FIFTH AVENUE GIRL

 

Where do these dogs come from? They're not in the film.

I had no idea Ginger Rogers was such a comedic talent. She is, after all, the Dancing Woman; She and Fred do ballroom/jazz style dancing, or at least that's what I've been given to understand. In this film, however, she's cracking wise in a delightful deadpan delivery, and dances for less than 30 seconds (somewhat awkwardly with an older gentleman).

None of this today, thanks.

Fifth Avenue is a famous thoroughfare in Manhattan, New York City's wealthiest borough, which had been greatly developed in the preceding decade. To be a Fifth Avenue girl is to be ritzy, urbane, and of the city. The titular character Mary Gray is a common woman between jobs and regularly thumbs her nose at Fifth Avenue types as she eats inexpensive sacked food at Central Park, which is adjacent. All this comes to bear.

I'm alright, Jack, keep your hands off of my stack.

I felt I had to look this up to be sure I understood the title, and didn't miss some hidden meaning since, for one, I am not from New York, and B, I was not around in the '30s. Unfortunately, New Yorkers are the main characters of the United States. There are far too many films and books set in New York to ignore, so we all have to deal, and learn the difference between "uptown" and "downtown", I guess.

Saturday night's alright for fighting.

Anyway, Fifth Avenue Girl pulls off some very tricky feats. It balances its romantic entanglements with the comedy; it handles class commentary in a fair handed, funny way (the millionaire's daughter is in love with the chauffeur, just before the red scare, too); and it manages conflict and misunderstanding without making the characters unlikeable. It does lampoon the comedically militant chauffeur, but it also pokes fun at the upper class, and never fetishizes the upper class lifestyle. Hallmark could never.


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