Blu-ray, DVD Release: Swing Time

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: June 11, 2019
Price: DVD $22.69, Blu-ray $27.99
Studio: Criterion

In the simply irresistible 1936 musical Swing Time, the legendary dancing duo Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers are at the pinnacle of their art as a feckless gambler and the shrewd dancing instructor in whom he more than meets his match.

The great director George Stevens (Woman of the Year) laces their romance with humor and clears the floor for the movie’s showstopping dance scenes, in which Astaire and Rogers take seemingly effortless flight in a virtuosic fusion of ballroom and tap styles.

Buoyed by beloved songs by Dorothy Fields and Jerome Kern—including the Oscar-winning classic “The Way You Look Tonight”—Swing Time is an exuberant celebration of its stars’ chemistry, grace, and sheer joy in the act of performance.

Criterion’s gorgeous new editions of the classic include the following:

• New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentary from 1986 featuring John Mueller, author of Astaire Dancing: The Musical Films
• Archival interviews with performers Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and choreographer Hermes Pan
• New interview with George Stevens Jr.
• In Full Swing, a new program on the film’s choreography and soundtrack featuring jazz and film critic Gary Giddins, dance critic Brian Seibert, and Dorothy Fields biographer Deborah Grace Winer
• New interview with film scholar Mia Mask on the “Bojangles of Harlem” number
• An essay by critic Imogen Sara Smith