The Sky's the Limit

The Sky's the Limit (1943)

Here's a thrill, new and gay! It's a dance filled holiday!

Flying Tiger Fred Atwell sneaks away from his famous squadron's personal appearance tour and goes incognito for several days of leave. He quickly falls for photographer Joan Manion, pursuing her in the guise of a carefree drifter.

Date of release
1943-07-13
TMDB
6.3 / 10 (22)
Runtime
1h 29m
Genres
Comedy, Romance, Music
Director
Edward H. Griffith

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: Pinewood Studios
  • Awards: 0 · Nominations: 1

The Sky's The Limit is a 1943 romantic musical comedy film starring Fred Astaire and Joan Leslie, with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Johnny Mercer. The film was directed by Edward H. Griffith, and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Astaire plays a Flying Tiger pilot on leave. Robert T. Smith, a real former Flying Tiger pilot on leave before joining the Army Air Forces, was the technical adviser on the film. The comedy is provided by Robert Benchley — his second appearance in an Astaire picture — and Eric Blore, a stalwart from the early Astaire-Rogers pictures.

Production

The story line was taken from a Saturday Evening Post story about an attractive young woman from Texas who was an assistant/employee/(lover?) of an older man prominent in New York City literary circles. In the story, the young woman leaves her glamorous job to marry a young man who is going off to World War II. This character is altered a good bit to fit Fred Astaire in the movie.

All dances were choreographed by and credited to Astaire alone, an unusual departure for him, as he generally worked with collaborators. What is not unusual is the selection of dance routines, which is the standard Astaire formula of a comic partnered routine, a romantic partnered routine and a "sock" solo, each of which is integrated into the plot.

"My Shining Hour" (song): Arlen and Mercer's simple and hymn-like wartime ballad, the picture's signature song, is mimed by Joan Leslie (dubbed here by Sally Sweetland) against the backdrop of a band whose instruments are framed with illuminated neon outlines. It became a hit, albeit slowly.

"A Lot in Common With You": Astaire muscles in on Leslie's (using her own voice this time) on-stage song-and-dance routine, which develops into a mock competitive comic side-by-side tap dance using a range of leg-before-leg hurdling steps, some of which had been developed for "The Shorty George" number in You Were Never Lovelier, but had not been used.

The tabletop snake dance: Performed by Astaire at the behest of Robert Ryan's character.

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