oscaralbert Review of The Ice Follies of 1939

The Ice Follies of 1939 (1939)

Whereas the "Dorothy Gale Adventure" ends in Black & White . . .

[6/10 · 19 March 2018]

. . . after an hour plus of glorious WIZARD OF OZ Technicolor, the very film studio that released OZ foisted off upon the paying public this El Cheapo Skid Row fantasy that same year with a dingy hour plus of lackluster Black & White, followed by a stingy smidgen of Technicolor to wrap things up. The icing on THE ICE FOLLIES OF 1939 cake comes during this incoherent slap-dash closing, when the "J.F. Crawford" character lords it over six Black apparent slaves carrying her dress train as a dozen Southern Belles in GONE WITH THE WIND hoop skirts and ice skates look on and titter. A quartet of Cowardly Lions then skate around in ancient judges' wigs, the Lollipop Guild does a cameo to show off a growth spurt, female Native Americans glide in circles decked out in Chiefs' headdresses while their male tribal counterparts are demeaned by costumes including silver brassieres, a cow can get only one leg off the ice "jumping" over the moon as the cat fiddles away, and the bagpipes promised by ICE FOLLIES' theatrical trailer are nowhere to be seen. Instead of making girls think "You ought to be in pictures," ICE FOLLIES probably was enough to make a gal lament, "I ought to have stayed in Dirty Pictures."