The Timeliness of Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers

In debating the importance of classic black and white vs. color films in this article, the importance of Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers movies was mentioned:

"As for musicals, sure, you can name glorious Technicolor examples—adaptations of Broadway fare like The Music Man, My Fair Lady, and Oliver!, along with such originals as Singin’ in the Rain and An American in Paris. Yet even these take second place to nine black-and-white Fred Astaire–Ginger Rogers movies. Almost every great songwriter journeyed west to work with Astaire in the pre-color period, among them Irving Berlin, the Gershwins, and Cole Porter. Berlin, usually parsimonious with praise, said, 'You give Fred Astaire a song, and you could forget about it. If he did change anything, he made it better.'

So did Rogers. Astaire danced with other women in other movies, but the magic was no longer there. No matter how farcical or chaotic the plot, Astaire and Rogers established an island of elegance and passion. Their dancing 'was a vehicle of serious emotion between a man and a woman,' dance critic Arlene Croce observed. 'It never happened in the movies again.'"