Deedee I don't believe this is a movie that needs serious content evaluation. It was served up as a fun showcase for two of Hollywood's most popular stars and as a celebration of the tuneful talents of Irving Berlin. It delivers on all counts as far as I'm concerned. Henie is always enjoyable with her sparkling skating routines, fresh, unstudied acting approach and lively, dimpled face. In '39, the year Second Fiddle was released, Tyrone Power was by popular vote named "King of Hollywood." He also starred in 2 out of the top four highest-grossing films in that Magic Movie Year, 1939. Power created quite a PR storm having just married Suez co-star Annabella after a string of red-hot PR-promoted affairs with among others, Sonja Henie. Second Fiddle, on the one hand is a send up of the over-the-top publicity surrounding the search to find the perfect Scarlett O'Hara, while equally on the other hand it skewers Golden Era Hollywood's overheated PR habit. I would imagine that for audiences fed on gossip columns and fan magazines of the time you couldn't have done better than to star Henie and Power in a vehicle about "the big Hollywood build up." Viewed from that perspective it is a very funny inside joke indeed. Tyrone plays Jimmy Sutton,the PR wiz, in an easygoing and charming way. He is a natural and partners superbly with the excellent veteran character actress, Edna Mae Oliver. Both are consummately professional yet they really seem to be having fun with each other. Which is why, IMO, their comedic scenes together are as delightful as any put on film. Second Fiddle is full of great Berlin tunes that are imaginatively staged. Co-stars Rudy Vallee and Mary Healy do nicely and contribute to this fun golden oldie. Bubbly and light as air, King Lear it surely was never intended to be!

JohnHowardReid Suggested by the making of "Gone With The Wind", this one promises to be a very pleasant Irving Berlin musical. It certainly opens with all flags flying, and features a very inventively staged rendition of "An Old-Fashioned Tune". With the introduction of Miss Henie, however, the story settles down into the usual romantic complications. These are a little hard to take, since Ty Power is hardly God's gift to young women. With this fact staring everyone in the face, it seems incredible that such disappointingly little use is made of Harry Losee's shooting ensembles. Instead, Leon Shamroy's camera keeps on tracking back to Ty Power. This undoubtedly worked back in 1939, but it makes the movie of little interest to today's audiences. Fortunately, Berlin's pleasant melodies do save the day and, as noted above, I was particularly pleased by the staging of "An Old-Fashioned Tune".

writers_reign This is a pleasant enough diversion which pokes gentle fun at the search for an 'unknown' to play the eponymous role in a film adaptation of a best selling novel. Someone actually gave this more than the customary ten seconds thought because it was released in 1939, the same year as Gone With The Wind, a film that had hogged headlines around the world via its search for the perfect heroine, Scarlett O'Hara; Scarlett was a Southern belle and in Second Fiddle the fictitious novel is The Girl From The North, the North carries connotations of snow and Sonja Henie came from a Northern country, Norway and was herself associated with both snow and ice and as if that were not enough, in Second Fiddle she is a resident of Bergen, Minnesota and Bergen is also, of course, an island off the coast of Norway. So, was it worth all this care. More or less. Publicist Tyrone Power is sent to bring Henie to Hollywood and naturally he falls in love with her but his job obliges him to engineer a 'romance' between Henie and Rudy Vallee, another studio 'property' in need of publicity; we now have a touch of the Cyrano's as Power is not only buying the flowers and candy that Henie thinks is coming from Vallee but is also writing the billed-doux and even goes so far as to compose a ballad, I Poured My Heart Into A Song, ostensibly written by Vallee. Edna May Oliver is also on hand to lob the odd droll asides into the mix and it all ends happily. A diverting 80 minutes or so.

Ron Oliver A publicity agent finds himself playing SECOND FIDDLE when he fabricates a phony romance for a lovely new movie star he secretly adores.Sonja Henie was Norway's ice queen when she won Olympic gold medals in 1928, 1932 & 1936. After going professional, she began a celebrated movie career at 20th Century Fox in 1936 with her American film debut, ONE IN A MILLION. Beautiful & talented, as well as being a natural in front of the cameras, she carved out her own special niche during Hollywood's Golden Age. Although Miss Henie's ice routines may look antiquated by comparison to modern champions, there was nothing antique about her dazzling smile or sparkling personality. In this regard, some of today's snowflake princesses could still learn a great deal from her.As her career progressed, it became increasingly difficult for Fox to find decent stories for Miss Henie and the excuses for the lavish ice dancing numbers were often implausible. No matter. Audiences did not flock to her films to watch Sonja recite Shakespeare. The movies were meant to be pure escapist fantasy, plain & simple.SECOND FIDDLE is no exception and its story is often quite silly. Also, Sonja is not given nearly enough skating time to really satisfy her fans. However, Sonja's costars do offer some compensation.Although the role was certainly not one of his best, Tyrone Power is a lot of fun as the agent who must sublimate his own desires for the good of the Studio. Consequently, he has almost no romantic time with Sonja whatsoever, so instead he makes his somewhat unappealing role as charming as possible. His best moments are with marvelous character actress Edna May Oliver, playing Henie's sharp-tongued aunt, watching rather helplessly as she steals her every scene.Rudy Vallee is onboard mostly to sing a few songs, but he deftly underplays what could have been a boring good guy character and makes him standout well in contrast to the much more manic Power.Lyle Talbot has the small role of Sonja's Minnesota suitor. Movie mavens will recognize the voice of Charles Lane as that of the Studio Chief.Irving Berlin composed the songs, all of which are pleasant, but none of them come close to being counted among his best.Notice the sly script reference to 'Ferdinand.' This would be an allusion to Ferdinand the Bull, the somewhat less than masculine hero of Munro Leaf's 1936 story (and made into an Academy Award winning cartoon by Walt Disney in 1938). Since the line is spoken to Power, it could be that the scriptwriter had more than one inference in mind...Ultimately, though, this is Sonja's show. She glides effortlessly into the viewer's heart, while balancing on a thin edge of silver, suspended over frozen water.