Product Details

• Formats: Black & White, NTSC
• Running time: 89 minutes

Amazon.com
The Sky's the Limit may not be top-drawer Fred Astaire, but it's a charming, enjoyable wartime picture from his post-Ginger Rogers period. Astaire plays a decorated American fighter pilot who's taking some incognito R&R, but his laissez-faire guise ends up infuriating the young lady he's attracted to (Joan Leslie, a year removed from playing James Cagney's wife in Yankee Doodle Dandy). Leslie was perhaps Astaire's most appealing partner after Rogers, and the two first strike sparks with their smile-inducing song-and-dance duet "I've Got a Lot in Common with You." The score was also distinguished by the introduction of two all-time-classic Harold Arlen-Johnny Mercer tunes, "My Shining Hour" and "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)," which Astaire croons atop a bar while dancing and smashing glasses. Fifteen years later, Frank Sinatra would slow "One for My Baby" to a world-weary tempo and make it his own, but the song was written for Astaire. --David Horiuchi

Customer Reviews

Not your average musical
"The Sky's The Limit" is a rare film, especially when one considers its a wartime musical. At that time, escapism was the key to most movies. People wanted to go into a theater and forget about the war and probably expected this movie to fulfill that purpose since Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers had helped many to forget the Great Depression with their series of films. However, this film is more than just song and dance. It has a heart and brain to it. Fred Astaire plays a man in the military, a Flying Tiger to be exact, who gets leave for a few days and tries desperately to escape the "flyboy hero" image he has gotten. He ditches the uniform and becomes a regular guy. He meets up with Joan Leslie (who was 17 when she made this movie!) and immediately falls in love with her. I notice that all the reviewers allude to stalking and if this movie had been made today, there's no doubt Fred would have a restraining order against him. However, it was the 1940s and so we know that Fred is a harmless fellow. The rest of the movie is the good ol' classic love story.

As I mentioned before, this movie has a heart and brain. In most musicals of the time, the flag was being waved and there was never a negative word against the war. "The Sky's The Limit" is also very patriotic, but not obviously so. Astaire's character believes strongly in what he is fighting for, but the movie also deals with the problems people felt at the time, the separation from loved ones, etc. It also features a female lead who's goal in life is not just to land a husband. This girl has a job as a reporter and wishes to go to the European theater (though there are some statements that could be considered politically incorrect, but remember its the '40s). It also deals with Fred wanting to get away from all the attention, something that I'm sure happened to many heroes that didn't believe they deserved the accolades. If not for the singing and dancing, this could have been an excellent wartime drama. However, the dancing and singing in this movie is awesome. What else could it be when it comes to Fred Astaire? Joan Leslie sings well and manages to keep up with the great Astaire in a dancing/singing duet. The best part of the film, in my opinion, is Fred's "One For My Baby" solo. After singing the song, he proceeds to jump on a bar counter and dance up a storm. This is probably one of the most dangerous routines Fred ever did. The bar top was highly polished and also very slippery making it harder for Fred to dance on. If he'd fallen, he would have broken his leg. Also, he kicks over glasses during the course of the dance. A nurse was on the set to remove all the glass from Fred's ankles and legs after every take. Of course, none of the difficulty comes through and he makes it look so easy you may find yourself thinking "I could do that".

And so, if you like musicals, but not the "let's put on a show" kind, I highly recommend "The Sky's The Limit".

"One for My Baby"...A great song, a great dance and a great dancer. Hard to beat Fred Astaire, Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer
One great dance number by Fred Astaire and two great Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer songs redeem this minor Astaire movie. The Sky's the Limit tells the story of Fred Atwell (Fred Astaire), a Flying Tiger ace pilot, brought home to make special public appearances with other aces before returning to the war. But he decides to take a few days unofficial leave, jumps off his train and makes his way to New York. There he happens to see Joan Manion (Joan Leslie), an ace photographer, sitting at the bar of the Cosmopolitan Club with her boss, magazine owner Phil Harriman (Robert Benchley). It may not be love at first sight, exactly, but a combination of vivid attraction with a smattering of lust. Atwell pursues her relentlessly, even finding a place to stay in her rooming house, until she relents. She's attracted to him, but his story of not being interested in work bothers her. After all, everyone should be working to help the war effort. He's keeping the fact that he's an ace fighter pilot a secret. Since he has only five days before he must rejoin his group and return to the Pacific, he's got to cut corners and work fast. But complications arise. The "I don't like to work" line blows up in his face; she thinks he's a war-time dead beat; he doesn't want to tell her the truth and that he's in love. He knows he must leave her because he has to go back to the fighting. But wouldn't you know...her boss, who loves her, too...sets things up so that Joan learns the truth, and just in time for them both to declare their love. We leave them with Fred's plane climbing the sky toward Australia, and Joan looking skyward after him with a prayer for his safety.

This is a Fred Astaire movie?

Actually, it's a wartime morale booster that stars Astaire. I'm sure the audiences back in 1943 left the movie houses having enjoyed themselves, but with a feeling of poignant hope about the dedication and sacrifice the war effort is calling for. Sixty years later, however, what are we left with? Not much, but what there is is choice.

The movie only has three songs, but two are classics and one is lot of fun. "One for My Baby," sung and danced by Astaire, is a great bluesy moan of unhappiness and frustration. "My Shining Hour," sung first by Leslie, then by Astaire, then later danced by Astaire and Leslie, is a lovely song of hope and delicate optimism, with the lyric and melody perfectly matched:

This will be my shining hour
Calm and happy and bright.
In my dreams, your face will flower
Through the darkness of the night.

Like the lights of home before me
Or an angel, watching o'er me,
This will be my shining hour
'Til I'm with you again

A little later, walking Joan Manion home, Fred says he thinks the song should be a bit more lighthearted, and proceeds to sing his version...

This will be my shining hour,
Lonely though it may be.
Like the face of Misha Auer
On the music hall marquee.

Were they stingers or bacardis?
Was it Tony's, was it Sardi's?
This will be my shining hour
'Til I'm with you again.

Even later, Astaire and Leslie dance a romantic declaration of love to the melody.

"I've Got a Lot in Common With You" is a clever, fast-paced song and dance routine by Astaire and Leslie at a USO club. The song features a funny in-joke by Mercer that works in a reference by Joan Leslie to Jimmy Cagney and one by Astaire to Rita Hayworth. Leslie had just finished Yankee Doodle Dandy and Astaire, You Were Never Lovelier. The fast tap routine shows just how good Astaire was at working with actresses who had limited dancing experience. Look carefully and you'll see that Leslie's most demanding moves are frequently disguised by Astaire, and that when he does a double or triple spin, she does one. To give her credit, most of the time she looks relaxed and confident.

What makes the movie memorable, in addition to the Arlen-Mercer songs, is Astaire's "One for My Baby" routine. He thinks he's lost Joan and he doesn't see any way to put things right in the few hours he has left before he returns to war. He starts hitting the saloons while he's singing the great Mercer words. He winds up in a high-class bar with lots of stacked glasses and mirrors, white walls and tables. And Astaire starts one of his great dances, and one of his few which explodes into destructiveness. He starts drunkenly tapping before the bar, sees a couple of glasses on a table and precisely smashes them to the floor with two kicks, leaps up furiously on the bar, down, up again, and spots all the glasses stacked up behind him. He tears into them, finishing by leaping down and throwing a chair against the mirror and the glasses. It's a great song, a great dancer and a great dance.

It's quarter to three, there's no one in the place except you and me.
So, set 'em up, Joe, I got a little story you oughta know.
We're drinkin', my friend, to the end of a brief episode.
Make it one for my baby and one more for the road.

I got the routine, so drop another nickel in the machine.
I'm feelin' so bad, wish you'd make the music pretty and sad.
Could tell you a lot, but you've got to be true to your code.
So, make it one for my baby and one more for the road.

You'd never know it but buddy, I'm a kind of poet
And I got a lot of things to say.
And when I'm gloomy, you simply gotta listen to me
'Till it's all talked away.

Well that's how it goes and Joe, I know your gettin' pretty anxious to close.
So, thanks for the cheer, I hope you didn't mind my bendin' your ear.
This torch that I found must be drowned or it soon might explode.
So, make it one for my baby and one more for the road.
That long, long road.

The movie to date is available only on VHS. The RKO Home Video tape I have looks very good.

One of Astaire's best!!!
I really like this movie. "One For My Baby (and One More For the Road" and "A Lot in Common" are great songs, and Fred Astaire (my favorite performer ever) did such wonderful dances I have to watch each one at least two times. Joan Leslie keeps up with Astaire, which I praise her for. The only bad part was the terribly sad and incomplete (in my opinion) ending. But I suggest you watch this movie. You won't be sorry.