One of my all time favorites.

Great Film overall

Absolutely brilliant

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Fred Astaire reportedly considered Second Chorus his worst film, and after seeing it I have to agree. Other lesser films like Belle of New York, Let's Dance and Yolanda and the Thief were wildly uneven films but had some great moments between them and utilised Astaire's talents better. Second Chorus is far from a terrible film, but it should have been much better and Astaire fans may find themselves short-changed.Astaire does have the least likable character in his whole career in Second Chorus and he was too old to pass for a flunking college student, but he does make a real effort to bring to the role his usual poise and charm. His dancing is superb, especially in the dancing and conducting the orchestra number Poor Mr Chisholm and the Russian Café Number, though generally there was not enough of his dancing talent in this film, and is charmingly tender in the Academy Award-nominated Love of My Life. Artie Shaw is no great shakes as an actor, but his performing and musical talent cannot be denied and is brilliantly put on display here, especially in the fascinating fantasia Concerto for Clarinet, which has never been performed more excitingly than with Shaw. Paulette Goddard has very little to work with mostly is not the best of dancers, a contender for Astaire's worst partner in this regard, but she looks entrancing and some of her comic timing amuses, would have done even more if the material was stronger.Second Chorus has some nice songs (if nowhere near the most memorable score in an Astaire film), especially Poor Mr Chisholm and Love of my Life, and a whimsical and suitably energetic incidental score. Choreographically, it's not the most inspired but it's far from leaden or amateurish either, while it is not classic Astaire Poor Mr Chisholm is a lot of fun and I Dig It is cleverly choreographed and charmingly danced (even if Paulette Goddard's inexperience as a dancer does show at times here but her personality shines). The 'completely re-written' trumpet solo scene makes for some delicious comedy, the only scene in the film that I found really funny. A large part of me does wish that Me and the Ghost Upstairs was kept in the film, it is a delightful scene and would have been the clear highlight if kept intact, a number so good that it deserved more than just being featured on regional DVDs.Charles Butterworth does bring some pleasing whimsy to his role and is the one character that we feel a small amount of sympathy towards, but mostly the comedy is not very well-written in Second Chorus and even Butterworth struggles in making it funny and some of his humour grates. Burgess Meredith was an immense talent, but here is a role that doesn't do it justice. Meredith is occasionally amusing here in a role where his sense of comedy is not very well-used but his character is even more loathsome and irritatingly grating than Astaire's, another victim of not-so-good writing, and anybody who knows him from his numerous villain roles will find it very difficult to shake off that feeling here.While there is nothing wrong with the music, singing and dancing, there should have been much more of them. It didn't feel enough and occurred too far and between, not a complete waste of Astaire's talents but not giving them anywhere near the amount of justice they should have done. Second Chorus is not a very well-written film, the comedy- with the exception of that one scene- grates far more than it should have sparkled, and the characters fail to be interesting and are very difficult to engage or empathise with, with the small exception of Mr Chisholm. Apart from the I Dig It number, the chemistry between Astaire and Goddard is lacking, it charms in that number but comes across as forced everywhere else, and surprisingly the chemistry between Astaire and Meredith is even flatter and lacks snap, some of it even juvenile in their attempts to sabotage each other. The production values are rather harsh and lacking in crispness and further disadvantaged by some pretty bad to dreadful regional DVD quality, with a lot of murk and jitter and some hissy sound quality. Where Second Chorus most falls down is in the wafer-thin and often insultingly ridiculous story, with pacing that was in serious need of a sharp kick sometimes and the ending is a little confused.To conclude, a not terrible but lacklustre film where it is easy to see why Astaire would consider it his weakest. But even lesser or off-form Astaire is still watchable, and you can do with far worse. 5/10 Bethany Cox

The rise in popularity of jazz band leaders performing in nightclubs in the 1930s and 1940s extended to their appearing in films as themselves doing their thing and sometimes also acting as sidekick or nemesis to the film's real Hollywood stars. In this case, Artie Shaw is convinced by lovely manageress Paulette Goddard to try out the services of trumpet players (and perennial university-flunkers!) Fred Astaire and Burgess Meredith but, given the rivalry resulting from their choice of instrument and mutual feelings for Goddard herself, they end up sabotaging each other's chances for both spots. In fact, Goddard hooks up with eccentric millionaire Charles Butterworth in the hopes of getting him to finance Shaw's tour after she becomes the latter's own manager. The film is certainly nothing special as both a musical or a romantic comedy but is harmless enough overall to provide middling entertainment value for 84 minutes: an especially amusing episode shows a down-on-his-luck Astaire doing a Russian folk dance in a cabaret and, for the record, it was the first of 3 films that the future husband-and-wife team of Meredith and Goddard made together – a partnership that culminated in Jean Renoir's severely underrated Hollywood version of THE DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID (1946).

Even for a Fred Astaire film, this movie had a ridiculous plot. At 41 years of age, we are meant to believe that Fred is a perennial college student in his mid-twenties, who has just graduated and is vying with his ex-room-mate (Burgess Meredith) both for a job with Artie Shaw's band and the affections of Paulette Goddard.The songs are few and far between, and (with the exception of "Poor Mr. Chislom") not very good. Even more surprising, there is virtually no dancing -- with more scenes, instead, focusing on Astaire doing a very bad mime of playing the trumpet.The characters all come across as selfish, and things which are meant to be viewed as harmless pranks appear nasty and needlessly hurtful. By the end of the movie, you have not developed a level of empathy for any of them -- except perhaps for Paulette Goddard, who really shines in this movie as a great comic actress and foil for much of the movie. See it for her role, but most of Astaire's other movies are much better.

A generally-entertaining story that was fun to watch, except for a number of parts in the final 30 minutes which annoyed me. It was, well, the normal lying and deceiving that was played out in so many films of this era, and is so many of Fred Astaire's movies.Speaking of Astaire, I watch his films to see him dance. That's what he does best, so it was disappointing not to see much of that in "Second Chorus."Although I thought Charles Butterworth's character was stupid, I really enjoyed seeing a young Burgess Meredith and it's always a treat to see Paulette Goddard, one of the real beauties of the 1940s. Overall, this was a good- hearted story and when Astaire danced, he was fantastic, as always.The songs are in here are good and band-leader Artie Shaw even showed he could act, too. I liked this despite poor tape quality. I see that this is out on DVD so I might consider purchasing this, even though Astaire himself has been quoted as saying "Second Chorus" was his "worst movie." Ouch!