I'm sitting here watching our Fred, clad as a Naval aviator, about to fly off to war in a B-17 at the conclusion of "The Sky's the Limit." Navy guy, B-17, that doesn't compute, but hey, it's the movies! There's young Joan Leslie now blowing him a kiss as he flies off. Pretty typical World War II stuff for RKO.As a movie buff, you've got to give Fred credit for trying to be relevant. Yet it's amusing to read reviews and discussion threads on here regarding "The Sky's the Limit" preaching their "disgust" and how "disturbed" the reviewers are because they know, having learned to read (an accomplishment in our day and age), that he was 44 at the time and she "just" 18. (It's also amusing how we choose our modifiers in the context of and to bolster the points we're trying to make but abandon them like a dead-beat dad when it doesn't suit us!) At one point he's called a "creepy old man stalking" Joan by a poster whose icon seems a better illustration of the point. Yet being an optimist, I am at least glad that these all-knowing judges of society, presumably born in the X generation or later, aren't damning the movie for being shot in hideous and unbearably ancient black-and-white.Okay, Fred's too old for the character, I'll grant you that. Fighter pilots, even former Flying Tigers, were young guys. Most American WWII fighter pilots were a year or two on either side of 21. It was a youngster's game. The pilots in the AVG were somewhat older because they were recruited from the pre-war military, but even most of them hadn't yet seen 30 when the Flying Tigers were disbanded a few months before this film was made.Joan, otoh, always looked a little older than she really was until she crossed that line in moviedom where, like Paulette Goddard, she was then cast as women much younger than she really was. That's how Hollywood was in those days. She was cast for her bubbly personality. She was a persona. Notice in "High Sierra" she wasn't cast in the Ida Lupino role (Ida being 23 to Bogie's "creepy old" 42). Of course, nobody tried to cast Fred as Roy Earle, either--wouldn't that have been a hoot? A dancing gangster!And that's the point. Nobody was billed by their ages or cast because of them. They were who they were. Fred may have been "too old" for his character, but he couldn't do "Holiday Inn" any more, made just one year before, because of the war. With the families and friends of 15 million in the war as an audience for movies, the times demanded relevance, and give him credit for being relevant. "The Sky's the Limit" wasn't intended to be a May-December story--that's YOUR take on it. (Sorry, can't italicize on this board.) He wasn't trying to be Bogie to Audrey Hepburn's Sabrina, or Gary Cooper to Audrey Hepburn's Ariane Chavasse, Grace Kelly's Amy Kane or Suzy Parker's Kate Drummond (of course Suzy was cast in a role she was 6 years TOO OLD for, so that's okay). Btw, Coop' was a helluva guy, no? Lighten up. Director Edward Griffith wasn't promoting dirty old men. Anybody who could dance like Fred was pretty much ageless anyway. It was an interesting, even good flick. If you got distracted, you missed a good one. No screeds here from me about "ageism," although hearing it come out of the mouths of the PC crowd is pretty hilarious.One more thing, completely off point. To the reviewer who chastised the lack of credibility for editing in "World War I" footage of a bi-plane being shot down by our hero in the opening sequence, that was actual footage of a Japanese fighter, over China, being shot down, just a few years before the film was made. It's well known to afficionados of aviation in that era. Cheers!

In the career of Fred Astaire, there are a few films that have been forgotten and are in the shadow of his movies with Ginger Rogers. This is one of them. "The Sky's the Limit" may be, on the surface and at first glance, your average musical, where the leads meet cute and fall in love, have complications, and then there's a happy ending. That may be the case here, but what makes this stand out among others of its ilk, is, #1, the charming Fred Astaire and the sweet Joan Leslie, #2, its outstanding musical numbers, including the show-stopping "One More for My Baby, and One More for the Road" and #3, its outstanding support from actor Robert Benchley, who was a famous humorist from 1928 to 1945. He started out in film shorts and made his way into supporting roles in films. He usually played rich but cheap gentlemen. Sometimes they were jovial and other times had a sour disposition, and sometimes they were know-it-alls, proud of a clever quip they made. But more times than not, he was always making jokes at the expense of himself (a kind of self-deprecating sense of humor), or was being put in embarrassing situations. He had a way about him as to diffuse the embarrassment, but which only seemed to make it worse. I've seen most of Robert Benchley's films, but I will say, that the best footage of him in a feature film can be found here, as he's trying to make a speech in front of a crowd, with a slide show. And, that's saying a lot, because he usually was great in all of his films. If you've never seen "The Sky's the Limit," then find it and see if you agree. It's one of the best of the forgotten films.

Very much in the Fred Astaire canon of the 30's-40's (Fred meets girl, Fred exasperates girl, Fred wins girl over on the dance floor), THE SKY'S THE LIMIT - although uneven - contains some of Astaire's best and most unusual moments on film. It's worth getting past a few jarring notes to access them.In almost every one of his musicals, Fred plays some extension of the same character: the lovestruck, earnest but insouciant sophisticate, and for some reason the standard formula required Fred to annoy the object of his affection upon their initial meeting - and often for some time after. This picture frequently carries the gimmick to inexplicable extremes.The recipient of Fred's love at first sight is magazine photographer Joan Leslie, who although not quite a triple-threat (her singing voice is courtesy of Sally Sweetland, but she could dance and handle both comedy and drama; call her a two-and-a-half threat) is generally up to the task, and projects a maturity far beyond her 18 (yup: 18) years. Supplying able assistance is Robert Benchley as Joan's editor and would-be suitor, who has moments hinting at more depth as an actor than he was usually given an opportunity to display.With Fred portraying a Flying Tiger ace who skips out on a PR tour to enjoy a few days of fun before returning to duty, there are elements of wartime morale-boosting, but only around the edges, and in what sometimes is an almost subversive vein. After enduring a discourse on "how to win this war" from the man who has given him a lift to town, Astaire's only response is, "What's your classification?" "4-F," the man answers, to which Astaire replies, "That's what I thought."In an odd bit of casting, Robert Ryan appears as one of Fred's Air Forces buddies, but takes the script's intended mischief a bit too seriously. In scenes that call for him to merely tease, he practically drips with menace. That quality would serve him well in subsequent films, but here it's one of the aforementioned jarring notes.There's still plenty of fun along the way, and the script is sprinkled with in-jokes, such as references to some of Astaire and Leslie's costars in earlier films, or Benchley's series of celebrated two-reel shorts for MGM in the 30's (Joan tells of a wedding proposal from him that digressed to a lecture about "the sex life of a polyp"). Indeed, Benchley delivers one of his trademark disorganized addresses at a fete honoring an industrialist, and while it brings the story to a halt for a few minutes, you won't really mind if you're a fan. The crown jewel of THE SKY'S THE LIMIT is one of Astaire's best vocalizations of one of the best songs ever written for him, "One For My Baby (and One More For the Road"), along with one of his most adventurous dance solos, in which a night of bar-hopping after a falling-out with Leslie culminates in an explosive choreographic release of frustration and fury, at the posh nightspot where they first met.This may not become one of your favorite Astaire pictures, but there are rewards if you can overlook a few rough spots.

An acceptable wartime interlude for Astaire with some tuneful numbers and some brief great dancing which Joan Leslie shared & obviously enjoyed the challenge. However,with so many stars on various wartime duties Hollywood extended its prewar dream casting.... Former Joan Brodel had barely turned 18 & became the cutest,prettiest of new Warner leads. RKO managed to make her appear far older to be chased by 44-year old Fred who must have felt a bit self conscious in the straight scenes with just one chaste goodbye kiss at fadeout. This situation would have called for some on-screen comments,today! Although as a singer Joan Leslie left something to be desired beside many of her contemporaries she was still a talented actress. One of her more memorable parts was that of the impoverished young cripple in High Sierra doing a mean about-turn on middleaged Bogart after his financing a costly operation to let her dance again. I would have liked to have seen more of my favourite manservant,Eric Blore so amusing in Top Hat. No one could produce a withering remark so feelingly or unctiously.