A perfectly swell romance

Swing Time

(1936)

Best Fred and Ginger movie ever? Well, the big romantic dance ranks fourth at best, and the comic dance is no. 2 at best, and then there's the blackface number.

However, if you can overlook the blackface (I know: big if), that's probably the best tap number Astaire ever put on film, and two songs without dances might be the best in much smaller categories--call them (1) romantic song with an ironic visual twist and (2) comic attraction/resistance.

And then there's the fact that this actually has a plot--an implausible one, sure, but one that involves more that mistaken or misrepresented identity, which describes the other 3 contenders for best F&G.

So yeah, though I don't think I've admitted this before--and this distinction is not the same as saying it's my favorite--but yeah, this is the best.