Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

latic A terrific Arlen/Mercer score and Fred Astaire – what more could you want? A decent movie to put them in. And this is not it.Astaire's customary brash, self-confident persona here comes across as thoroughly irritating. A stalker who breaks into a girl's flat while she is asleep? Pity she didn't call the cops and save us all from the rest of the film. I can usually excuse the plots of musicals but this one is particularly yawn-making.Astaire's dancing is, of course, the big compensation and he is on superb form. But I hate the drunk routine that was devised for One for My Baby – the most charmless and unappealing performance I have ever seen from him.For an actress, Joan Leslie acquits herself surprisingly well as his dancing partner although, if she ever stopped to think about the plot, she might have wondered what she had got into – at just 18, she was being wooed by the 44-year-old Astaire and Robert Benchley who was 54 for heaven's sake (incidentally, I gather Benchley's after-dinner speaker routine was regarded as funny at the time but nowadays, it just brings the movie to a clunking halt).All in all, a stodgy lack-lustre affair when it could have been so much better.

Doghouse-6 Very much in the Fred Astaire canon of the 30's-40's (Fred meets girl, Fred exasperates girl, Fred wins girl over on the dance floor), THE SKY'S THE LIMIT - although uneven - contains some of Astaire's best and most unusual moments on film. It's worth getting past a few jarring notes to access them.In almost every one of his musicals, Fred plays some extension of the same character: the lovestruck, earnest but insouciant sophisticate, and for some reason the standard formula required Fred to annoy the object of his affection upon their initial meeting - and often for some time after. This picture frequently carries the gimmick to inexplicable extremes.The recipient of Fred's love at first sight is magazine photographer Joan Leslie, who although not quite a triple-threat (her singing voice is courtesy of Sally Sweetland, but she could dance and handle both comedy and drama; call her a two-and-a-half threat) is generally up to the task, and projects a maturity far beyond her 18 (yup: 18) years. Supplying able assistance is Robert Benchley as Joan's editor and would-be suitor, who has moments hinting at more depth as an actor than he was usually given an opportunity to display.With Fred portraying a Flying Tiger ace who skips out on a PR tour to enjoy a few days of fun before returning to duty, there are elements of wartime morale-boosting, but only around the edges, and in what sometimes is an almost subversive vein. After enduring a discourse on "how to win this war" from the man who has given him a lift to town, Astaire's only response is, "What's your classification?" "4-F," the man answers, to which Astaire replies, "That's what I thought."In an odd bit of casting, Robert Ryan appears as one of Fred's Air Forces buddies, but takes the script's intended mischief a bit too seriously. In scenes that call for him to merely tease, he practically drips with menace. That quality would serve him well in subsequent films, but here it's one of the aforementioned jarring notes.There's still plenty of fun along the way, and the script is sprinkled with in-jokes, such as references to some of Astaire and Leslie's costars in earlier films, or Benchley's series of celebrated two-reel shorts for MGM in the 30's (Joan tells of a wedding proposal from him that digressed to a lecture about "the sex life of a polyp"). Indeed, Benchley delivers one of his trademark disorganized addresses at a fete honoring an industrialist, and while it brings the story to a halt for a few minutes, you won't really mind if you're a fan. The crown jewel of THE SKY'S THE LIMIT is one of Astaire's best vocalizations of one of the best songs ever written for him, "One For My Baby (and One More For the Road"), along with one of his most adventurous dance solos, in which a night of bar-hopping after a falling-out with Leslie culminates in an explosive choreographic release of frustration and fury, at the posh nightspot where they first met.This may not become one of your favorite Astaire pictures, but there are rewards if you can overlook a few rough spots.

aimless-46 Although "The Sky's the Limit" (1943) was a MGM film, the budget for production design was on the level of a Republic B-Western. This makes this black and white film noteworthy for production design buffs as they can pick apart each set and the many surprisingly obvious (for MGM) sound stage background projections. The low budget also required the use of stock footage, a technique that the MGM editors (used to working on high quality productions) were probably out-of-practice employing. As already pointed out, the most glaring example is the aerial combat scene that opens the movie. Fred Atwell (Fred Astaire) is shown in an obvious WWII P-40 cockpit mock-up (Ed Wood quality). Even worse the editors cut in footage from a WWI biplane dogfight. Fred Astaire and Joan Leslie (who plays his love interest) were 44 and 18 respectively when the film was produced. This kind of shoots down the overall credibility of their romance. Imagine an 18 year-old girl waking up to find a strange 44 year-old man in her kitchen. But they glam up Leslie so much that she looks a bit older. For anyone unfamiliar with Astaire he was hardly leading man material but was quite a featured dancer. He looked about 60 when he was 30 and not much older when he made "Finian's Rainbow" in 1968 at the age of 69. Some things to watch for are the neon lights on the instruments of the nightclub orchestra and the self-reflexive reference to Ginger Rogers (Astaire's usual co-star). There are a couple of good song and dance numbers although "The Sky's the Limit" could not really be considered a musical. Although the film itself is obscure, Astaire's dance number in the hotel bar is often referenced in discussions of musicals. Utilizing a marble floor, mirrors, and shelves of glasses he does an amazing multi-tempo dance routine, which climaxes in a frenzy of broken glass.Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

blanche-2 Fred Astaire is an incognito war hero on leave in "The Sky's the Limit," also starring Joan Leslie, Robert Ryan, and Robert Benchley. Astaire is a member of "The Flying Tigers" and jumps off of a train so that he can have fun during his leave instead of making promotional appearances. At a bar, he sees magazine photographer Joan Leslie and falls for her without telling her who he is.This is a very sweet film with some good numbers, but I wanted more! Leslie and Astaire danced well together in the energetic "I've Got a Lot in Common With You," and Astaire's "One for My Baby" is a standout, both his singing and in a tricky dance number that involves breaking glasses with his feet. Apparently, he injured himself while filming. I love Astaire's singing - he's so musical and if his voice isn't great, it's lyrical.My only quibble is that Joan Leslie's voice was dubbed and yet it wasn't very good. If they were going to dub it, why didn't they dub it with somebody better? Certainly this was a perfect film to see in wartime - not only entertaining but poignant.