Product Details

• Actors: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Ralph Bellamy, Luella Gear, Jack Carson
• Directors: Mark Sandrich
• Writers: Allan Scott, Dudley Nichols, Ernest Pagano, Guy Endore, Hagar Wilde
• Producers: Pandro S. Berman
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Rated: Unrated
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Turner Home Ent
• VHS Release Date: May 4, 1999
• Run Time: 83 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302010497
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #272,240 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video

Perhaps because it was Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers's penultimate picture together for RKO, or perhaps because it is more romantic comedy than musical, Carefree tends to be a neglected entry in the series. This is unfortunate, because it retains many of the elements that made the duo so popular while also breaking new ground. Fred plays Tony Flagg, a psychoanalyst who is asked by his friend Steve (Ralph Bellamy) to try to figure out why his fiancée, Amanda Cooper (Ginger), keeps breaking off their engagement. During the course of treatment, and in a reversal of the usual pattern, Ginger falls for Fred and begins to pursue him. The emotionally repressed doctor resists, leading to a number of comic encounters, as well as a moment of genuine heartbreak. Other innovations include Fred's dance on a driving range, a slow-motion dream sequence (which was going to be shot in color until budget concerns won out), Fred and Ginger's first screen kiss, and some of Ginger's best turns as a comic actress. More familiar elements include Ginger fronting the band at the start of a large company dance number ("The Yam," which failed to catch on as a dance craze), an expert if skimpy Irving Berlin score including the lovely ballad "Change Partners," and of course fabulous, high-flying dancing. Fred and Ginger fans can't afford to miss Carefree. --David Horiuchi

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A harbinger of Ginger's future successes in film, April 26, 2003

By 

Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Carefree [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is probably the most unique of all the Astaire/Rogers films, because while it is enormously enjoyable, it isn't principally because of the musical numbers. In fact, the dance numbers are among the weakest of all their films. What makes the film a delight is the comedy, and the person who drives the comedy is Ginger Rogers. Ginger was not Fred's equal as a dancer, but she complemented him perfectly. Still quite young in their first film together (she was 21 when filming started for FLYING TO RIO), Fred was able to mold her dance style to fit his perfectly. She was able to follow him perfectly, and many of their dances have their finest moments as she reacts in her face to what is happening in their dance.

Where Ginger far surpassed Fred was as an actress. At the time of CAREFREE, she had already scored a major success the year before in the drama STAGEDOOR (it was in the wake of this film that her costar Katherine Hepburn, who didn't get along with Ginger at all, quipped of Fred and Ginger, "He gives her class and she gives him sex." But by the time of CAREFREE, Ginger's abilities as an actress had begun to place her career apart from Fred on a higher individual plane. In fact, from this point until his comeback from retirement in 1948 (to replace the injured Gene Kelly in EASTER PARADE), Ginger was actually the larger box office draw. The next few years after CAREFREE would see Ginger starring in a string of superb comedies like BACHELOR MOTHER and THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR, as well as winning an Oscar for KITTY FOYLE.

The plot is simple: Ginger can't quite bring herself to feel for suitor Ralph Bellamy as she should. So, she agrees to go to a psychiatrist (Fred) to find out why. She gets accidentally hypnotized and for the rest of the film she accidentally either loves Fred or wants to [do away with him]. The dance numbers are, as I mentioned, not among their best. There is a long slo-mo number that fails to work as well as one might hope. "The Yam" is a pale imitation of the classic numbers centering on a new dance in previous films. Possibly the best dance number, though one that is unfortunately eliminated from some television cuts of the film, is Fred's solo number "Since They Turned Loch Lomand into Swing," in which he combines dancing with golfing. But there is no question about it, you see this film not for the dance numbers, but for Ginger's escapades as a comedienne.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fun, funny film, January 6, 2003

By 

DJ Joe Sixpack (...in Middle America) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Carefree [VHS] (VHS Tape)

One of the best-plotted, most delightful Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers team-ups... The dance routines actually aren't as great here as in other films, but Rogers is a hoot as a wisecracking, no-nonsense gal who will have none of Astaire's patronizing airs in his role as a high-handed psychiatrist, hired by her bewildered beau (played by Ralph Bellamy) to find out why she doesn't want to tie the knot. All of Astaire's attempts to diagnose her fail: he talks to her and she runs rings around him, he hypnotizes her and the results are equally disasterous, he dopes her up with an inhibition-lowering "anasthetic" and she goes on a impish, hilarious crime spree. Ginger's comic timing is devastating, and she's also as gorgeous as ever in this fine, fun film. Recommended!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't miss this one!, January 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Carefree [VHS] (VHS Tape)

When most people think of Fred and Ginger, flashes of fabulous dancing come to mind, and Carefree delivers this! But beyound that, the comic timing and cleverness of the writing is superior to other Fred and Ginger movie. The hypnotic use of "Change Partners" (one of Irving Berlin's best, and just as a side note, it's featured on Harry Connick, Jr.'s newest album "Come By Me")is wonderful. More than just an adorable and cute movie, the writing and music, and of course the dancing, is fantastic.