Fred Atwell sneaks away from his famous squadron's personal appearance tour and goes incognito for several days off.Fred Atwell sneaks away from his famous squadron's personal appearance tour and goes incognito for several days off.Fred Atwell sneaks away from his famous squadron's personal appearance tour and goes incognito for several days off.
- Nominated for 2 Oscars
- 2 nominations total
- Pilot
- (uncredited)
- Officer
- (uncredited)
- Canteen Waiter
- (uncredited)
- Officer at Dinner
- (uncredited)
- Dinner Guest
- (uncredited)
- Third Bartender
- (uncredited)
- Jackson - Phil's Butler
- (uncredited)
- Cowboy
- (uncredited)
- Charwoman
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaFred Astaire cut his shins and ankles on the broken glass generated during "One for My Baby".
- GoofsFred Astaire plays a WWII fighter pilot, although he was 44 years old at the time. A typical age for a WWII fighter pilot was half that. Most 44-year-old men who were serving in WWII did so from behind a desk.
- Quotes
Joan Manion: You know, purely in a sociological way, you interest me. A little.
Fred Atwell: Well, it's a beginning, isn't it?
Joan Manion: Don't get me wrong! What interests me is this passion you seem to have for having your picture taken.
Fred Atwell: Let's talk it over.
[to bartender]
Fred Atwell: I'll have the same, please.
Joan Manion: You know, I'm supposed to be taking pictures of celebrities.
Fred Atwell: Couldn't I be the fellow who never gets his name mentioned? The one they call 'a friend'? You know: 'Ginger Rogers - and friend.'
Joan Manion: It's possible but extremely improbable.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Great Performances: The Fred Astaire Songbook (1991)
- SoundtracksMy Shining Hour
(uncredited)
Music by Harold Arlen
Lyrics by Johnny Mercer
Sung by Joan Leslie (dubbed by Sally Sweetland)
Danced by Fred Astaire, Joan Leslie
I also found it surprisingly poignant. It covers a lot of the same ground as films from the same period like "The Clock" and "Since You Went Away" - a compressed courtship between a soldier and a civilian, where they have a very short time between meeting as strangers and the soldier going off to war. These films (which aren't just Hollywood fantasies, they would have been happening to millions of people in real life) have two sources of dramatic uncertainty - firstly the uncertainty about whether they're really getting to know each other or they're just on an emotional roller coaster; and secondly the uncertainty about whether it's fair to get married and run the risk of the civilian being left a widow or spending the rest of her life looking after a severely injured husband. These issues aren't explicitly discussed in "The Sky's the Limit", which is still a romantic comedy, but they're alluded to sufficiently clearly that a contemporary audience would have understood that Astaire's character was very confused, unsure about whether to hit the accelerator or the brake, and wound up enough that he could have gotten drunk and smashed up a bar.
Another striking scene in the movie was a comment Astaire's character made about how one might go to war not for any grand cause but to preserve one's freedom to be a slacker. He was behaving consistently with that declaration in (at least initially) wanting to spend a few days out of uniform, joking around and having fun with a pretty girl. There are questions about whether an actual WW2 fighter pilot on leave would behave that way - I don't know, within the film, I find it plausible enough for suspension of disbelief, and if nothing else it's a nice way of inserting a "why we fight" message about the United States not being a nation of full-time uniformed soldiers, but of civilians who occasionally put on a uniform to defend life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
- How long is The Sky's the Limit?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $871,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 29 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1