Barkleys of Broadway
Paul Janse (PJanse@compuserve.com)
Sat, 07 Nov 1998 18:07:35 -0500
I just saw the musical "The Barkleys of Broadway", starring Fred Astaire
and Ginger Rogers. An essential part of the plot very much resembles the
end of Franny and Zooey.
This is how it goes: Fred and Ginger are the succesful musical comedy
couple Josh and Dinah Barkley. Some French play director (Bardou or
something) admires Ginger and thinks she should be a drama actress. He
offers her the leading part in a play. Ginger is flattered and thinks Fre=
d
doesn't respect her qualities enough. They quarrel and Ginger is going to=
take part in the play of Bardou. At first Fred, out of resentment, wants
her to be a failure. He visits a rehearsal, sees Bardou misdirecting her
and he decides to help her after all. And here it comes: he calls her a f=
ew
times, imitating Bardou's voice, to give advice for her part in the play.=
Of course it works wonderfully: she is a success and everybody thinks tha=
t
the engagement of Ginger and Bardou will be announced shortly. Fred is
desperate and calls her, still using Bardou's voice, to ask if she loves
Bardou or Josh. Then the real Bardou enters the room, Ginger understands
everything and in the end she and Fred are in each other's arms again.
The thematic resemblance with F&Z is too obvious too explain. I wonder
whether Salinger saw this movie... I seem to remember to have read
somewhere that he loves to see old movies.
Paul Janse