YOU'LL NEVER GET RICH (1941)

This first of two films for Columbia that paired Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth is sillier than any of the Astaire/Rogers movies (and they could get pretty silly), and worth watching only for the dancing. Astaire is a dancer who gets entangled in his producer's extramarital intrigues, leading to complications involving his fellow dancer Hayworth. To get out of the situation, he goes to the draft board and gets in the Army (even though he's underweight), but Hayworth and the producer (Robert Benchley) wind up at Astaire's camp to put on a free show. More complications ensue. There's no denying that Astaire and Hayworth have some great dancing moments, but the rest of the movie is stolen by the drily funny Benchley and Frieda Inscourt doing what amounts to an Eve Arden impersonation. A bland nobody named John Hubbard is Astaire's romantic rival; Cliff Nazarro, an expert in double-talk, has a couple of nice moments as a soldier nicknamed "Swivel Tongue." The songs are by Cole Porter, including "Since I Kissed My Baby Goodbye" and "The Wedding Cake March," which includes a snatch of "Night and Day." Astaire does a nifty number in a guardhouse with accompaiment from the Delta Rhythm Boys, an all-black combo. Generally mediocre. It doesn't make me want to see the second Astaire/Hayworth film, YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER, but against my better judgment, I still might. [TCM]