(83 min) Released 1938-09-02
Director: Mark Sandrich
Stars: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Ralph Bellamy.
Hermes Pan ... ensembles stager
Bill Brande ... dance director: rehearsal (uncredited)
Hermes Pan ... choreographer (uncredited)
Vasso Maria Panagiotoupulos ... dance director: rehearsals (uncredited) (Hermes' sister; her only IMDb credit)
Genres: Comedy | Musical | Romance
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029971/
Sing/dance (all Irving Berlin):
- Ch 5 Since They Turned Loch Lomond into Swing, Danced by Fred Astaire. FA hits golf balls while dancing, and shows good golf form too.
- Ch 9 I Used To Be Color Blind, Sung by Fred Astaire, Danced by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. This is a dream sequence, and the dance is shown in slow motion. Fabulous! He lifts her a LOT, and they kiss at the end! Very unusual for Astaire.
- Ch 15 The Yam, Sung by Ginger Rogers, Danced by Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire and Chorus. Really nice when she does levered leaps over his leg (braced on a new table) several times in a row. They look like they had fun at the end. Yup, the Susie Q was mentioned and gestured among many fad dances.
- Ch 21-2 Change Partners, Danced by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers; dance by hypnosis.
- Carefree, Danced by Fred Astaire is listed in the IMDb Soundtracks, but it's not among the chapter titles on the dvd, and I can't find any such song with Google; is it the second part of Loch Lomond? I didn't submit a correction.
'Meh' plot: whatever happened to the idea that you can't be hypnotized to do something you don't want to do? Was it convenient to use this misconception, or did they not know that in '38?
I miss having an EE Horton or Eric Blore or Helen Broderick (Luella Gear is a pale imitation) to bring comic spice.
Too few dances, but they're good, of course. Yes, this is in the Tap! Appendix for F&G.
RKO, dir. Sandrich; 7
This is the penultimate RKO pairing of F&G. I don't remember the last favorably; hopefully it will be a pleasant surprise. Here's a recap of the ratings for all 8:
Flying Down to Rio (1933); 7-
The Gay Divorcee (1934); 8+
Roberta (1935); 6+
Top Hat (1935), 10
Follow the Fleet (1936), 7
Swing Time (1936), 9
Shall We Dance (1937), 7+
Carefree (1938), 7
