Idylle sous les toits

Ginger Rogers arrived at RKO Studios in April 1933 after they had signed her to a three-picture deal. Her first film there was "Professional Sweetheart". The director was William Seiter and her leading man was Norman Foster. Ginger said Seiter had a tremendous sense of humor and was a joy to work with. She had flirted with Foster in her first film at Paramouht.

After "Don't Bet on Love" and "A Shriek in the Night", Ginger's contract was picked up for another year, she was presented with the script for "Rafter Romance", to be directed by her old friend Bill Seiter and starring Norman Foster. She said it was like "old-home week again". This "B" picture was filmed just months before the big break of her career. In September, she would start filming "Flying Down to Rio", in which she would dance with Fred Astaire, effectively changing the arc of her career and her life.

"Rafter Romance" is a typical big-city story about young adults trying to make ends meet during the difficult economy. Mary (Ginger Rogers) and Jack (Norman Foster) are tenants in the same apartment building. When they can't pay their rents, the landlord, Mr. Eckbaum (George Sidney) ingeniously realizes they could share the same apartment since one works day hours and the other works the night shift.

It's a somewhat racy premise for its time, but the film was made in the pre-Code era--that brief but glorious period when studios were allowed freer expression. Accordingly, the film includes some suggestions of nudity and impropriety that were typical of pre-Code films.

The film lasts a mere 73 minutes and the story is not demanding, but the actors acquit themselves well. No doubt they enjoyed the filming, having a natural chemistry. The Eckbaum family provides a warm, but humorous, backdrop for the action.

In one scene, the Eckbaum son-who always seems to be hanging around--is drawing swastikas in chalk on the wall near the lobby phone. In 1933, the Nazis would have figured prominently in world news. Their eye-catching symbol was, no doubt, fascinating to youngsters, so it makes sense that he might scribble it as graffiti. Before long, the menace of Nazism would become more apparent.

Fun find! Two hip young people trying to make a go in NYC in 1933. After not paying their rents for 3 months the landlord moves them into the same attic apartment as their schedules are opposite. It's a great peek at urban life in 1933 with drunken work picnics, a lecherous boss, a high society cougar, a telemarketing office and two witty and sassily dressed 20 somethings trying to make it in the big apple. And it's shot in and around the city. As other reviewers have mentioned - the landlord is stereotypical Jew and there's a stereotypical Italian selling flowers on the street. Not so nice. But this is pretty typical in Hollywood, even now isn't it? The landlord is actually a very likable fellow. He's not one dimensional and you laugh at the crazy antics and his great acting - NOT because of anything "Jewish". And as mentioned - there's another really interesting moment when the landlord's teenage son is writing swastikas on the chalkboard near the phone. He gets a smack on the head for it and he exclaims "But it's good luck!" It is not "making a joke of Nazism" but is in fact pointing out the interesting dilemma for that time. Previous to the Nazis adopting the symbol it DID denote good luck and it was (and still is) a positive icon for many races and religions. This movie foreshadows the evilness the symbol would become, especially to Jewish families. And for an American film to be blatantly anti-Nazi so early means smart writer/director. I'm really glad I got to see this film after its 50 years of purgatory.

The father was NOT upset due to a reference to Hitler but he was upset that the boy was scribbling on the walls. the swastika was, at one time, a good luck charm and could be found in many cultures around the world. Today, of course, it refers to nothing but Hitler and his atrocities, but in 1933 it had nothing to do with Hitler.

This was a great movie, and was before the censors got into cutting some scenes. Her bare back in one scene and showing her undressing must have been outrageous to many at that time.

Movies went from that freedom to almost no freedoms to almost unlimited freedom today. Ain't it a wonderful life ????

This is a cute romantic comedy from the 30's. An enterprising landlord arranges to rent the same top-floor apartment to a man who has a night job and a woman (played by a young Ginger Rogers) who has a day job. He lives/sleeps there during the day; she does during the night. The two protagonists don't actually know each other, except through the increasingly hostile notes that they leave to each other about the upkeep of the apartment. (It starts off with mild stuff like "Clean up the sink after you shave", and gets increasingly angry from thereon.) Eventually the two become bitter enemies, even though they have never met in person-- or so they think. As one might predict, it just so happens that the two meet and fall in love in the course of their lives outside the apartment-- and they don't realize that they are actually in love with their despised 'roommate' until the very end.

Though hardly classic cinema, this is certainly a cute and entertaining comic romance. Also, it has a couple of curious bits of cultural history built into it. The first is that Ginger Roger's character is a telemarketer-- and this is, to my knowledge, the first representation of that very modern profession in the cinema. The second is that there's a very strange reference to Nazism in the film. At one point, the landlord's somewhat dim-witted son draws a swastika on one of the doors as he's heard it means 'good luck'. The landlord (who, like is son, is clearly meant to be Jewish) is of course, furious. The odd thing is that this little incident was obviously intended to be funny (though I think most contemporary viewers will find it jarring or troubling). I think that just shows that this movie was made at during the narrow period of time when Nazism's anti-semitism was known in the U.S., but could still serve as a foil for laughter; it had not yet been recognized as the truly terrible force that it really was. As such, that makes this movie a curious historical artifact as well.

There's a feeling of deja vu to the plot of RAFTER ROMANCE about two people who aren't aware of each other's identity until they fall in love, but in 1933 it must have seemed quite an original idea.

At any rate, it gives GINGER ROGERS and NORMAN FOSTER a nice chance to show what they could do with light comedy and tender romance. They play two roommates who work different shifts but who eventually meet and fall in love. (Shades of YOU'VE GOT MAIL and other such stories). And oddly enough, ROBERT BENCHLEY would be making a play for Ginger as a lecherous wolf, just as he would some ten years later in THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR when he suggested she slip into something more comfortable.

After a series of pranks and misunderstandings, Foster and Rogers find each other at the company picnic and promptly fall in love.

Watch for LAURA HOPE CREWS (Aunt Pittypat of GWTW) as a woman who wants to "keep" Norman Foster--and GUINN WILLIAMS as a brawny taxicab driver.

Summing up: Good fun with an early look at Ginger.