Wow, those three synchronized aligned figure skaters really are performed by stunt doubles, rather than Young, Grant and Gleason?

You'd never know that stunt doubles really do know how to do everything as professionally as the real things.

Well, they certainly do a wonderful job whether or not Young, Grant or Gleason really do or do not know how to skate or not, right?

Except for the more difficult steps/moves Grant did his own skating.

@bratface said:

Except for the more difficult steps/moves Grant did his own skating.

All of the long shots were done by doubles for Grant (wearing a mask with Grant's features) and Young. Grant objected, but I think the result is probably better.

I newly got the DVD recently, finally viewed it yesterday, and paid super-close attention to the skating scenes, playing them a bit enlarged.

The Grant skating does, indeed, look like the person involved in long-shot scenes is him, as that particular skater skates face to camera (although at a far distance), in normal lighting, multiple times. From a distance, the face looks sufficiently like Grant's, though somehow the body type seems a bit unlike his. I was left feeling somewhat "on the fence" about that skater, and now see, Zurich, that you mentioned the person was wearing a Grant mask, which explains.

Meanwhile, all the long shots involving (supposedly) Young or Gleason involve the skaters making a major point to keep their faces turned away from the camera, otherwise their heads tilted downward or away, into shadows that obscure their faces. Likewise, the "Young" and "Gleason" skaters (unlike the Grant one) are dressed in bulkier costuming, including hats. The extent those two skaters (each who did a great job) went out of their way to avoid getting their faces on camera served to a bit give away that they were doubles.

Fun part of the movie, for sure.

Yes, the skating was done almost exclusively by professionals/stunt doubles, one wearing a Grant mask. A few scenes used the actors when just coasting for a short distance. Close-ups on actors' faces were done mostly w/them stationary, with rear-screen projection of moving background making them appear to be moving.

The film has an excellent pedigree, with five writers, including Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett (both uncredited), and four-time Pulitzer Prizewinning playwright Robert E. Sherwood (who also won an Oscar for his screenplay for "The Best Years of Our Lives"); cinematography by the great Gregg Toland; and Sam Goldwyn producing. (Sadly, Sherwood would live only eight more years, dying of a heart attack at age 59 in 1955--a tremendous loss to the entertainment industry.)

Originally they shot some film w/Grant and Niven in switched roles using a different director. When Goldwyn saw the early footage, he stepped in, replaced the director and reshot everything w/the roles as we see them today at an added cost of about a million dollars (a lot of money in those days). I think the result of the retooling is probably a far superior outcome, although Grant was initially not pleased w/the character switch.