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Broadway Melody Of 1940Broadway Melody of 1940 was a American movie musical starring Fred Astaire, Eleanor Powell and George Murphy. It was directed by Norman Taurog and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In the film, the three stars play dancers in New York. Astaire and Murphy dance in nightclubs, while Powell plays a major Broadway star. A love triangle emerges when the three find themselves working in the same production. The film is best remembered for the only on-screen pairing of Astaire and Powell, who were considered the finest movie musical dancers of their time. Astaire was reportedly slightly intimidated by Powell, as she was considered one of the few female dancers capable of out-performing Astaire. The highlight of the film is the duo's dance performance to Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine", which included a lengthy passage in which the two tap danced with no musical backing. This segment was later a highlight of the 1974 documentary That's Entertainment!. Other musical numbers in the film included: "I Concentrate On You", "Please Don't Monkey with Broadway", "Between You and Me", and "I've Got My Eyes on You" by Porter, as well as "All Ashore" by Roger Edens and the "Jukebox Dance" by Walter Ruick. This was the fourth and final film in MGM's Broadway Melody series which began with the original The Broadway Melody released in 1929, and was followed by Broadway Melody of 1936 and Broadway Melody of 1938. The films were unconnected except for the use of the song "Broadway Melody" (although the 1940 entry did not feature the number), and the fact that Powell starred in three of them (playing different roles in each). A fifth Broadway Melody film was planned for release in the early 1940s, pairing Eleanor Powell with Gene Kelly, but production was cancelled at the rehearsal stage. The 1940 entry is considered Powell's last major successful film, as she would go on to appear in a succession of only moderate hits before retiring from the screen several years later. The movie is alluded to in satirist Tom Lehrer 's "George Murphy", a song about the dancer becoming a United States Senator, saying: "Think of all the musicals we have in store. / Imagine: Broadway Melody of Nineteen Eighty-Four".
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