Fresne's review prompted me to find Fred's performance of Arlen and Mercer's "One For My Baby":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD7sqGJ3NBg
(Fred's dancing ends at 5:45.)
The word "amazing" is overused but I think it's appropriate in this case. He always made it look so easy -- after weeks of rehearsal!
Thanks for posting that link, I really enjoyed watching it. Apart from Mr Astaire's performance, I was just sitting here "imagining" my Dad watching this exact scene in the cinema in Cairo (during the war) on his 33rd Birthday, on 14th January 1945.
See the separate thread on here, entitled "14th January 1945".
Thanks very much!
Astaire does an amazing drunk dance in the movie "Holiday Inn"; a year before this movie came out. It was the 1st time Bing Crosby sang White Christmas and the song + movie were so popular that the movie "White Christmas" was made in 1954. (I don't know why it took 11 years. Maybe the song didn't catch on immediately. An insane number of that song have been, and are still being, sold.) They couldn't get Astaire the 2nd time and got Danny Kaye to be the buddy.
In "Holiday Inn", Astaire drank two bourbons before his first take. Then he drank one before each subsequent take. There were seven takes. His dance is incredible, especially considering that he really was drunk! It's a flawless number and crazy as he dances through a crowd celebrating New Year's Eve. If you appreciate Astaire's dancing you have to see that number.
As an aside, the guy who started the Holiday Inn hotel chain took it's name from the movie.