Customer Reviews

Carefree [VHS]

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

*Carefree* is one of my favorite of the Astaire/Rogers series. I like this one because Ginger is not her usual skeptical self about poor Fred, who's usually trying to woo her. She falls in love instantly, and it's convincing. After that, he can't really help himself. This film has some pretty good dance sequences and some great comedy.

Astaire is a psychoanalyst, and Rogers sings on the radio. Rogers keeps on breaking off her engagement with Bellamy, one of Astaire's patients. Bellamy sends Rogers to Astaire, and Rogers falls in love with Astaire. When Astaire finds out, he hypnotizes her and tells her that "men like him are terrible monsters and should be shot down like dogs," and then realizes that he loves her. With songs like "The Yam" and 'Change Partners," how can this movie be bad?

The movie Carefree stars Ginger Rogers in a very richly-textured and subtly-nuanced portrayal of Amanda Cooper, a well-to-do but soon-to-be unhappily married young woman. However, in a charming plot twist, she apparently falls in love with someone else... or something like that. There also seems to be some willowy tap-dancing sort of chap in the picture. I couldn't tell you who, however, as I couldn't take my eyes off of Ginger Rogers.

In the eighth of ten screen appearances together, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were firmly established as Hollywood's leading dancing pair. What is interesting about this 1938 entry is that it feels less like a musical and more like a screwball farce with musical interludes composed by Irving Berlin. The other less tangible aspect is that one can sense the two were growing in different directions at this particular juncture. While Astaire is still his debonair, nimble-footed self and as immaculate a dancer as ever there was onscreen (watch his golfing solo for proof), Rogers seems to find surer footing as a crack comedy actress this time around. That's not to say they don't create magic when they dance. Indeed they do, an especially wonderful treat captured crisply on the newly released DVD, but you can somehow feel the beginning of the end.

Credited to no less than seven writers, the nonsensical plot focuses on singer Amanda Cooper, a radio star who has broken off her engagement three times to Stephen Arden, a rich bon vivant who spends an inordinate amount of time at the country club. Concerned about her flightiness but convinced that she is the one for him, he consults with his psychiatrist friend, Dr. Tony Flagg. Upon Stephen's insistence, Amanda goes to see Tony, and things immediately start off on the wrong foot when she overhears some of Tony's insensitive remarks about women on a dictaphone. Amanda and Tony eventually bury the hatchet over an accident-prone bike ride and become friends. You can probably figure out the rest of the complications that occur.

Even though Astaire acquits himself well as Tony (a rare role where he is not portraying a professional entertainer) and Ralph Bellamy gamely plays yet another third-wheel role as Stephen, it is really Rogers who dominates the comedy scenes with her sharp timing and spirited manner. Moreover, the dance numbers don't disappoint with a lovely dream sequence set to "(I Used to Be) Colorblind" and a concluding romantic pas-de-deux cast under a hypnotic spell in "Change Partners". But my personal favorite is "The Yam", a jazzy, acrobatic number meant to replicate the late-thirties dance crazes. With Astaire bouncing Rogers on a series of cushiony chairs and then repeatedly twirling her airborne over his outstretched leg, this one may be my favorite of all their screen dances based on their sheer energy and athleticism.

For whatever reason, the supporting cast is not nearly as memorable as other Astaire-Rogers films at the time with Luella Gear looking a little too young as Amanda's Aunt Cora, Clarence Kolb as crabby Judge Travers and a young Jack Carson as Tony's helpful clinic assistant (doing a pretty decent Japanese accent over the phone). While the use of psychoanalysis must have been quite novel at the time, it feels rather clichéd now. Nonetheless, Astaire and Rogers still make magic regardless of the story contrivance. The 2006 DVD contains two vintage extras - a twenty-minute, tap dancing short called "Public Jitterbug #1" about an outlaw jitterbug dancer, and a brief cartoon, "September in the Rain", where famous icons displayed on packaged foods of the day come to life.

Weep for what the world has lost in Fred and Ginger. They were a miraculous combination of skill and beauty which only happens once, and which will never come again. Compared with these magical performances, and these delightful personalities, modern society, and modern movies, just seem endlessly ugly, brutal, crude and clumsy. The thirties were a schizophrenic decade which also had its horrific downside, but to experience this kind of entertainment was to live, for a short hour or two, in an atmosphere which will never be matched for its lightness, charm, good-humour and quintessence of excellence.

So by the time they made CAREFREE, the Astaire and Rogers duo were tapping in to the changing times. The movie, therefore is both less and more than their other films. It is less ball gown and tails and more like the people who were their devoted audience. We get escapism but of a more accessible kind in this slice of the radio-listening and golf-playing late Thirties America in this vehicle.

The plot combines a hypnotist-practicing psychiatrist (Fred) and a very popular radio singer (Ginger) with Fred's-best-friend-slash-Ginger's-boyfriend (Ralph Belamy) completing the love triangle. There are some great comedic bits--especially when Ginger runs amuck on the air just when she is pitching a commercial that is supposed to be plugging the sponsor's toothpaste (funny, funny, funny).

The Irving Berlin songs are charming if not quite the popular sensation that tunes from some of the earlier films had been. The same is true of the dance they create, "The Yam" which is great to watch but is more of the novelty number than they may have wished, especially given the long life of "The Carioca" (FLYING DOWN TO RIO) and "The Continental" (THE GAY DIVORCEE), which people continued to dance for years. It is great to see them go over the top with this, their most ambitious up and over the furniture dance routine, but who, pray tell, is going to do a dance about a sweet spud? Well then again there was the "Mashed Potato"...

Throughout the film, Ginger looks fantastic as always especially in the dress with the lightening zap and the heart; Fred is debonair in a wardrobe you could just as easily wear today as in the `30s.

The running critique through all the Fred and Ginger films was that they do not kiss on screen--and one could argue when you dance like that who needs to kiss. In an earlier film, they do kiss just off screen, behind a door (SWING TIME). Here, in this movie, in the "Color Blind" number they fix that problem by kissing in front of the camera and since it is done in a dream sequence slow motion, they more than make up for lost time.

This is the last of their series for RKO.

While somewhat different than their charming and endearing musical films, this entry from Fred and Ginger is probably my favorite. Fortunately all the great elements that made the previous films so wonderful are still here, but this time those elements are interspersed between some nice screwball comedy that finally got to showcase Ginger's comedic talents. Fred is great as always, but this one is really Ginger's film, and she shines.

Once again, a fine Pandro S. Berman production and some magical songs by Irving Berlin made this Mark Sandrich film a sheer joy. An original idea by Marian Ainslee and Guy Endore was adapted to story form by Dudley Nicols and Hagar Wilde, then turned into a screenplay by Allan Scott and Ernest Pagano. Fred and Ginger, with fine support from Ralph Bellamy, Jack Carson and Luella Gear, turn all these elements into what, I believe, is the most "fun" of all their films.

Tony (Fred) is a psychiatrist trying to do his pal Stephen (Ralph Bellamy) a favor by seeing his radio singer fiance Amanda (Ginger) so he can figure out why she has called off their wedding three times! She blows Fred off as a quack when she overhears a transcription he's done which is less than flattering but finally gives in and agrees to let Tony dissect her dreams and discover what's wrong with her.

A meal of lobster and mayonnaise, and a lot of other things, make her dream alright, but in her dream she's dancing with Tony! Amanda can't tell him, of course, and when he threatens to stop seeing her she makes up a dream that would keep ten psychiatrists busy and the fun really begins.

Rogers was fabulous in this film and it was the impetus for her very successful solo career. This light screwball comedy has some terrific moments. It's a laugh riot as Ginger walks out while being hypnotized, thinking she loves Bellamy, and going after Fred with a shotgun, so he can die like a dog! As Fred tells Bellamy while they run after her: "She's in a trance. She may even act, a little odd!"

During the dream sequence they get to dance to "I Used To Be Color-Blind" and later on at a party they do "The Yam" in a very fun scene. Berlin's "Change Partners" was nominated for an Oscar. But Ginger and the screwball comedy take top billing in this one, making it one of their best. It is sophisticated and funny, and Fred and Ginger end up together as always. This time she's in a gorgeous wedding dress, and she has a black eye!

You don't hear as much about this one, but don't let that stop you from picking up this wonderful film!