Carefree

Ben Mankiewicz introduces Carefree, 1938.

Ben Mankiewicz introduces Carefree, 1938.

Utterly in the groove from the opening joke, Mark Sandrich directs Ralph Bellamy as Steve, Jack Carson as orderly Connors and Fred Astaire as shrink Tony Flagg, the gal they discuss of course Ginger Rogers, in the second-to-last RKO Fred & Ginger feature, Carefree, 1938.

Probably it should be no surprise that Fred Astaire, playing shrink Tony Flagg, has a terrific golf swing, until interrupted by Ginger Rogers as potential patient Amanda, which occasions Fred’s remarkable solo golf-tap piece to an Irving Berlin original instrumental, early in Carefree, 1938.

Ginger Rogers is hypnotized Amanda, whose psychiatrist Tony (Fred Astaire) regrets having told her that all men excepting her fiancé Steve (Ralph Bellamy), need to be shot down like dogs, when she appears at the shooting range, Jack Carson her minder, in the screwball-y Carefree, 1938.

A dream sequence dance famous for the big unprecedented smooch at the end, Ginger Rogers is psychiatric patient Amanda, whose crush on Fred Astaire, as her doc Tony, is revealed, with an Irving Berlin original song, in what was planned, before budget cuts, as a color scene, in Carefree, 1938.

Neat dance gimmick, after the vocal in the Irving Berlin original song, as psychologist Tony (Fred Astaire) needs to snap Amanda (Ginger Rogers) out of her hypnotic state, before she marries the other guy, in their first “comeback” RKO musical, Carefree, 1938.