A Damsel in Distress

OSCAR WINNER: Best Dance Direction Fred Astaire sails across the pond to meet damsel in distress Joan Fontaine and delightful (if unlikely) dance partners George Burns and Gracie Allen in a musical co-scripted by master wit P.G. Wodehouse and directed by George Stevens (“Swing Time”). The helium-light story concerns servants running a betting pool on the marriage prospects of a fetching aristocrat (guess who wins her hand). The elegant George and Ira Gershwin score includes two standards forever associated with Astaire, “A Foggy Day” and “Nice Work If You Can Get It,” plus one of Hollywood’s cleverest song-and-dances: the Academy Award-winning Fun House number, which sends Astaire, Burns and Allen cavorting among chutes, mirrors, moving floors and rolling barrels.