The movie features Fred Astaire, as charming conman, Johnny Parkson; Lucille Bremer as the virginal and incredibly rich, Yolanda; Frank Morgan as fellow conman, Victor Budlow Trout (Is that a great name, or what?); Mildred Natwick as Yolanda's match making aunt, Amarilla; and Leon Ames as the mysterious Mr. Candle.

The plot revolves around Johnny Parkson(Astaire) who, in order to to get the innocent Yolanda's (Bremer)huge fortune has hatched a plot to convince her that he's her guardian angel. Having spent her entire life in a convent, Yolanda is easily persuaded that he is indeed the angelic being he presents himself as and gives Johny every reason to believe his scheme will succeed without a hitch. Soon, however, Victor Trout (Morgan) must try and keep the con game going when it becomes obvious that Johnny is falling in love with Yolanda and may be faltering in his quest to get her millions. Yolanda is also doing battle with her less than pure thoughts. After all, it's a no-no- to fall in love with an angel, or so she assumes. All the while, Aunt Amarilla (Natwick) unaware of her niece's belief in Johnny's angelic nature, does her best to get the two together in a very human sort of way. While all of this is unfolding, the mysterious cigar smoking, Mr. Candle (Ames) keeps appearing and always at the most inopportune moments, making Johnny and Trout's scheme even more difficult to pull off. But, in a fanciful twist near the close of the movie, we discover that when it comes to understanding an angels heart, no one can hold a candle to Mr. Candle, giving us...as in all fairy tales (as this indeed is) the expected happy ending.

Now, plot aside, this is after all a Fred Astaire musical and this is where things get dicey. One of the primary reasons this film had difficulty taking off at the box office is its surrealistic look and feel. Scene after scene has the intentional appearance of a Salvador Dali painting, the most notable being a 15-minute ballet sequence in which Astaire confronts his conflicted feelings for Yolanda. Absolutely gorgeous to look at in all its brilliant Technicolor glory, it was just too far out for the movie going public of the mid 1940s to accept. Fans of Fred wanted classic Astaire and this was anything but. To add to the mix, this was one of the few times when someone other than Astaire did his choreography...and although Eugene Loring was one of the best choreographers in Hollywood at this time, his style was quite different from Astaires and it shows. Having said this, Astaire's dancing is still breath taking, as is Lucille Bremer's and they compliment each other perfectly. A relative unknown at the time, Yolanda was only Bremer's second movie, having played Judy Garland's older sister the previous year in another Vincent Minnelli classic, Meet Me in St. Louis. Now, I've read other reviews that criticize Bremer's acting ability, calling it wooden and stilted. But, give the gal a break here. She's playing an unworldly, virginal young woman who has been raised by nuns, for God's sake (no pun intended). Her acting abilities were less than award winning, I grant you, but not bad by half considering she was trained as a singer and dancer and had acted in only one other major role. As for the music, I love it. The words and music were written by Harry Warren and Arthur Freed, and all of it memorable, with the best musical number by far being "Coffee Time". This particular dance sequence is absolutely hypnotic and not just because of the music either. Wait until you get a load of the optical illusion style floor they dance on!

With costumes by Irene, set design by Cedric Gibbons, direction by Vincent Minnelli and of course the incredible artistry of the master, Fred Astaire, this is a "must see" movie. And once you're done watching, you won't feel halfway about it either. You'll either love, or hate it. My bet is on love. And even if I'm wrong in my assumption, a film that can generate such strong feelings in either direction is a film worth watching. If you are reluctant to buy Yolanda right now, at least do yourself the favor of renting it, or seeing when Turner Classic Movies is running it again. It's well worth the effort.