After RKO Studios told Fred in 1939 that they had no more work for him, he bounced around Hollywood for a few years making much less expensive (though still quality) movies until Bing Crosby came along. "You'll Never Get Rich" is a good example. Most of the film is set around army barracks - not exactly an extravagant film set - and the general production quality is a far cry from the Ginger Rogers cycle of films that audiences had grown accustomed to in the 1930s. For example, compare the spectacle of "The Continental" or "The Piccolino" with the dance on top of a wooden tank finale of "You'll Never Get Rich" and it becomes obvious that studios had absorbed the lesson learned by RKO; costs must be kept on a very strict budget or an Astaire movie would lose a lot of money. Still, his name carried weight with producers and he stayed active.
Many reviews talk about the weakness of the plot of "You'll Never Get Rich," but actually Astaire musicals are quite consistent in their lack of strong plots. Ginger used to comment in interviews that musicals need a somewhat weaker plot because people want to focus on the music. One of her great post-Fred musicals, "Roxie Hart," is an example; people watch musicals to see Ginger's sizzling tap dance on a prison staircase, not ponder the universe.
Hayworth was Fred's first real partner after Rogers moved on. His other partners Fontaine and Powell had such glaring deficiencies - Joan couldn't sing or dance, Eleanor couldn't sing or act - that not even Fred Astaire could rescue those films. Rita could certainly dance and her acting was acceptable although certainly no competition for Rogers (or Fontaine either, for that matter), and the studio didn't give her anything to sing even though she actually had a good voice.
Rita's dancing is exciting, technically flawless, but there is no attempt to reach the profound depth of emotion that Rogers and Astaire display in their iconic romantic dances. Fred never found another partner that could reach the heights he climbed with Ginger... "Night and Day" or "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" or that profound swoon in "The Last Waltz"... and Fred never created that type of dance for anyone else. He stays within a narrow range with Rita Hayworth and while the technique can't be faulted, their dances can't have the same expressive power as those that he created with Rogers.
This was Hayworth's breakout role, and in later years she said that the only films she made that she thought were any good, were the two she made with Astaire.
Many reviews talk about the weakness of the plot of "You'll Never Get Rich," but actually Astaire musicals are quite consistent in their lack of strong plots. Ginger used to comment in interviews that musicals need a somewhat weaker plot because people want to focus on the music. One of her great post-Fred musicals, "Roxie Hart," is an example; people watch musicals to see Ginger's sizzling tap dance on a prison staircase, not ponder the universe.
Hayworth was Fred's first real partner after Rogers moved on. His other partners Fontaine and Powell had such glaring deficiencies - Joan couldn't sing or dance, Eleanor couldn't sing or act - that not even Fred Astaire could rescue those films. Rita could certainly dance and her acting was acceptable although certainly no competition for Rogers (or Fontaine either, for that matter), and the studio didn't give her anything to sing even though she actually had a good voice.
Rita's dancing is exciting, technically flawless, but there is no attempt to reach the profound depth of emotion that Rogers and Astaire display in their iconic romantic dances. Fred never found another partner that could reach the heights he climbed with Ginger... "Night and Day" or "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" or that profound swoon in "The Last Waltz"... and Fred never created that type of dance for anyone else. He stays within a narrow range with Rita Hayworth and while the technique can't be faulted, their dances can't have the same expressive power as those that he created with Rogers.
This was Hayworth's breakout role, and in later years she said that the only films she made that she thought were any good, were the two she made with Astaire.