davjazzer
This film features a generous sampling of Woody Herman's 1943 Band. This was just before the famous Herd with Red Norvo,Sonny Berman,Chubby Jackson,Margie Hyams,Dave Tough et.al. Prominent in this Band are trumpeter-vocalist Billie Rogers,who would soon start her own Band,the great tenor man Vido Musso,trumpeter Chuck Petersen and drummer Frankie Carlsen. Woody gets to sing some songs including the title tune and we see a glimpse of his girl singer,Carolyn Grey in the "Dancing in the Dawn" number.The film itself is pretty weak and with Sonja in the lead,comparisons to "Sun Valley Serenade" are inevitable. All in all,a nice showcase for a Herman band in transition.
TheLittleSongbird
Not one of the best films starring the always watchable Sonja Henie, but also not among the worst either. If anything somewhere in the middle, being a decent film but lacking in a few areas that stop it from being even better.Henie truly dazzles in her ice skating routines, with the energetic and graceful choreography it is an absolute pleasure watching her. She charms as an actress too. SZ Sakall is amusing, while Carole Landis is hilarious and Cesar Romero bags the best lines and overall material. 'Wintertime' boasts a light-hearted and often very funny script, if sometimes a little heavy on the clichés.It's beautifully filmed in black and white and the sets and costumes are suitably lavish. The music is very pleasant, with inspired use of Tchaikovsky's "Waltz of the Flowers" and "Later Tonight" coming off best of the songs, and works well within the film and on its own very well.On the other hand, the story is silly, as thin as ice and sometimes lacks momentum and charm. Two performances also don't come off. Jack Oakie (who has been much better and funnier before) overdoes it, with his blustering coming across as obnoxious, while Cornel Wilde has nothing to do and it shows in his bland and charmless performance and nondescript chemistry with the rest of the cast.To conclude, dazzles in many components while also floundering in a few. 6/10 Bethany Cox
weezeralfalfa
Soon after publishing this review, Fox finally came out with a DVD release of this superior Sonja Henie-starring film, which they show periodically on their movie channel. I wasn't expecting too much, but rate it up there close to "Sun Valley Serenade", which combined Sonja with the Glenn Miller band and is one of my favorite musicals from the '40s. The two films have different strengths, In SVS, Sonja engineered most of the comedy and romance. Skiing, as well as ice skating, was a prominent part of the story. Singing and orchestration were more prominent, although the present film does feature Woody Herman's band at times. Her romantic relationship with John Payne's character is much more fun than the rather unconvincing and uninteresting relationship with Cornel Wilde's character in the present film. On the other hand, comedy engineered by the male supporting players in the present film is far superior to that offered by Milton Berle and is the chief reason you might want to watch this film. Cesar Romero does his best to imitate Charlie Chaplin's style of comedy, while veteran Jack Oakie gives one of his best non-musical performances, with his mostly verbally oriented comedy. (Yes, I know some viewers consider him more irritating than funny). With his plump stocky build, he will probably remind you of a blend of Oliver Hardy and Jackie Gleason, contrasting with Cesar's suave tall trim physique and ideal Latin matinée idol looks. We have yet a third charismatic comedian in S.Z. 'Cuddles' Sakal: that portly irascible white-haired elderly gentleman of many a musical and other films of the '40s and '50s, with the thick European accent and fractured English. Actually, Cornel Wilde; the pretty boy hunk leading man Sonja falls for, also began life in Hungary, but emigrated to the US as a boy, thus leaving no discernible trace of his native speech.As I said, Cornel, as Freddie, part owner of a decrepit , once glorious, isolated hotel in Quebec, comes across as a colorless pretty boy for Sonja, thus garners an incredibly low 6th spot in the credits pecking order. Cesar(as Brad) would seem a much more exciting prospect for Sonja. In fact, she agrees to marry this US citizen so that she can legally enter the US and make a fortune in ice skating shows. However, in the Fox formula for its musicals, Cesar never ends up with the leading lady. Hence, Jack Oakie, as Skip, Freddie's hotel partner, learns of this secret scheme and foils their escape from the hotel by stealing all of Cesar's clothes and personal effects while he's in the shower, resulting in a series of hilarious episodes by Cesar. Cesar's antics surpass those in the previous "Weekend in Havana", in which he is caught between Carmen Miranda and Alice Faye. You see, Sonja and uncle Hjalmar(Sakal) came to Quebec so she could participate in the winter sports games. Hjalmar is a rich Norwegian and is railroaded into investing money in this hotel to hopefully restore it to its heyday condition. Now, he has lots of bills , but learns that the Nazis have recently taken over Norway and frozen his bank accounts. Hence, the need for a speedy way for Sonja to get into the US to make money to save the hotel from bankruptcy. Sonja has competition in the romance department from Helene Reynolds, as sports magazine reporter Marion Daly. Carole Landis, as Flossie, is also mixed in the romance merry go round as someone Cesar is hiding from("Where is tall, dark, and elusive?"). Of course, the finale suggests that she ends up with Cesar and Sonja with Cornel, by stealth.Most of Sonja's ice skating performances are bunched in the middle of the film, with interludes mostly involving Herman's band, sited next to the skating pond. The first is done to "Indian Love Call" music, another to Tchaikovsky's familiar "Waltz of the Flowers". Her final performance is at the end of the film, done to the theme song "Wintertime". The new songs were composed by the veteran Nacio Herb Brown, and lyrics by the veteran Leo Robin. Brown did his best work in the late '20s and '30s for MGM. Much of the best was later collected in the mega-hit "Singing in the Rain"Sonja doesn't come across as cuddly as in SVS. She seems more like a wide-eyed schemer in this one. Reportedly, she privately was not that nice a person. ..This was not the first Sonja film for Cesar nor Jack, though they had not been cast together. Poor Carol Landis, who spent so much time entertaining the GIs in person during WWII, would decide in a few years that her frustrating romantic relationships, inability to bare a child, downward-turning film career, and various chronic health problems warranted her exiting from her life at age 29.Would be nice if Fox collected all, or most, of Sonja's films they did, and release them as a DVD collection.
