If you are watching this movie expecting a great melodrama starring two stars and with an interesting plot then you will most probably be disappointed. It is not a great film with great script and great performances but mainly a skating show with a variety of skating numbers performed by the ice skating stars of the International Ice Follies to compete with Sonja Henie's skating musicals from rival studios. And because of that and despite of, the film contains a poor plot but beautiful and creative skating numbers; among the bests of them is the indian one (containing beautiful ice skating angel figure in its beginning) and the spicy red riding hood one in the technicolor sequence at the end of the film. Sadly, camera angles to take the skating routines are not always the best to film skaters in action, on the contrary to what happened in Henie's films. It is a pity that the studio did not include some skating routines for the three main characters, specially considering that all of them play professional skaters and that James Stewart & Lew Ayres appear in skating suits in a promocional still that can be seen in the movie as a poster in their room. By the way, the cinderella big blue ball gown in the final technicolor sequence must have been the inspiration for recent cinderella movie dress.

The Ice Follies of 1939 (1939) ** (out of 4) There's really no way around it but this is a very, very bad and stupid movie. You might wonder why I can say that and still award the film two stars but it's simply because no matter how bad this things get, you still can't help but be slightly entertained by the train wreck and especially when you consider it has Joan Crawford and James Stewart. In the film they play a married couple. He's an expert on the ice but she isn't so her lack of skills cause their careers to tumble. She eventually gets a job as an actress and makes it big but she must keep her marriage a secret. While that's going on he's making it big in Canada. Will the two bring their careers together? A lot of musicals and specialty films would often include the year in the title because studios would just continue to make them. You'll notice that 1939 was the only year for ICE FOLLIES and it's easy to see why because this thing is pretty darn bad. What's so shocking is that someone like Crawford would appear in a film like this because the material is clearly "B" movie material and you also have to consider that the same year she would appear in THE WOMEN. Stewart wasn't a major star yet so it's easy to see why he would take this. I really can't say they made a believable couple but at the same time I still enjoyed seeing them together. It appears Crawford hated playing this part as her performance is really bad at times. Even Stewart was wrong for his role but I'm sure everyone remembers the yell he gave in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE once he saw he was back in Bedford Falls. Well, he gives the exact same yell here, which was pretty funny. Both Lew Ayres and Lewis Stone are also on hand. The finale was shot in 3-strip Technicolor and it looks marvelous but sadly nothing we're watching is all that entertaining. THE ICE FOLLIES OF 1939 is a real dud of a picture but those who enjoy bad movies will want to check it out.

Ice Follies of 1939 involves a trio of professional skaters, Joan Crawford, James Stewart, and Lew Ayres who have some creative differences and the act breaks up temporarily. So do Crawford and Stewart who are a romantic item.This was Stewart and Crawford's second film together, the first was The Gorgeous Hussy in which Stewart was only a supporting player. It's too bad that neither of them got anything better. I also can't put this any better, the three of them look plain ridiculous on skates and they probably felt just as ridiculous.This film was the brainchild of Louis B. Mayer who looked green with envy over at 20th Century Fox and the money that Darryl F. Zanuck was making with Sonja Henie. I say 'with' and not 'off of' Sonja Henie because Ms. Henie was a star before she signed a contract with Zanuck and Zanuck paid her dearly for her services. Something I'm not sure Mayer was prepared to do.To gloss over the trite backstage story, MGM did import a whole load of the top ice acts circa 1939 other than Sonja Henie. Interesting to see them and Sonja and compare them to Nancy Kerrigan or Johnny Weir or the infamous Tonya Harding.Fortunately the next films for Stewart and Crawford were, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and The Women. The future was going to get better for both.

This is one of those horrible films that sounds so bizarre it holds the promise of actually being good in a bad way when one finally finds it on television. It doesn't deliver on any level, though. The whole notion of Stewart and Crawford as ice skating stars is hilarious. But they are never really shown skating at any point in the film. What's left is a hackneyed, contrived plot about them falling in love and then separating to follow their careers. He tries to create the first Ice Follies and she (quite easily!) becomes a major film star. The actual Ice Follies troupe shows up in the middle of the film to do a few twirls and spins. The whole thing is capped by a 3-strip Technicolor finale featuring massive quantities of skaters and Joan in a humongous ball gown singing a forgettable song. It's so rare to see early Joan in color, yet she is given no close-ups. Joan was supposed to sing three songs in the film, but two of them were cut. She dons a black Hedy Lamarr-style wig for a lot of the film which gives her a distinctive, if not natural for her, look. Even though the film is ludicrous and trite, money WAS spent on it. The banquet scene in which Crawford gives a speech is lavish in it's decor and her clothes, though often bizarre, are also expensive. (One scene has her in a kooky art deco headdress which makes her look like a parking meter come to life.) This film is of note these days primarily because it's the film "Joan" is being made up for at the beginning of "Mommie Dearest". If not for that plug, it may have fallen into even greater obscurity than it already was. One of her hilarious recollections from the book Conversations with Joan Crawford was, "Christ! We all must have been out of our collective minds!" She describes how she and Stewart "skated around on our ankles". She tried to inject some flair and life into the film, but it was doomed on the page. Fortunately, "The Women" was on the horizon to keep her in good stead.