Amanda

Tony Flagg (Fred Astaire) agrees to psychoanalyze the girlfriend of his pal Steve (Ralph Bellamy) because she can't make up her mind as to whether or not she wants to marry him. The girlfriend, Amanda (Ginger Rogers), decides in short order that she actually loves Tony, but he has decided she's perfectly normal and doesn't need his help. So she contrives a ridiculous dream so that he thinks she is abnormal and will continue to treat her.

This film should have been renamed "Conscience Free" as none of the three central players seems to have one. Astaire comically abuses his license to heal to hypnotize Rogers to try to control her emotions. When he realizes he's fallen for her, he tries to re-direct her affections for Bellamy to him. Rogers, when told under hypnosis to follow every impulse, escapes Astaire's office before she can be taken out of her trance, decides it would be fun to knock the canes away from old people and watch them fall down and to throw rocks through windows. And Bellamy, upon hearing that Rogers really loves Astaire, and that she is only marrying him as a result of hypnosis, is perfectly OK with that.

The Irving Berlin music, what there is of it, is fine. But there is little of the usual chemistry between Astaire and Rogers. Bright spots include an early career appearance by Jack Carson showing his flair for comedy and Clarence Kolb as a family friend and judge acting like The Monopoly Man personified. This was the only Astaire & Rogers film to lose money at the box office.

Hilarious and very stylish, this spellbinding art moderne musical is a real experiment in RKO craftsmanship. Did you know the dream sequences to the song "I used to be color blind" were originally filmed in color but the release abandoned because RKO couldn't get the tech specs right and the cost was going to be too high for the budget already set. It was a great idea and today might have made CAREFREE a more enduring success as there is no color footage of them as a dancing pair until 1949 at MGM.. Apart from the snazzy look of the art direction, Ginger's fantastic 'hearts and arrows' outfit and big black bewitching hat and the RKO world of the stone and timber country club, the music here is just terrific. The swing antics of the golf club bagpipe sequence had one audience I saw it with in rapturous applause. But I defy anyone to stay seated during THE YAM as they wing and swing their way all over the BIG SET Country club. CAREFREE is just great.

there is something specific about watching fred astaire and ginger rogers that just makes you want to dance. i think it's because they make it look so damn fun. and they are just so astonishingly good!! the plot here is a tad crazier than, say "top hat", and therefore that much less believable (come on ... going all out with freud and hypnosis, but then again that's just speaking from what is known today, so no problem letting that pass). irving berlin's music is a hoot at times (there's a song about yams) and classic and familiar at others ("change partners") and ginger rogers is nearly at her sassy best.

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers star in this delightful romantic musical comedy with a twist on the usual Fred and Ginger plot. Though odd and short in the musical number department, this teasing romantic romp features some of their best dancing and good humor to boot. Ginger Rogers is nothing short of stunning in this picture and Mr. Astaire's feet never touch the ground. Definitely their most underrated film.

Carefree marked the third collaboration of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers singing and dancing to an Irving Berlin score. Unfortunately it would prove to be the weakest of the films, the others being Top Hat and Follow The Fleet. One thing was that Irving Berlin wrote a lot less music for this than the other two.

The second thing was that it involved psychiatry and we'd have to wait for such musicals as Lady in the Dark and On A Clear Day before the subject was handled in any way responsibly.

I'm not sure the subject was the proper one for Astaire and Rogers. The plot has Rogers seeing Astaire professionally while she's engaged to Ralph Bellamy who is playing the typical Ralph Bellamy part. I guess because it's Ralph Bellamy liberties can be taken with the leading lady by a her psychiatrist.

It was a bit much to swallow, a man who gave up studying the dance to become a disciple of Sigmund Freud. But that's what Fred Astaire is in Carefree. Usually the two don't mix. I can't imagine Freud breaking out into an intricate Astaire dance routine.

I will say that Irving Berlin did give Fred and Ginger some good songs to sing and dance to. The print I have is totally black and white and the I Used To Be Color Blind dream sequence definitely loses something when not seen in color. Fred and Ginger are at their liveliest doing The Yam and the rest of the cast gets involved. In fact I was surprised at how nimble Clarence Kolb was on his feet.

Fred's plaintive plea for Ginger to Change Partners got an Oscar nomination for Best Song, but it lost to Bob Hope's perennial theme of Thanks for the Memory.

I could not quite enjoy Carefree as much I have other Astaire/Rogers collaborations. When you think about, Fred's using his professional training to mess with her mind. His heart may be in the right place, but his medical ethics stink.