Carefree (1938)
Country: US
Technical: bw 83m
Director: Mark Sandrich
Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Ralph Bellamy, Luella Gear, Jack Carson
Synopsis:
A dull and serially jilted lawyer introduces his long-suffering fiancée to his psychiatrist chum to get to the bottom of her indecision. When after an experiment with rich food she dreams she is in love with him instead, the psychiatrist has a pang of guilt and hypnotises her to the effect that she isn't. Then he regrets that, too.
Review:
With its fussily handwritten credits on a pane of misted glass, this not just thinly but preposterously plotted light comedy marked the end of the stars' romcom partnership at RKO (The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle was a biopic). A psychiatrist who tap-dances, an ingénue who downs Tyroleans one-handed with a shotgun... but then the screwball touches are quite endearing and the Irving Berlin numbers as good as ever ('Since They Turned Lock Lomond into Swing', 'Won't You Change Partners and Dance with Me?'). Gear replaces Helen Broderick as the sardonic friend 'of a certain age', and has fun flirting with Carson and putting her husband, the judge, in his place ('Siddown, Joe, you know I don't dance at your age!'). Up front, Astaire is much the same as usual, while Rogers trades up on the madcap antics and only gets a couple of dance numbers, both of which are diegetic.
Country: US
Technical: bw 83m
Director: Mark Sandrich
Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Ralph Bellamy, Luella Gear, Jack Carson
Synopsis:
A dull and serially jilted lawyer introduces his long-suffering fiancée to his psychiatrist chum to get to the bottom of her indecision. When after an experiment with rich food she dreams she is in love with him instead, the psychiatrist has a pang of guilt and hypnotises her to the effect that she isn't. Then he regrets that, too.
Review:
With its fussily handwritten credits on a pane of misted glass, this not just thinly but preposterously plotted light comedy marked the end of the stars' romcom partnership at RKO (The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle was a biopic). A psychiatrist who tap-dances, an ingénue who downs Tyroleans one-handed with a shotgun... but then the screwball touches are quite endearing and the Irving Berlin numbers as good as ever ('Since They Turned Lock Lomond into Swing', 'Won't You Change Partners and Dance with Me?'). Gear replaces Helen Broderick as the sardonic friend 'of a certain age', and has fun flirting with Carson and putting her husband, the judge, in his place ('Siddown, Joe, you know I don't dance at your age!'). Up front, Astaire is much the same as usual, while Rogers trades up on the madcap antics and only gets a couple of dance numbers, both of which are diegetic.
Country: US
Technical: bw 83m
Director: Mark Sandrich
Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Ralph Bellamy, Luella Gear, Jack Carson
Synopsis:
A dull and serially jilted lawyer introduces his long-suffering fiancée to his psychiatrist chum to get to the bottom of her indecision. When after an experiment with rich food she dreams she is in love with him instead, the psychiatrist has a pang of guilt and hypnotises her to the effect that she isn't. Then he regrets that, too.
Review:
With its fussily handwritten credits on a pane of misted glass, this not just thinly but preposterously plotted light comedy marked the end of the stars' romcom partnership at RKO (The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle was a biopic). A psychiatrist who tap-dances, an ingénue who downs Tyroleans one-handed with a shotgun... but then the screwball touches are quite endearing and the Irving Berlin numbers as good as ever ('Since They Turned Lock Lomond into Swing', 'Won't You Change Partners and Dance with Me?'). Gear replaces Helen Broderick as the sardonic friend 'of a certain age', and has fun flirting with Carson and putting her husband, the judge, in his place ('Siddown, Joe, you know I don't dance at your age!'). Up front, Astaire is much the same as usual, while Rogers trades up on the madcap antics and only gets a couple of dance numbers, both of which are diegetic.