A Damsel in Distress (DVD)

Fred Astaire sails across the pond to meet damsel in distress Joan Fontaine and delightful (if unlikely) dance partners George Burns and Gracie Allen in a musical co-scripted by master wit P.G. Wodehouse and directed by George Stevens (Swing Time). The helium-light story concerns servants running a betting pool on the marriage prospects of a fetching aristocrat (guess who wins her hand). The elegant George and Ira Gershwin score includes two standards forever associated with Astaire, a Foggy Day and Nice Work If You Can Get It, plus one of Hollywood's cleverest song-and-dances: The Academy Award-winning Fun House number, which sends Astaire, Burns and Allen cavorting among chutes, mirrors, moving floors and rolling barrels.

Starring: Fred Astaire, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Joan Fontaine, Reginald Gardiner, Charles Bennett, Frank Benson, Thelma Hart, Max Linder, Jack Wynn, Ray Noble, Constance Collier, Montagu Love, Harry Watson, Jan Duggan, Mary Gordon, Violet Seaton, Ben Jacobs, Mae Beatty, William O'Brien, Jack Carson, Mary Dean, Joe Niemeyer, Jim Clemons, Jim Walklin, Betty Rome, Charles Daugherty, Robert Tate, Marie Marks, Angie Blue, Peggy Carroll, Cynthia Westlake, Cleo Ridgley, Fred Kelsey, John Blood, Buster Slavin, Bobbie Smith, Elsa Peterson, Starrett Ford, Charles Darwin, Major Sam Harris, Gertrude Carr, Hans Tansler, Kathleen Ellis, Ralph Brooks, Myrta Bonillas, Eugene Beday, Eleanor Vandeveer, Clive Morgan, Leonard Mudie

Director: Pandro S. Berman