CAREFREE (1939)

After seven musicals starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, RKO wanted to shake things up a bit.  The studio made their eighth picture a screwball comedy, which was in vogue at the time. Instead of playing an entertainer, Astaire is a psychiatrist. An old friend (Ralph Bellamy) asks him to treat his fiancée (Rogers), who can’t make up her mind to marry him. When the doctor hypnotizes her, Rogers’ character drops her inhibitions, allowing the actress to cut loose with some inspired comic antics. To make room for all that plot, Carefree has only four terrific musical numbers, less than any other Astaire-Rogers film. While “Change Partners” was nominated for Best Song at the Oscars, “I Used to Be Color Blind” contains a first for the pair. Astaire hated love scenes, so he had never really kissed Rogers on screen. They make up for lost time in this number: a dream sequence that ends with a kiss shot in slow motion.  

d. Mark Sandrich, 83m, 35mm

Courtesy of The UCLA Film and Television Archive and Warner Brothers Classics.