(Ugh, so after we promised a masterpost on Top Hat, we realized that the mofo had to be both written AND edited (who knew?). So! it is coming soon, seriously for real this time. Meanwhile, have another post on an under-appreciated 50’s Ginger movie!)

Pat Crowley, William Holden, and Ginger Rogers in Forever Female (1953)

In Forever Female, Ginger Rogers’ experienced grand dame of an actress falls for a much younger up and coming writer, who is also loved by a young actress.  At the core of this love triangle lies a question about how much age matters where romantic love is concerned.

This is all very well and good…until the young writer is played by William Holden.  Who is only 6 years younger than Ginger Rogers.  And the third wheel of the love triangle is played by a woman a full 15 years younger than him.  This throws the whole balance off.  Look at that picture above – William Holden and Ginger Rogers are in the same age bracket, and Pat Crowley is much younger.  While William Holden is incredibly handsome, he looks like a mature late 30’s-something guy, which is what he is.  He and Ginger could totally talk about their life experiences – discuss being young adults in Los Angeles during the depression, talk about being born in the same decade, compare where they were when Hitler invaded Poland – and little Pat Crowley would be all “I was in diapers!  Or not born!”  Awkward. 

So the clothes have to do the heavy lifting that everyone’s faces cannot.  Luckily, they come through for us!  Just look at how Ginger is the odd one out.  The blame lies squarely on her jacket.  I do not know what fabric it is, but it manages to be both shiny and expensive looking.  But however lovely, it is very different than simple camel coats that the other two are wearing.  Their coats share the same color palette, big collars, and are completely unadorned.  Their accessories are also different – in that they have none, while Ginger has a great little matching hat, a pair of gloves and big pearl earrings. She’s got a completely different look – put-together and perhaps a little fussy, in contrast to the others’ simplicity.  

I actually tried this – look at their faces and you’re pretty sure the couple destined to be together is Holden and Rogers – they are just so much closer in age.  Cover their faces and only look at the clothes – it doesn’t matter that they’re clasping arms, Ginger is clearly the loser in this game of Snag the Holden. 

I haven’t mentioned the overwhelming irony that William Holden is cast as a man who is, oh, probably supposed to be 10-15 years younger than he is, all in a film about how Ginger can’t, because a) too obvious, and b) now I’m depressed.

malibabub:

Perhaps the greatest summary of a movie ever written.

Darlings, do forgive our relative absence as of late. We are hard at work on…ok, we’ll tell you! We’re too excited.

…a Top Hat fashion MASTERPOST!

(Hence our recent spate of blog posts covering the last of Ginger’s individual Top Hat looks. We got a little carried away with our pacing.) We hope this will be the first of many such Ginger Rogers Film/Fashion Masterposts to come!

THANKS as ever for your patience and readership and general awesomeness - something probably resembling a massive ode to Alberto Beddini / Bernard Newman awaits you. We hope you enjoy it!

Ginger Rogers as Ramona Gladwyn in We’re Not Married! (1952).

Ginger’s nightgown sure looks glam here!  Unfortunately, if there was ever a time to de-glam, it is the cheerfully titled and surprisingly cynical We’re Not Married!  Ginger is a popular morning radio DJ who hosts along with her husband, who is played by Fred Allen.  And here is the problem.  Fred Allen was a great comedian and a bonafide star of the radio. He’s a really funny guy.  So I mean no disrespect when I say: in this movie, he looks like a desiccated fish. 

Too mean?  Yes.  But Fred Allen’s corpselike facade (he pokes fun at it early on, BTW) wouldn’t be so noticeable if he wasn’t standing next to gorgeous Ginger Rogers.  And Ginger is looking decidedly un-desiccated in her gorgeous ballroom gown of a nightie, along with her lacy negligee.  It is a curiously sexy look for a woman whose marriage is an empty and miserable farce.  Speaking of movies that portray marriage as an empty and miserable farce: wow, is this movie cynical!  Of the five marriages in the film, four feature discontented couples who are either bored with or flat out dislike each other.  In some ways, Ginger and Fred (Allen) have the worst marriage – it is a contractual arrangement solely for the benefit of their radio career.  This scene, where they groggily get up and dress without speaking or looking at each other is a little chilling – all the radio success in the world, and they still have to go home and hate each other.  Ginger’s sexy nightgown is a symbol of their utter lack of romantic chemistry, its presence a cruel irony that makes it clear how little these two married folk care for one another.

Did I forget to mention that this movie is a comedy?  And is pretty funny?  What a weird movie.

Ginger Rogers as Dale Tremont in Top Hat (1935).

This dress, as I’ve noted before, accomplishes so much by somehow managing to be both a day/evening gown AND a negligee. And how?!?

Honestly, when I first watched Top Hat as a wee preteen, I had a bit of a Clueless moment when Ginger showed up in this. (My cinematic upbringing consisted largely of dance musicals and 90’s teen movies). I really wanted Madge/Helen Broderick and Dale/Ginger to have a hilarious “What the hell is that?” “A dress!” “Says who?” “Calvin Klein!” conversation, where Madge lets Dale know in no unsubtle way that her dress possibly looks like underwear (except, of course, Dale would cite Alberto Beddini for her defense instead of Calvin Klein). 

Sad as I was that this conversation does not, in fact, take place, I was won over by the outfit anyway, because Ginger pulls it off so well. Who else but her could simply luxuriate around in something like this? The garment is simultaneously gorgeous and also makes zero sense; it is elegantly streamlined while being unthinkably froofy, “dreamlike” in an equally wacky and enviable sense, delightfully confusing and fancifully AWESOME.

On top of all that, this dress is unreasonably sexy for how ridiculous it is. Seriously - it is sexy in all situations:

Sexy with a hat!

Sexy with a telephone!

(I think it is pretty much de rigueur on this blog that if Ginger is featured in any scene with a telephone, it must be included in a post. (Forget charming male costars - Ginger + Telephone is secretly my favorite pairing in all her movies.))

Sexy from the BACK! (Hi over there, Madge!)

But seriously, HELLZA SEXY from the back. So sexy that it deserves two pictures. Thank goodness for our mere mortal eyes that The Sexy is tempered / thrown completely off whack by those giant GENIE SLEEVES (which, unsurprisingly, are my favorite sartorial element from Top Hat.)

However, the BEST part about how ludicrous this dress is (especially for the daytime - I really cannot get over how she is just going about her day in this thing) is that it makes Dale’s put-on, incredibly forward romantic advances towards Jerry (well, Horace, in her eyes) all the more comical in adding an additional layer of impropriety to her act. I mean, poor Jerry: not only does your one-day-lover-gal basically proposition you over the phone, she then comes to meet with you ALONE, in your HOTEL ROOM, in the 1930’s, in flouncy/skintight vixen-wear that borders on black lingerie. (As another excellent teen staple, 10 Things I Hate About You, taught me - “You don’t buy black lingerie unless you want someone to see it.” Boy has Ginger made that maxim obvious.) No WONDER Jerry was so flustered at first.

But of course, he sees through it all within the minute, and quickly turns the plot around on a suspicious and agonizing Dale, who really cannot fathom how increasingly unfaithful her best friend’s supposedly steady, doofy husband is behaving. (P.S. I LOVE YOU, REAL HORACE / EDWARD EVERETT HORTON, DON’T WORRY!) It’s so fun to contrast how each of their characters puts on an act for the other, and how they try to tease each other into playing along with their stories. Freddie, here, goes for the goofy grin and hams it up with a literal “wink wink, NUDGE NUDGE.”

Whereas Ginger’s version of the “wink wink, NUDGE NUDGE” is accomplished entirely, and literally, via her boobs. It’s somehow both more overt AND more subtle than Freddie’s moves. But really, she could not have chosen a better dress to get this message across. “Don’t you remember these boobs? YOU REMEMBER THESE BOOBS. FROM PARIS. (NOT.) I will MAKE you remember these boobs. Heck, I don’t even have to describe our non-affair - the flowers of L’AMOUR exploding from my bust speak for themselves! Oh, look at that! Here we are, standing chest to chest. Forget cheek to cheek - MY RUSE HAS NO TIME TO BE CHASTE.” (Ok, maybe I’ve taken some liberties with Dale’s thought process here, but this wouldn’t be a blog if I didn’t.)

Aside from all the adorable hilarity of this scene, we have to mention that this dress, while utterly silly, renders Freddie and Ginge BEAUTIFULLY aesthetically coordinated here. Their outfits mirror each other in that same sort of asymmetrical sense as “Isn’t It a Lovely Day” - gracefully stopping short of being too matchy-matchy. Her floral carnations opposite his boutonniere, the white trimming on her dark gown with his white tie/shirt/vest peeping out from his tuxedo suit - perfection.

To be fair…the genie sleeves don’t seem to have a counterpart in Fred’s outfit, but perhaps that’s for the best. Those are for our dear Ginger to own.