This excellent post-RKO show for Fred Astaire is a Columbia musical, of which there aren't many good ones. It perhaps didn't expand his musical horizons, but its success helped keep him relatively independent. You can bet that he was one star that never had to sign any long-term contracts with MGM. The charm of the show is Astaire's, well, charm. There never was a cornier musical number idea than the one in Grand Central Station, as Robert Curtis prepares to board a train to boot camp. Carloads of showgirls spontaneously arrive to sing and dance their favorite choreographer on his way. The number sounds horrible in print but it's a pleasure, probably because Astaire has the kind of screen spirit where we want his life to be like that.

In one of his tap numbers, Astaire twists his legs and spins between taps, affecting a style that reminds slightly of some of James Cagney's signature moves. Perhaps since Robert Curtis is supposed to be a New York boy, choreographer Robert Alton and Astaire worked out the local style.

Rita Hayworth is already in prime WW2 pinup form, hiking her bare shoulders and posing her chin in closeups that have the flavor of her best cheesecake still work. Her screen presence and line delivery is not to be improved upon; I always thought her just-slightly-husky voice was the sexiest in Hollywood. She taps well enough to keep up with Astaire but is one of his most elegant ballroom partners: no show-stopping fancy stuff, but class and elegance to burn. During those spins she tosses her hair in a way that tells us she's fully in control of her charms. Yes, it was a fantasy, but whatever happened to the mid-career Rita after 1946's Gilda is one of Hollywood's romantic tragedies.

The rest of the movie is split between harmless but less memorable comedy. Robert Benchley opens things nicely but becomes less interesting when he's required to stay a heel to make the silly plot function. John Hubbard is a dunce in a Captain's uniform playing the requisite loser, the one who 'almost' weds Rita. Osa Massen (Rocketship X-M) is conniving foreign competition for Rita who doesn't fool anybody. Big Guinn Williams and comic Cliff Nazarro are Fred's Army buddies; Nazarro is a very annoying vaudeville type with an act that consists completely of talking unintelligible nonsense. He plays a guy named 'Swivel Tongue'.

The big ending is the camp show, done of course with Astaire under house arrest and Rita almost ready to leave for marriage in Panama. They tap dance atop a giant porcelain tank, and then Astaire reveals that the fake wedding in the skit was real. Naturally, it turns out to be just what they both wanted, and the film ends in nonsensical bliss. But You'll Never Get Rich delivers us real movie stars that seem capable of holding the universe together with their talent and attractiveness; this show may be no MGM extravaganza, but it's just as entertaining.

Columbia TriStar's DVD is a better than adequate version of the 62-year old film. Most of the scenes are sharp and bright, with only some scratches in the main titles (laid out like Burma-Shave signs along the side of a road) scaring us at the very beginning. I noticed one shot in the middle that must have come from some inferior source, but the rest is fine. The Cole Porter tunes are okay, even though purported hits So Near and Yet So Far and Since I Kissed my Baby Goodbye didn't stick in this viewer's mind.

There are trailers for a couple of other Rita Hayworth films, and that's it.

On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, You'll Never Get Rich rates:
Movie: Good
Video: Very Good
Sound: Good
Supplements: trailers
Packaging: Keep case
Reviewed: October 12, 2003