SmugKitZine Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

tavm After years of reading of this on a bio book on Jimmy Stewart, I finally got to see this one. He plays an ice skating producer who gets fired from his latest show along with his star, Joan Crawford, and his partner, Lew Ayres. They're bumped by a big-time movie producer, Lewis Stone, from whom Ms. Crawford manages to get a contract with. I'll stop there and just say this was quite entertaining though things threaten to become a downer when the marriage of Stewart and Crawford strains. There's some funny scenes like that of Stewart, Ayres, and Crawford reading her script or when a couple of them encounters Lionel Stander-who I know best from "Hart to Hart" as their butler, Max-as a promoter who's broke. Oh, and whenever I hear Jimmy say Crawford's character name-Mary-I always go back to his role in my favorite movie, It's a Wonderful Life, whenever he addressed Donna Reed's character by that name. And the Technicolor sequence at the end must have been a sight for sore eyes back then! So on that note, I recommend The Ice Follies of 1939. P.S. I just found out that Mr. Stewart was born on this day in 1908, so Happy Birthday up there in Heaven!

Michael_Elliott The Ice Follies of 1939 (1939) ** (out of 4) There's really no way around it but this is a very, very bad and stupid movie. You might wonder why I can say that and still award the film two stars but it's simply because no matter how bad this things get, you still can't help but be slightly entertained by the train wreck and especially when you consider it has Joan Crawford and James Stewart. In the film they play a married couple. He's an expert on the ice but she isn't so her lack of skills cause their careers to tumble. She eventually gets a job as an actress and makes it big but she must keep her marriage a secret. While that's going on he's making it big in Canada. Will the two bring their careers together? A lot of musicals and specialty films would often include the year in the title because studios would just continue to make them. You'll notice that 1939 was the only year for ICE FOLLIES and it's easy to see why because this thing is pretty darn bad. What's so shocking is that someone like Crawford would appear in a film like this because the material is clearly "B" movie material and you also have to consider that the same year she would appear in THE WOMEN. Stewart wasn't a major star yet so it's easy to see why he would take this. I really can't say they made a believable couple but at the same time I still enjoyed seeing them together. It appears Crawford hated playing this part as her performance is really bad at times. Even Stewart was wrong for his role but I'm sure everyone remembers the yell he gave in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE once he saw he was back in Bedford Falls. Well, he gives the exact same yell here, which was pretty funny. Both Lew Ayres and Lewis Stone are also on hand. The finale was shot in 3-strip Technicolor and it looks marvelous but sadly nothing we're watching is all that entertaining. THE ICE FOLLIES OF 1939 is a real dud of a picture but those who enjoy bad movies will want to check it out.

ricmarc2001 Ice Follies of 1939 is a Joan Crawford vehicle from MGM which has a Warners feel with a supporting cast from Columbia and shot at Republic.This is the film that Joan is prepping for at the beginning of Mommie Dearest.Jimmy Stewart is Joan's male lead in this picture. He looks like he has just turned 18.Joan looks old enough to be his mother in some shots.The plot is secondary to what they put poor Joan through.30 some minutes into the movie she isn't even in it for a long stretch where to is totally focused on the Jimmy Stewart character and his ice follies. The background bit runs straight into an ice follies review of skating. It is pretty hum drum. Cramped and shot cheaply.The whole movie feels cramped until the end where there is an insane Technicolor nightmare of mediocre skating in garish costumes in an ill conceived Cinderella plot involving dear Joan. She doesn't skate.She looks lovely when sitting in the audience watching herself on screen though. Reddish highlights to her hair in a gorgeous green and gold sparkly Adrian creation that defies description. One number she is forced to wear looks like it came off of a Lorretta Young picture, complete with halo.You see Joan in several different looks in this picture. Few of them are flattering to her. Some make her look downright hard bitten and hawkish.There is one scene early on where Joan is sitting at a table in yet another cramped room with Jimmy and Lew Ayres. She looks young and vibrant, her hair perfect for her. She looks great. then it is all downhill until the final Technicolor shots of her in the audience at the end.Somebody wanted to make her look bad.You can tell by where they spent the money.One of the black and white skate bits is wonderful. Far better than the other ones. Then there is the color skate film in a film sequence at the end.This film is designed to make the star look bad on the screen and on paper.Joan does have one great bit where she plays drunk. It looks like she is really having fun with it.Trog is better.

borsch This patched-together pseudo-musical-on-ice isn't even fun as camp; it's just a deadly dull example of MGM assembly-line junk. As always, the production values are excellent: this film is just as well-mounted as any Metro "A" product, with the added bonuses of a lavish Technicolor sequence and pleasing ice performances by the Shipstad-Johnson Ice Follies. But, it's heavy going as the miscast stars are shoved about in a silly plot in an underwritten script, and no amount of MGM gloss can compensate for the audacity of casting three non-skating actors as skating stars! Especially jarring is the sight of Joan Crawford in a jet-black Hedy Lamarr "do"; this is one instance where Joan's Madonna-like talent for following trends misfired.(She very nearly achieves a Carolyn Jones-as-Morticia look!) JC fans do get a consolation prize in the color sequence, in which Joan's natural coloring is seen to lovely advantage. Viewer Alert: watch Sonja Henie on Fox instead!!