Carefree (1938)

Interesting facts

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Carefree is a 1938 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Mark Sandrich and starring Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Ralph Bellamy. With a plot similar to screwball comedies of the period, Carefree is the shortest of the Astaire–Rogers films, featuring only four musical numbers. Carefree is often remembered as the film in which Astaire and Rogers shared a long on-screen kiss at the conclusion of their dance to "I Used to Be Color Blind"; all previous kisses having been either quick pecks or simply implied.

Production

Carefree was in production from April 14 to 15, 1938 (Astaire's golfing dance), and from May 9 to July 21. Location filming was done at the Columbia Ranch in Burbank, California, and at Busch Gardens in Pasadena, California. RKO borrowed Ralph Bellamy from Columbia Pictures for this film.

The "I Used to Be Color Blind" number was planned to be a Technicolor sequence in an otherwise black-and-white film. The film as released is entirely black-and-white.

Astaire did not like "mushy love scenes", and preferred that sex between him and Rogers be confined to their dances. Because rumors sprang up that Astaire's wife would not let him kiss onscreen, or that Rogers and Astaire didn't like each other, Astaire agreed to the long kiss at the end of "I Used to Be Color Blind", "to make up for all the kisses I had not given Ginger for all those years."

Besides the number "Let's Make the Most of Our Dream", another scene that was dropped from the released film was one where Astaire tries to analyze a scatter-brained patient, played by Grace Hayle.

The film was released in the United States on September 2, 1938. The previous Astaire–Rogers film, Shall We Dance, had been released in May 1937, and the 16-month gap between the films was the longest between the duo's films to that date.

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