Cult Flops - Carefree

RKO, 1938
Starring Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Ralph Bellamy, and Luella Gear
Directed by Mark Sandrich
Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin

By the late 30's, Rogers had become one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, as adept with drama as she was with comedy. This began to seep into her vehicles with Astaire in this screwball comedy about a psychiatrist who tries to convince a woman she isn't in love with him, then changes her mind back when he realizes that he loves her. How does this screwball comedy work out? Let's begin just outside of the office of psychoanalyst Dr. Tony Flagg (Astaire) as he's talking to one of his patients and find out...

The Story: Stephan Arden (Bellamy) has been drinking because his singer girlfriend Amanda Cooper (Rogers) keeps breaking their engagement. He enlists his psychiatrist Tony to try to get her to agree to marry him. Tony finally gets her to eat a huge meal and dream...but her dream is about dancing with Tony. Horrified when she realizes she's fallen in love with him, she makes up a wild dream instead that makes Tony and his colleague Dr. Powers (Walter Kingston) believe she got enough psychiatric problems to fill a mental institution. Tony gives her drugs to make her act on her impulses...which leads to her breaking windows, kicking cops, and insulting her sponsor on the air.

At a party the next evening, Amanda gets Tony to dance with her, but she can't get him to see her as more than a patient. When he does realize she's fallen for him, he hypnotizes her to believe she loves Stephan and hates him. Trouble is, now he's in love with her. Tony and his nurse Tom (Jack Carson) have to figure out how to stop Amanda and Stephan's wedding, before she marries the wrong man.

The Song and Dance: Rogers has a great deal of fun as the seeming sensible young woman who is really looking for someone a lot more elegant than her overbearing fiancee. She's especially fun after she's been drugged and has let go of her inhibitions. The look on her face when she kicks the cop is priceless. Luella Gear and Clarence Kolb have their own fun as Amanda's sassy aunt who helps pair Tony with her niece and the judge flummoxed by all the lunacy.

Favorite Number: Fred and Ginger get their first on-screen kiss in Amanda's dream world, dancing through their fantasies in "I Used to Be Color Blind." Tony does some fancy golf moves to show off in front of Amanda in "Since They Turned Loch Lomond to Swing." "The Yam" is the big Fred-Ginger dance number with the chorus as Amanda tries to get together with Fred at the party. Tony brings Amanda out to hypnotize her again and get her to "Change Partners" in a duet the night before the wedding.

Trivia: Fred filmed the "Loch Lomond" number three weeks before the rest of the movie began shooting.

"Change Partners" was nominated for an Oscar.

The film was a minor flop at the box office in 1938 and became the first Astaire-Rogers film to lose money.

What I Don't Like: "Change Partners" aside, the score isn't one of Irving Berlin's better ones. Even Fred Astaire thought "The Yam" was silly, which is why Ginger Rogers sings it. I wish RKO filmed "Color Blind" in color, like they'd originally planned. It would have added to the number being "just a dream" and went along with the lyrics.

Psychoanalysis has long been controversial, leaving Tony's theories and claims about Amanda's behavior sounding like so much gobblety-gook today. Neither Tony nor Stephan particularly treat Amanda that well. Tony claiming he's in love with her seems a little sudden, considering he's spent the movie ignoring her other than as a test subject.

The Big Finale: Despite some good numbers, this is mainly for big Astaire/Rogers fans and fans of 30's comedy or musicals.

Home Media: Easily found on DVD from the Warner Archives and as part of several Astaire and Rogers sets.

DVD
DVD - Silver Screen Icons: Astaire & Rogers Vol. 1