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12 out of 13 people found the following review useful: Changing Partners, 25 October 2002 Author: lugonian from Kissimmee, Florida
CAREFREE (RKO Radio, 1938), directed by Mark Sandrich, is a screwball comedy with music that should be seen more than once to be appreciated or depreciated, depending on how one accepts this new type of production. Pairing for the eighth time on screen, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers take welcome change from their usual format, in which Astaire plays a doctor, a psychiatrist by profession, instead of his usual lovesick American dancer, although the doctor in question DOES have a talent for dancing, and Rogers, breaking away from sophisticated humor, making her mark in more broader comedy. She's been funny before, usually sassy with one liners, but this time in the dizzy-dame mode, but fortunately, not to the extreme.The plot focuses on Stephen Arden (Ralph Bellamy), a witless attorney who becomes drunk after his engagement to popular radio star, Amanda Cooper (Ginger Rogers), has been broken for the third time. He stumbles to the Medical Foundation building to ask his good friend, Dr. Tony Flagg (Fred Astaire), a psychiatrist who practices with the white coated Connors (Jack Carson), to have Amanda "what's 'er name" analyzed, which he agrees to do. Once in his office, Amanda, who keeps her appointment, accidently stumbles upon Flagg's phonograph record and listens to a diagnosis of his last patient and his comment about Miss Cooper being a maladjusted woman when told by his receptionist that Miss Cooper is waiting outside his office. Upset, Amanda decides to give this doctor the once over by sitting behind his desk with the doctor on the other end, followed by a question and answer session. When Amanda and Tony meet again while bicycling in the park, as arranged by Stephen, they come to friendly terms, and Amanda agrees to Tony's upcoming treatments. At one point Tony insists Amanda go to sleep so that he can later analyze her dream. This is done after eating lobster with mayonaise and buttermilk while dining in a restaurant. After Amanda returns to her apartment, which she shares with her spinster Aunt Cora (Luella Gear), she dozes off and dreams of herself dancing with Tony. Right then and there she realizes she loves her doctor and not the stuffy Stephen, who now calls Tony his "scientific cupid." Because Amanda doesn't want to lose Tony as her doctor, she decides to make up some wild dream she's had for 11 straight years (based on Little Red Riding Hood), causing Tony to study her some more by giving her an anesthetic. This leads to some problems when Amanda unwittingly leaves the office going amok in the streets by walking through traffic, kicking policemen and anyone else, and following a truck carrying a giant plate of glass which she eventually breaks with a policeman's wooden club. More problems ensue when Tony later hypnotizes Amanda, who once more goes about the streets, driving wildly to the country club to find Stephen skeet shooting, where Amanda grabs one of Stephen's guns and shoots all over the place, and at one point, wanting to shoot Tony "like a dog." The problem now is to get Amanda out of the trance, but Tony has to get by Stephen, who won't let him undo the experiment, for reasons of his own.The original score by IRVING BERLIN include: "Since They Turned 'Loch Lamond' Into Swing" (danced by Fred Astaire minus vocal); "I Used to Be Color Blind" (sung by Astaire); "The Yam" (sung by Ginger Rogers); "Change Partners" (sung by Astaire); and "Change Partners" (reprise by the St. Brendan's Boy Choir).With plenty of comedy in the screenplay, one would wonder how a story, that could actually play as straight comedy, fit in some dance numbers. This is where CAREFREE stands apart from the other Astaire and Rogers films. The first number finds Astaire at a golf course accomplishing into doing several things at the same time by tap dancing to a Scottish fashion underscoring and teeing off several golf balls in rhythm, all to perfection with Astaire not once missing his mark. The succeeding number, "I Used to Be Color Blind" is very interesting mainly because it takes part as Rogers' dream dance, with Astaire, and in slow motion. While "The Yam" is an upbeat number, sung by Rogers at a country club, followed by dancing with Astaire on wooden floors instead of shining glassy floors as in the past, didn't become a memorable duet as "The Carioca," "The Continental" or "The Piccolino." Unlike these earlier dances, Astaire and Rogers take over the dance floor as they drown out the score by their tapping, and then inviting the patrons sitting at the dinner table to join in. Another first in the series is watching Rogers doing a flying lift while she dances. The final number, "Change Partners," which should have been the movie title since it's more appropriate than "Carefree," is a beautiful love dance, or trance dance, in which Rogers, hypnotised by Astaire, dances in a motionless manner with him. While "Change Partners" is a slower tempo, it's one of the film's most memorable scores, it not, their most standout dances. The score as nominated for an Academy Award as Best Song. However for a movie with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, none of them have won the kind of status as the songs he had written for another film that same year, ALEXANDER'S RAGTIME BAND (20th Century-Fox).In this production, Rogers is assisted by her on screen aunt, Cora, played by Luella Gear, who looks like a middle-aged Kay Francis but talks like Helen Broderick (of TOP HAT and SWING TIME). Gear, in her movie debut, had very few films to her credit. She is reportedly best known for her role as Aunt Hortence in the stage version of THE GAY DIVORCE (1932) starring Astaire. Ralph Bellamy, who by this time was usually type-cast as stuffy suitors, happens to be the most masculine of Rogers' rejected beaus thus far. His character becomes quite unlikable towards the second half of the story.Also seen in smaller roles are Franklin Pangborn as Roland Hunter; Hattie McDaniel as Hattie, the maid; Clarence Kolb as Judge Joe Travers, Stephen's friend who tells corny jokes; Kay Sutton as Miss Adams; and Robert B. Mitchell and the St. Brendan's Boy Choir. The latter must have been victims of the cutting room floor since their names are mentioned in the closing cast credits but nowhere to be seen, except heard in the soundtrack to "Change Partners" near the end of the story. Interesting to point out that the score itself to the dance numbers, especially "The Yam," sometimes plays like an orchestra from the big band era of the 1940s.In spite of numerous pros and cons with this production, CAREFREE, ranked as the team's most underrated film, mainly due to the fact of its lack of frequent television revivals on commercial television a few decades ago, and their shortest, 83 minutes, is an occasionally funny outing with imaginable, if not too successful, dance numbers. Other than CAREFREE being available on video cassette and DVD, it was formerly a frequent broadcast on cable TV's American Movie Classics, and is presently shown on Turner Classic Movies. Next Astaire and Rogers outing, THE STORY OF VERNON AND IRENE CASTLE (1939).
10 out of 11 people found the following review useful: ha ha, 19 June 2000 Author: (evermore300@yahoo.com) from batavia, il
this is one of my favorite fred astaire/ginger rogers films. it's highly amusing how she toys with him at the beginning of the film, and then once he begins hypnosis, they have one of the best dance scenes i've ever seen between them. as always, their magic together is astounding.
8 out of 8 people found the following review useful: I've gotta rebut what Holdjerhorses said..., 6 December 2006 Author: cnb from Arlington, VA
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Wow, one user comment from last year interprets "Carefree" as mean-spirited and finds it characterized mostly by low spots. Just goes to show how different perceptions can be. While I'm the first to admit that this isn't the most musically strong of the Astaire-Rogers pix, and that Tony Flagg (Fred Astaire) does seem misogynistic at first, I find a lot to enjoy in this movie.What seems like Tony's ugly attitude toward women (in the remark Amanda hears on the Dictaphone recording) can partly be explained by a scene from the original shooting script that did not end up in the picture. In that, Dr. Flagg is visited by a vain and annoying female patient who severely tries his... well, patience. The deletion of that bit does make his attitude toward women seem harsher. In the movie as shot, until Amanda hears him assuming that SHE is "another maladjusted female," she actually is amused by what he says about the patient. The Astaire character's behavior throughout the rest of the movie does not support the idea that he is misogynistic, but I agree that some of the dialogue makes him seem so initially.To read Ginger Rogers' character as having been "weakened" and "drugged" by Astaire's is to take this comedy too seriously. It was one of Rogers' favorite roles of their series together, because she got a chance to shine in a screwball role. And I think Ralph Bellamy, Jack Carson and Luella Gear offer good, if not sparkling, support here. The reason we seldom see Gear in the movies is that she did most of her performing on Broadway; she had appeared with Astaire before in "Gay Divorce" (in the Hortense role that Alice Brady played in the movie version).I've shown Astaire's golf solo to many a golfer friend, and they never fail to be impressed. Maybe it isn't Astaire's most memorable dance sequence, but the fact that he hits such beautiful shots (he was a lifelong golfer with a score in the low 70s) while doing his impeccable tapping is worthy of admiration.Amanda's dream dance ("I Used to Be Color Blind") is not something her doctor has forced upon her; maybe he can suggest her dinner selections, but he can't control the content of the dream! She's dreaming about him because he apologized (sorta) for his callousness during their bike ride, and they became friends during the dinner dance that evening. She began to find herself attracted to him. It's a gorgeous dance, filmed in slow motion and definitely showing off how beautiful and graceful Ginger Rogers is. I don't interpret their kiss to mean that she is "submitting" to anything--as a matter of fact, she initiates the clinch as she comes up from that deep backbend (as one writer puts it, it's her dream, after all).Although I agree that "The Yam" is not a great song (the tune worked better as "Any Bonds Today?"), I'd rather watch the accompanying dance number than "The Piccolino" or the long sequences of chorus kids in "The Continental." Not that the signature steps are that attractive, but once The Yam gains momentum and wanders all over the country club, it's a blast. And I love the big finish, when Astaire props one leg on a series of tables and repeatedly swings Ginger over it (her idea, she said in her autobiography).Now, about the hypnosis dance, to "Change Partners." Tony's attempts to medicate and hypnotize Amanda have had comic consequences (if they hadn't, there wouldn't be a screwball comedy), but there are two crucial differences when you come to this romantic dance: It isn't intended to be humorous, and what he is now trying to do essentially is UN-hypnotize her so that she is thinking for herself again.I'll admit there is a submissiveness about her in the dance and that he is acting as a masculine force (and yes, Holdjerhorses, Astaire definitely had a strong masculine presence, non-macho though he was), but if ever there was a good cause, this is it. I find the number intensely sexy--he is mesmerizing her not because he wants to control her, per se, but because he loves her so much that he wants to get the "real" Amanda back. I also think it is significant that Tony cannot knock out Amanda, even for her own good. Far from a cop-out on the part of the writers, this was intentional and in character with the decidedly non-misogynistic character Tony has proved himself to be in all but the first couple of scenes of the movie.The whole business about lovers hitting each other and getting black eyes is a staple of romantic comedy of the thirties, and it is NOT intended to be interpreted as serious approval of domestic violence. It is a comedy convention that represents the verbal conflict of relationships, mixed with good old-fashioned slapstick.Finally, a last argument in favor of "Carefree:" despite the fact that this is a madcap comedy, there are some lovely, touching straight scenes in it that show just how strong Astaire and Rogers both were in the acting department. The scene during which she confesses to him on the dance floor that she loves him instead of Steve; and the one in his office, in which he gets her to admit that she dreamed about him, and she responds with grief when he tells her that he doesn't love her, are surprisingly moving, as is his dawning suspicion that he IS in love with her.As wonderful as "The Gay Divorcée" and "Top Hat" are, it is moments like these, along with some of the dialogue in "Swing Time," that really show how multi-talented and underrated as actors these two musical performers were--yes, Fred as well as Oscar-winner-to-be Ginger.
7 out of 7 people found the following review useful: It's The Yam for me., 3 April 2004 Author: ptb-8 from Australia
Hilarious and very stylish, this spellbinding art moderne musical is a real experiment in RKO craftsmanship. Did you know the dream sequences to the song "I used to be color blind" were originally filmed in color but the release abandoned because RKO couldn't get the tech specs right and the cost was going to be too high for the budget already set. It was a great idea and today might have made CAREFREE a more enduring success as there is no color footage of them as a dancing pair until 1949 at MGM.. Apart from the snazzy look of the art direction, Ginger's fantastic 'hearts and arrows' outfit and big black bewitching hat and the RKO world of the stone and timber country club, the music here is just terrific. The swing antics of the golf club bagpipe sequence had one audience I saw it with in rapturous applause. But I defy anyone to stay seated during THE YAM as they wing and swing their way all over the BIG SET Country club. CAREFREE is just great.
8 out of 10 people found the following review useful: Underrated Classic, 8 June 2001 Author: James Brian Hardman from Charlotte, NC USA
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers star in this delightful romantic musical comedy with a twist on the usual Fred and Ginger plot. Though odd and short in the musical number department, this teasing romantic romp features some of their best dancing and good humor to boot. Ginger Rogers is nothing short of stunning in this picture and Mr. Astaire's feet never touch the ground. Definitely their most underrated film.
4 out of 4 people found the following review useful: A little short on songs, but Astaire and Rogers are in top form, 19 January 2005 Author: John Howard Reid (rastar330@yahoo.com.au) from Sydney, Australia
The first Astaire-Rogers vehicle to actually lose money on first release ($68,000, a mere drop in the bucket, but still...) and there's a good reason why. Only four songs and dance numbers, including a solo for Fred. Nonetheless, although the accent definitely veers toward story rather than song, it's an interesting and amusing vehicle in which Ginger and Fred not only acquit themselves most ably (Ginger looks great in her Howard Greer costumes) but are supported by a first-rate group of players headed by old friends like eager Jack Carson and irascible Clarence Kolb plus a charming comedian in Luella Gear. Character spots are filled by well-known faces like Edward Gargan as the cop with the nightstick, Franklin Pangborn as a fussy little skeet judge, and Walter Kingsford in his customary role as a doctor. Director Mark Sandrich can be spotted as the golf caddy in the first shot at the country club with Fred and Finlayson.
3 out of 3 people found the following review useful: Uneven, but fun, 1 April 2002 Author: gapeach17
"Carefree" is one of Fred and Ginger's more underrated films, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's not their best effort, either. Ginger is the star of the show for a change, and she also pursues Fred before he pursues her. Ginger is Amanda, a radio singer (talk about outdated!!) and Fred is Tony, a cynical and unromantic shrink(very un-Fred like). Amanda's fiance Steve (played by a VERY young Ralph Bellamy, whom you've seen in "Trading Places" and "Pretty Woman") sends Amanda to Tony because she's indecisive about marrying him (feminists will probably hate this movie). After some offbeat circumstances, Amanda falls for Tony, but neither he or Steve will have any of it. I'll stop there because there are spoilers up the wazoo. "Carefree" does have some stuff going for it; for instance, Ginger makes a terrific fool of herself (which used to be Fred's job), and there's a magnificent dance that takes place in a dream sequence. "I Used to be Color Blind" is shot in perfect slow motion and both Ginger and Fred defy gravity. No special effects needed. One of the problems with the movie is include the hard to swallow romance between G&F. True, their films are never probable, but come on. Still, it's a great guilty pleasure, and "Color Blind", "The Yam" (the song's lame, but the dance is priceless), and the elegant "Change Partners" are great fun to watch. Catch it on TCM on a rainy day.
5 out of 7 people found the following review useful: oh, the carefree times of hollywood, 14 February 2003 Author: postmanwhoalwaysringstwice from usa
there is something specific about watching fred astaire and ginger rogers that just makes you want to dance. i think it's because they make it look so damn fun. and they are just so astonishingly good!! the plot here is a tad crazier than, say "top hat", and therefore that much less believable (come on ... going all out with freud and hypnosis, but then again that's just speaking from what is known today, so no problem letting that pass). irving berlin's music is a hoot at times (there's a song about yams) and classic and familiar at others ("change partners") and ginger rogers is nearly at her sassy best.
2 out of 2 people found the following review useful: Messing With Her Mind, 18 December 2007 Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York
Carefree marked the third collaboration of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers singing and dancing to an Irving Berlin score. Unfortunately it would prove to be the weakest of the films, the others being Top Hat and Follow The Fleet. One thing was that Irving Berlin wrote a lot less music for this than the other two.The second thing was that it involved psychiatry and we'd have to wait for such musicals as Lady in the Dark and On A Clear Day before the subject was handled in any way responsibly.I'm not sure the subject was the proper one for Astaire and Rogers. The plot has Rogers seeing Astaire professionally while she's engaged to Ralph Bellamy who is playing the typical Ralph Bellamy part. I guess because it's Ralph Bellamy liberties can be taken with the leading lady by a her psychiatrist.It was a bit much to swallow, a man who gave up studying the dance to become a disciple of Sigmund Freud. But that's what Fred Astaire is in Carefree. Usually the two don't mix. I can't imagine Freud breaking out into an intricate Astaire dance routine.I will say that Irving Berlin did give Fred and Ginger some good songs to sing and dance to. The print I have is totally black and white and the I Used To Be Color Blind dream sequence definitely loses something when not seen in color. Fred and Ginger are at their liveliest doing The Yam and the rest of the cast gets involved. In fact I was surprised at how nimble Clarence Kolb was on his feet.Fred's plaintive plea for Ginger to Change Partners got an Oscar nomination for Best Song, but it lost to Bob Hope's perennial theme of Thanks for the Memory. I could not quite enjoy Carefree as much I have other Astaire/Rogers collaborations. When you think about, Fred's using his professional training to mess with her mind. His heart may be in the right place, but his medical ethics stink.
3 out of 4 people found the following review useful: Why Cut Corners With Astaire and Rogers????, 14 September 2007 Author: JasonLeeSmith from Baltimore, MD
If you attempt to look at the plot carefully (never a good idea in a musical) this is a rather repellent movie. The practice of Psychotherapy wasn't as well known or as well respected as it is today, and the film was clearly written by someone who seemed to think of it as some fad medical cure indulged in mainly by rich and foolish women. As such we get to see Fred Astaire, the therapist, subjecting Ginger Rogers, the patient, to all manner of barbaric (to modern eyes) treatments in order to find out why she won't marry his best friend. Eventually Astaire uses hypnosis to force her to marry him, and then force him not to. Clearly, movie doctors were not subjected to as severe a code of ethics as are real ones.Its a pretty typical outing for Astaire and Rogers. Astaire's dancing is extraordinary (the dance scene on the golf course is great, as is the one where he dances with a hypnotized Rogers). Rogers' comic timing is, as always, wonderful. The secondary characters are all two-dimension cut-outs, but they're entertaining ones. If the characters didn't have quite the same sparkle to their interplay, remember, this was Astaire and Rogers' eighth film together and artistic differences were beginning to create a strain.My biggest issue with this movie was the scene in which they sing the song "I Used To Be Colorblind". This was dream sequence, and it lasted about five minutes. "Carefree" is a black and white movie and the intent originally was to film the dream sequence in color a'la "Wizard of Oz". Apparently, somewhere in the production process, people balked at the cost and it was produced in black and white along with the rest of the film. Being filmed in black and white makes the song, and the entire sequence makes not one lick of sense, because the song is about how crisp and clear the world seems in color. Not only that, but since it was designed to be viewed on color film, not in black and white, the sets weren't designed with that same high degree of contrasts they would have if they had been designed to be viewed in black and white. As such, things in the dream sequence are LESS clear than in the rest of the movie, not more. I'm just appalled that the studio could spring for a few minutes of color footage for a film with such proved money-makes as Astaire and Rogers.
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