Just watched this on the double-bill dvd with "Birth of the Blues."<br /><br />This one is far from a keeper. It is better than the companion feature, but that is damming with faint praise. Crosby is his usual likable self and Astaire saves the film from total disaster. Every time he does a number we get an inkling of this umpteenth Irving Berlin "songbook"could have been. Crosby and Astaire shine in a wonderful tribute to vaudeville, "A Couple of Song and Dance Men," and Astaire dazzles in the great "Puttin' On the Ritz." The reviewer who knocked Joan Caulfield's performance should have skewered the terrible screenplay, which requires Caulfield to shuffle like a dim-wit between Crosby and Astaire. With a part like that, we would have hated Ingrid Bergman. This was to have been Astaire's final film, but he came out of retirement a year or so later to co-star in "Easter Parade" and finally do a never topped Berlin "songbook" that includes "Steppin' Out With My Baby," one of Astaire's greatest moments. The great howler in this film is that Astaire is supposed to be drunk while doing two incredible dance numbers. Right, he acts soooo drunk. No wonder he retired. When-oh-when will "Easter Parade" be on dvd so I can jump to the musical numbers and skip the totally predictable story.