IMDb RATING
5.7/10
1.8K
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After perennial college students Danny O'Neill and Hank Taylor are forced to make it on their own, the competitive pair get jobs with Artie Shaw's band and reunite with ex-manager Ellen Mill... Read allAfter perennial college students Danny O'Neill and Hank Taylor are forced to make it on their own, the competitive pair get jobs with Artie Shaw's band and reunite with ex-manager Ellen Miller.After perennial college students Danny O'Neill and Hank Taylor are forced to make it on their own, the competitive pair get jobs with Artie Shaw's band and reunite with ex-manager Ellen Miller.
- Nominated for 2 Oscars
- 2 nominations total
Jimmy Conlin
- Mr. Dunn
- (as Jimmy Conlon)
Artie Shaw and His Orchestra
- Artie Shaw and His Band
- (as Artie Shaw and His Band)
Phil Arnold
- Shaw's First Manager
- (uncredited)
Bobby Barber
- Room Service Waiter
- (uncredited)
Bus Bassey
- Tenor Sax Player
- (uncredited)
William 'Billy' Benedict
- Ticket Taker
- (uncredited)
Vernon Brown
- Trombone Player
- (uncredited)
Billy Butterfield
- Trumpet Player
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaFred Astaire would later refer to this as the worst film he ever made. Artie Shaw confided that it put him off film acting.
- Goofs(at around 3 mins) Danny's chair suddenly jumps to immediately (and intimately) next to Ellen's left side at the table.
- Quotes
Lester Chisholm: [in a fake Russian accent] Vas good.
Danny O'Neill: Vas good? Vas per-fect.
- Crazy creditsOpening credits prologue: A UNIVERSITY IN NEW ENGLAND
- Alternate versionsThis film was published in Italy in an DVD anthology entitled "Royal Wedding", distributed by DNA Srl. The film has been re-edited with the contribution of the film history scholar Riccardo Cusin . This version is also available in streaming on some platforms.
- ConnectionsEdited into Your Afternoon Movie: Second Chorus (2022)
- SoundtracksWould You Like to Be the Love of My Life
Music by Artie Shaw
Lyrics Johnny Mercer
Played by Artie Shaw and His Orchestra (uncredited)
Sung by Fred Astaire (uncredited)
Featured review
Part of the Third Act of Astaire's career...
... with the first act being his dance partnership with his sister and his second act being his RKO years.
"Second Chorus" is not a widely known film, but it will probably be enjoyable to any fan of Fred Astaire. If you're not particularly fond of Astaire, you might want to pass on this one since seeing Astaire in action in an unusual role is the main attraction. The story is that Danny O'Neill (Fred Astaire) and Hank Taylor (Burgess Meredith) are leaders of a band. The two have been intentionally failing in college, because they like the atmosphere, and also because as long as they are officially students they can spend their time running the band and making a pretty good living at it. When Ellen Miller (Paulette Goddard) enters the picture, they both get greedy and want her attention for themselves. Thus they each double-cross the other and both wind up getting expelled from the university, thus ending their cozy arrangement with their band. They spend most of the rest of the film continuing to double-cross one another, this time over trying to get into Artie Shaw's band as well as trying to win over the affections of Ellen, who now works for Shaw.
The things that are not so great about this film are the less than great comic timing, and the tiresome scenes with J. Lester Chisholm, played by Charles Butterworth. Mr. Butterworth is no Edward Everett Horton, and as a less-than-adequate character actor you just want to shoo the guy off stage every time he turns up. Also, if you're watching this film to see lots of Astaire's wonderful dancing, you'll likely be somewhat disappointed. He does do some singing and dancing, but this film mainly shows off his comic abilities, of which the mischievous Astaire has plenty. This part would have been better if the comic timing of the script had been tighter, though.
"Second Chorus" is not a widely known film, but it will probably be enjoyable to any fan of Fred Astaire. If you're not particularly fond of Astaire, you might want to pass on this one since seeing Astaire in action in an unusual role is the main attraction. The story is that Danny O'Neill (Fred Astaire) and Hank Taylor (Burgess Meredith) are leaders of a band. The two have been intentionally failing in college, because they like the atmosphere, and also because as long as they are officially students they can spend their time running the band and making a pretty good living at it. When Ellen Miller (Paulette Goddard) enters the picture, they both get greedy and want her attention for themselves. Thus they each double-cross the other and both wind up getting expelled from the university, thus ending their cozy arrangement with their band. They spend most of the rest of the film continuing to double-cross one another, this time over trying to get into Artie Shaw's band as well as trying to win over the affections of Ellen, who now works for Shaw.
The things that are not so great about this film are the less than great comic timing, and the tiresome scenes with J. Lester Chisholm, played by Charles Butterworth. Mr. Butterworth is no Edward Everett Horton, and as a less-than-adequate character actor you just want to shoo the guy off stage every time he turns up. Also, if you're watching this film to see lots of Astaire's wonderful dancing, you'll likely be somewhat disappointed. He does do some singing and dancing, but this film mainly shows off his comic abilities, of which the mischievous Astaire has plenty. This part would have been better if the comic timing of the script had been tighter, though.
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Dans efter noter
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 24 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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