enough for Fred and that was Ginger Rogers. Columbia TriStar Home Video, however, has put together a double laser-disc package ($60) that just might challenge that conventional wisdom.

The films are from the early 1940s and they feature one of Astaire’s most ravishing leading ladies, Rita Hayworth, who matches Astaire’s grace and skill step by step. The plots of 1941’s “You’ll Never Get Rich” and 1942’s “You Were Never Lovelier” may be as bad as any that put Fred and Ginger together, but the dances are sublime and Hayworth never looked better.

It’s a shame that the black-and-white transfer did not come from a better print or negative: There are far more blips, pops and flashes than viewers expect of laser discs transferred from films of that era.

Since Astaire pictures were never known for their complex story lines, it is tempting to use the laser technology to flit from one song and dance number to the next. But that would be a mistake, because the supporting performances in these two films (Xavier Cugat and Larry Parks in “Lovelier”; Robert Benchley in “Rich”) are a notch better than the earlier RKO Astaire-Rogers vehicles.

Informative liner notes help put both films in the context of their times, especially Astaire’s partnering of Hayworth, whom he considered a very quick study. “I’d show her a routine before lunch. She’d be back right after lunch and have it down to perfection,” he’s quoted as saying. “She apparently figured it out in her mind while she was eating. But she was better when she was (on camera) than at rehearsal. She danced with trained perfection and individuality.”

Both films boast top scores by two of America’s greatest composers. Cole Porter did “You’ll Never Get Rich,” which includes his seldom heard “Dream Dancing,” “Since I Kissed My Baby Goodbye,” “Wedding Cake Walk” and “So Near and Yet So Far.” Porter had a good deal of fun with another number aptly called “A-Stairable Rag.”

Jerome Kern and lyricist Johnny Mercer were responsible for “You Were Never Lovelier,” which includes the familiar “Dearly Beloved,” reprised several times, the silly “Ding Dong Dell,” the spectacular “Audition Dance,” the classic “I’m Old Fashioned” and the title song. Both “I’m Old Fashioned” and “You Were Never Lovelier” went on to become standards.

MCA Universal Home Video, in the meantime, has a terrific pre-Christmas gift with a double bill ($60) featuring Astaire and crooner Bing Crosby. The 1942 classic “Holiday Inn” and the 1946 “Blue Skies” have the thinnest of plots and the best of Irving Berlin’s familiar melodies.

“Holiday Inn,” of course, introduced holiday standards to movie audiences that ultimately had to have their own films built around them: “White Christmas” and “Easter Parade” (no matter if it had been in the stage musical “As Thousands Cheer”). With songs, and dances, for just about every holiday possible to celebrate, there’s also the lovely “Be Careful, It’s My Heart” and the incredible dance number Astaire filmed 38 times before giving his OK: “Say It With Firecrackers.”

“Blue Skies” offers, among other delights, “A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody,” “All by Myself,” “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” “Getting Nowhere,” “How Deep Is the Ocean,” “You Keep Coming Back Like a Song,” “A Couple of Song and Dance Men” and the title tune. You can use the chapter stops to sample some of Berlin’s greatest hits, but don’t miss the tender lullaby Crosby sings to his daughter, the enchanting “Getting Nowhere,” one of Berlin’s little-known masterpieces.

While the incomparable Astaire and Rogers films have virtually all been available on laser, new re-mastered editions are scheduled in a $125 boxed set from Image Entertainment this month. Among the most anticipated of these is “Top Hat,” which was released in early laser days, before the technology reached its present state. It’s hard to imagine anything, however, matching Criterion’s superb edition of the 1936 dance classic “Swing Time,” one of Astaire-Rogers’ best films with a Jerome Kern-Dorothy Fields score that includes “The Way You Look Tonight” and “A Fine Romance.” It is still available (CLV, at $40).

Laserbits

New Movies Just Out: “Jurassic Park “(MCA/Universal, $45, THX/CLV, and $75, THX/CAV); “Above the Rim” (New Line, $40); “Bitter Moon” (New Line, $50); “Angie” (Hollywood, letterboxed, $50); “I’ll Do Anything” (Columbia TriStar, $40); “Backbeat” (PolyGram, $35); “Threesome” (Columbia TriStar, $35); “The Inkwell” (Touchstone, $40); “China Moon” (Orion, letterboxed, $40).

Coming Soon: New Line’s “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues,” with Uma Thurman and John Hurt is due Nov. 9 at $40; FoxVideo’s “Speed” with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, is due Nov. 15 at $30; Touchstone’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” is scheduled for Dec. 1 release at $30.

Older Movies Just Out: “The Train” (1966, MGM/UA, $60, widescreen, World War II classic starring Burt Lancaster and Paul Scofield, directed by John Frankhenheimer, with director’s commentary. “The Bounty” (1984, Orion, $50, letterboxed) featuring Mel Gibson as Fletcher Christian and Anthony Hopkins as Captain Bligh in this version of “Mutiny on the Bounty.”