The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939) Review

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(More customer reviews)If you own the older version of Volume One of the complete Astaire-Rogers, then this is the version of the complete set that you ought to get. It will give you the extra disc that the updates provide and also provides you with empty thinpak cases into which you can place your older discs. While I regret that they chose to do these in such confusing fashion, I'm delighted that they are at least giving us the opportunity to upgrade. Also, I'm a huge fan of the thinpak cases. If you haven't bought any of the Astaire-Rogers discs, I strongly recommend getting the complete 11-DVD single volume edition.
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers are not merely the greatest dance team in the history of film but one of the greatest pairings as well, regardless of genre. Although both of them achieved considerable success apart from the other, there was just something incredibly magical about the times they would perform together. For anyone who loves film, this set is going to be about as essential as any that exists.
There can be only one possible complaint with this second volume in the release of all of the Astaire-Rogers films: it is not chronological. The reason for this is obvious; if they had released the sets with the films in chronological order, the first volume would have been vastly superior to the second. While Volume Two would have contained SWINGTIME, one of their greatest films, Volume One would have contained TOP HAT, THE GAY DIVORCEE, and FOLLOW THE FLEET. As it is, they have tried to balance the films somewhat by putting the utterly essential THE GAY DIVORCEE in Volume 2. Even so, this is a weaker set of movies than the first volume.
FLYING DOWN TO RIO
To be honest, this is not a great movie, though it is for several reasons highly entertaining. The musical numbers performed on airplanes at the end have to be seen to be believed and even then will not be believed. The film was not intended to be an Astaire-Rogers film. It was primarily viewed as a vehicle for the amazingly beautiful Dolores Del Rio. Fred and Ginger were actually fifth and fourth billed, respectively, behind Del Rio, Gene Raymond, and Raul Roulien. RKO was a late entry into the musical genre, lagging well behind Warner Brothers, Paramount, and MGM. They quickly tried to catch up by signing a number of performers. They had purchased the contract of Ginger Rogers from Warner Brothers. She had had some success in Busby Berkeley musicals there and was familiar to film goers from some prominent numbers she performed in vehicles such as 42ND STREET and GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933. Fred had been, of course, a member of one of the greatest vaudeville and Broadway dance teams, Adele and Fred Astaire. The focus of that act had been Fred's talented sister Adele. Interestingly, they were famed as a comic dance team, but tragically only about five seconds of film footage--taken from a bad angle--exists, so we no longer have an idea of what they were like. We do know that Adele was considered to be the heart of the act. She left the act to marry a titled Englishman and Fred was left to fend for himself. Amazingly, his first venture on his own was THE GAY DIVORCE, a huge hit on Broadway that led to his being beckoned by Hollywood shortly thereafter. The last thing in the world that Fred wanted, after a long pairing with his sister, was a new permanent partner. But when RKO was throwing together FLYING TO RIO, it threw together its newly acquired musical talent, and somewhat randomly Fred was teamed with Ginger. Today this film is remembered exclusively for its pairing of the two future legends. Although they weren't actually yet a team, every scene they have together show a natural chemistry.
THE GAY DIVORCEE
Filming Fred's huge Broadway hit THE GAY DIVORCE was an obvious next step in RKO's attempt to produce its own string of musicals. Because of the success of their pairing in FLYING TO RIO, putting Ginger Rogers into the film was a no brainer. A new set of songs was produced, though the big hit from the stage play, "Night and Day," was kept. Otherwise the script followed the stage play almost entirely and one of the most popular actors from the play, Erik Rhodes, who was hysterical as paid correspondent Rodolfo Tonetti, reprised his role in the film. An absolutely perfect group of character actors was added to the mix. This film became the blueprint for all of the best Astaire-Rogers films. In a wonderful example of the weird logic of the censors, they were forced to change the title of the film. Divorces, they were moralistically told, could never be gay, though divorcees could be. Thus, THE GAY DIVORCE became THE GAY DIVORCEE.
The film is remarkable on a number of levels. No film previously made featured so much extraordinary dancing. Most film dancing had focused on spectacular, heavily choreographed spectaculars, such as the productions we associate with Busby Berkeley. But Astaire insisted that his numbers be filmed with the camera only slightly above the angle of his and/or his partner's body and that his feet be visible at all times. This gives his numbers an intimacy that had never previously been seen in the film musical. The film also features many interior design innovations that would become even more famous in TOP HAT (e.g., Venetian blinds are so called not because they have any connection with Venice, but because they were used in the clean, new, and white Venice of TOP HAT). The dance numbers are all great, but none more so than "Night and Day." It was the first great Astaire seduction dance. In most of their films he has trouble interesting the somewhat aloof Ginger until he gets her to dance with him. Here he forces her to dance with him and at first she resists, making attempts to leave. But eventually she completely succumbs to his overtures and compliantly follows his every move. One of the secrets to Fred and Ginger's success was the way that you could follow the progress of the dance in Ginger's face. He was by far the greater dancer, but she was by far the greater actor and her face provided a perfect window into all that is happening. If there had been any doubt that what we were watching in their dance was lovemaking, all doubt is removed as the number ends with Fred gently guiding Ginger to a divan and then as she sits there utterly transfixed, gazing up at his face, he shifts his weight back, reaches into his jacket, and after pulling out a silver case, offers Ginger a cigarette. I remember reading a number of years back a film critic who wrote that the entire prior history of film would have been justified by their performance of "Night and Day." I don't disagree.
ROBERTA
Many are perplexed that in the follow up to THE GAY DIVORCEE Fred and Ginger take second billing to Irene Dunne. Surely they proved in that film that they were the stars of any film that they appeared in. The mystery is resolved when one realizes that work on ROBERTA began before the release of THE GAY DIVORCEE. Unfortunately, Irene Dunne and Astaire-Rogers were not a great match. Dunne's singing style was quite mannered and didn't mesh with the remarkably natural style that both Fred and Ginger employed (it isn't often noted that they didn't sing at all like the vast majority of thirties vocalists--their singing voices were a complete extension of their talking voices, while most vocalists of the period had much more mannered styles). Still, it is a pretty good film with a lot of good moments. There is one great tragedy: Fred and Ginger do not dance to "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," the best song in the film. They would later try to correct this in THE BARKLEYS OF BROADWAY, but by then the time had passed. This is far from one of my favorites of their films, but I do enjoy rewatching it from time to time.
CAREFREE
This is not a great musical though it is a very good comedy. It is a commonplace that this is the film that Ginger completely stole from Fred. I think that is true. It also foreshadows her subsequent career, in which she would establish herself as a truly great comic actress. The musical numbers aren't up to the level of their other films, but the film is a complete delight simply because of Ginger's great comic performance. I really like the novelty number that Fred has in which he drives one golf ball after another. No one was better at incorporating props into dance numbers than Fred. Interestingly, apart from a rather comic kiss in front of Ginger's husband in THE GAY DIVORCEE, Fred and Ginger had never had a romantic kiss in any of their films. So, the idea was to have a dance number that would culminate in kiss. The number was shot in slow motion and when they finally kissed they held it for a normal length of time for a kiss. But slowed down they appeared to be locked in a kiss that would never end. They had to reshoot with a mere peck of a kiss that looked just right when slowed down.
THE STORY OF VERNON AND IRENE CASTLE
It is pretty much a toss up between this film and THE BARKLEYS OF BROADWAY for the dubious distinction of being the weakest Astaire-Rogers film. Today it is fairly baffling why there would have been a demand for them to portray another dance team and largely just recreate their dances. Today the Castles are remembered almost exclusively for having been portrayed by Fred and Ginger. It is a film worth seeing at least once (I've seen it three times, so I've tested this theory; once truly would have been enough). For a long while, it appeared that this was going to be Fred and Ginger's last film together and it was their last at RKO. But ten years later Judy Garland had to pull out of THE BARKLEY'S OF BROADWAY, and Ginger stepped in to take her place. Ironically, the film was to be a follow...Read more›

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Who else but the fabulous Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, the greatest dancing team of all time, could portray Vernon & Irene Castle, the renowned ballroom dancers of the years preceding World War I? Fred and Ginger dance up a storm as they dramatize the careers of the Castles. The pair first unite when Irene persuades Vernon to give up his corny vaudeville clowning to cultivate his obvious dancing abilities. After some lean years, a sharp agent sponsors the team and their rise to fame is phenomenal. Soon they are setting Paris aglow with their stunning routines. Then the first World War intervenes and brings a shocking tragedy. Vernon is killed in a crash on a training field in Texas abruptly ending the Castles' reign on the dance floor. Astaire and Rogers are at their most appealing.

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