Carefree
RKO, 1938, B/W, 83 minutes, ***½
Released September, 1938
Chalk up another success for psychiatrist Tony Flagg (Fred Astaire). Amanda Cooper (Ginger Rogers), his weddingphobic patient, is now crazy to get married... as long as the groom is Tony!
With its antic comedy (Ginger, zombied out on psychotherapy and love, heaves a nightstick through a glazier's glass) and its thumping of psychiatric funnybones, Carefree is "Fred and Ginger's most romantic outing, wacky and offbeat" . The score's romantic classic is Irving Berlin's "Change Partners." The duo also shares the slow-motion dreamscape of "I Used to Be Color Blind" and jives through "The Yam." And Fred tees off on "Since They Turned Loch Lomond into Swing," a sequence that took two weeks and 600 golf balls to film. In dance, as on the links, practice makes perfect.
Producer: Pandro S. Berman
Director: Mark Sandrich
Assistant Director: Argyle Nelson
Screen Play by: Allan Scott and Ernest Pagano
Story and Adaptation by: Dudley Nichols and Hagar Wilde
Based on an original idea by: Marian Ainslee and Guy Endore
Lyrics and Music by: Irving Berlin
Musical Director: Victor Baravalle
Ensembles Staged by: Hermes Pan
Art Director: Van Nest Polglase
Associate: Carroll Clark
Set Dressing by: Darrell Silvera
Miss Rogers' Gowns by: Howard Greer
Wardrobe by: Edward Stevenson
Special Effects: Vernon L. Walker
Recorded by: Hugh McDowell, Jr.
Photographed by: Robert de Grasse
Edited by: William Hamilton
Awards: Academy Award nominations for Best Score (Victor Baravalle), Best Song ("Change Partners") and Best Interior Decoration
Cast: Fred Astaire [Tony Flagg], Ginger Rogers [Amanda Cooper], Ralph Bellamy [Stephen Arden], Luella Gear [Aunt Cora], Jack Carson [Connors], Clarence Kolb [Judge Travers], Franklin Pangborn [Roland Hunter], Walter Kingsford [Dr. Powers], Kay Sutton [Miss Adams], Tom Tully [Policeman], Hattie McDaniel [Maid], Robert B. Mitchell and His St. Brendan's Boys
Musical Program: [0:12] Since They Turned "Loch Lomond" into Swing (danced by Fred Astaire while playing harmonica and while driving golf balls); [0:24] I Used To Be Color Blind (Amanda's dream sequence: Fred Astaire sings and dances with Ginger Rogers; features beautiful staging and slow-motion photography); [0:48] The Yam (sung by Ginger Rogers, danced by Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire with Ensemble); [1:12] Change Partners (sung by Fred Astaire, then danced by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers)
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