Talk:The Belle of New York (1952 film)

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I have reverted most of the edits of 209.178.134.13, which involved radical cuts to the text and for which no accompanying rationale was advanced, cf. Wikipedia guidelines on editing and substantial cuts. The items cut and which are now restored are supported in the references as follows:

Paragraph beginning: "This whimsical (even by Astaire's standards) drama failed at the box office and impressed few critics..." is based on Astaire 1959 p299 and Mueller p333 "The Belle Of New York is one of the few Fred Astaire films to fail at the box office. The critics,too, rather uniformly found the film to be weak, and at least some of the participants agree. ... In his autobiography Astaire is quite harsh about the film: "The less said about it the better...It bothered me to think I could try so hard with enthusiasm only to realize afterward that everything amounted to nothing"." Later on the same page: "A problem with the film for many seems to be its whimsicality..." Also Astaire: "There were some awfully good dances in that thing" in interview with Carol Saltus from Interview Magazine, June 1973.

Sentence "Vera Ellen's waif-like figure..." see Mueller p335 :"If the quality, vivacity, and virtuosity of the three duets in this film are any indication, Vera-Ellen is the partner in the post-Rogers years who most stimulated Astaire's choreographic genius" and "Lithe, light, strong and quick, she seems capable of dong anything Astaire chooses to dream up..."

Sentence "After some unfortunately cloying opening scenes..." see Mueller p344: "The opening sequences of the number - the scene in which the song is sung, and especially the spring scene can charitably be described as catastrophic: they exude coyness, something that is usually as foreign to an Astaire number as musical insensitivity or rampant vulgarity" and further remarks in subsequent paragraphs.

On Anita Ellis's dubbing of Vera-Ellen see Mueller p 338 "...sung first by Alice Pearce and then by Anita Ellis (dubbing Vera Ellen)" and also "(Ellis had dubbed Vera-Ellen in Three Little Words) generally with better results." and p 346 "Once again Anita Ellis .."

Part of Sentence "..which attempts to be erotic" see Mueller p346 "The dance, presumably choreographed by Alton, is one of those desparate attempts to be sexy, so common in Hollywood musicals of the 1950s, in which sexuality is confused with unfettered vulgarity; it consists basically of having the dancer fling her legs around."

Dermot

Dancing in heels?
on a horse's back? Who in their right mind would ever think that a good idea? 72.168.176.133 (talk) 16:35, 30 May 2023 (UTC)