Classic Movies - Legendary Couple: Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers

This week we are continuing our month of Legendary Classic Movie Couples. We will first present films and information concerning one particular screen couple followed on Wednesday with a segment on the male actor of the team and finish with the featured female actor on Saturday.

Today, let’s talk Classic Movies of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers! The dynamic dancing duo of Astaire and Rogers began in 1933 when RKO Pictures featured them in Flying Down to Rio. The film starred Dolores Del Rio and Gene Raymond, but when Fred and Ginger danced the “Carioca”, they stole the show. Throughout the 1930s the team danced together in nine films, becoming the best known dancing couple of their era and probably of all-time. Fred Astaire was inventive, personable, relentlessly hard-working, and a perfectionist. Ginger Rogers was a quick study, lovely, and also extremely dedicated. On screen together, they dazzled.

The eight remaining films they went on to make in the 1930s are The Gay Divorcee (1934) in which they demonstrate "The Continental”; Roberta (1935), with Irene Dunne and features the classic love song, “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes”; Top Hat (1935) has them dancing “Cheek to Cheek”; Follow the Fleet (1936) features “Let’s Face the Music and Dance”; Swing Time (1936) features songs, “Pick Yourself Up” and “The Way You Look Tonight”; Shall We Dance? (1937) has Fred and Ginger singing “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” while on roller skates; Carefree (1938) is more screwball comedy than musical and features “The Yam” dance number. By the time they made the rather serious musical biopic, The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939), the magic of Astaire and Rogers was wearing a bit thin or perhaps audience tastes were changing. In any event, that was their last picture together for RKO. Astaire’s contract with studio ended and he went on to partner other dancing ladies at other studios. Rogers, on the other hand, promptly won the Academy Award for best actress in 1941 for her non-dancing, non-singing title role in Kitty Foyle.

Although Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers would not dance together on the silver screen for another decade, they were gloriously reunited for one final film appearance. That film was MGM’s The Barkleys of Broadway (1949) and that is the classic in the spotlight today. As Josh and Dinah Barkley, Astaire and Rogers portray a bickering musical-comedy stage couple. Josh is perfectly content with the musical roles they share while Dinah would like to expand her acting talent to more dramatic roles (similar to Fred and Ginger’s real-life situation). Oscar Levant as friend, Ezra, is on hand to referee the couple’s fights as well as lend his considerable musical and comedic skills to the mix. We especially enjoy “My One and Only Highland Fling” (Fred and Ginger wear kilts and speak in their best Scots accents) and their romantic rendition of “They Can’t Take That Away From Me”. Even the opening credits dance number (“Swing Trot”) is sheer perfection and can be seen minus the printed titles in 1994’s That’s Entertainment III. The Barkleys of Broadway is a wonderfully entertaining motion picture and the only Astaire-Rogers vehicle filmed in color. It is a fitting farewell from two very gifted artists whose screen collaborations were, and still are, magnificent contributions to the musical genre of classic cinema.

**Trivia for Today: Which of the Astaire-Rogers films is considered the best and was also Ginger’s favorite? The answer will appear in our next post.

Trivia Answer from Previous Post: Unfortunately, Myrna Loy was never nominated for an Academy Award for any of her fine film performances.