Astaire & Rogers Collection, Vol. 2 (Flying Down to Rio / The Gay Divorcee / Roberta / Carefree / The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle)

Format : Full Screen, Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Original recording remastered, Subtitled, NTSC
Publisher : Warner Home Video
Company : Warner Brothers
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Product Description

The credits in "Flying Down to Rio" (1933) may list Dolores Del Rio first, but Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers steal the show in their first film together. The story involves the romance between bandleader-pilot Gene Raymond and singer Del Rio, with the standout sequences including Fred and Ginger doing the "Carioca" together and dozens of chorus girls dancing on the wings of airplanes "in midair." The lively dancing of Astaire and Rogers highlights "Roberta" (1935), set in Paris and featuring Irene Dunne and Randolph Scott. Look for an unknown Lucille Ball. Score includes "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," "Lovely to Look At." In "Carefree" (1938), Ginger walks into psychiatrist Fred's office to ask if she should marry her boyfriend, but before long the two are dancing out the door together. Songs include "Change Partners." With Ralph Bellamy. And, Fred and Ginger's last film together for RKO, "The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle" (1939) is a tuneful biography of the famous turn-of-the-century dance team. Numbers include "Only When You're in My Arms." Five-disc set also includes "The Gay Divorcee." 8 hrs. total. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: English, French, Spanish.

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2006 marks the arrival of five Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers films (Flying Down to Rio, The Gay Divorcee, Roberta, Carefree, and The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle) on DVD after the first five were released in 2005. If you only want the five new films, pick up this Astaire & Rogers Collection, Vol. 2 as a bookend to your Astaire & Rogers Collection, Vol. 1. Or you can get the big package, Astaire & Rogers Ultimate Collector's Edition, which contains all 10 films plus a CD, a bonus DVD with the documentary Astaire and Rogers: Partners in Rhythm, press-book replicas, and some other material. If you want the big package with the extra stuff but already bought the five films in 2005, you can get the Astaire & Rogers Partial Ultimate Collector's Edition, which includes everything listed above except the actual discs of those first five films.

Flying Down to Rio (1933) headlined Dolores Del Rio and Gene Raymond, but it was the fourth- and fifth-billed stars who would rewrite cinematic history. Astaire and Rogers had limited screen time, but were still able to establish many of the trademarks of their later films. The heart of the film is "The Carioca," a company dance extravaganza in which they take the floor together for the first time; their eyes meet and their foreheads touch. Their dance lasts only a few minutes, but it was the highlight of the film and audiences wanted more. The Gay Divorcee (1934) is their best early picture, a loose adaptation of Astaire's stage show, The Gay Divorce. The only song retained for the movie is Cole Porter's smash hit "Night and Day," which is the setting for a sublime pas de deux between Fred and Ginger. The closer is the sprawling 17-minute ensemble number "The Continental." Roberta (1935) was a step backward, with too much time spent on 1930s Parisian fashion and the romance between top-billed Irene Dunne (who gets the best Jerome Kern ballads, "Yesterdays" and "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes") and Randolph Scott. But as the second-banana couple Astaire and Rogers still get a tap battle, a romantic duet, and plenty of comic banter.

The eighth and ninth entries in the series tried some different approaches, with the underrated Carefree (1938) more of a comedy vehicle for Ginger (yet still including some fine dances and Irving Berlin songs as well as their first onscreen kiss) and The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939) portraying the pair as historical dancing stars and using a score of turn-of-the-century standards. --David Horiuchi

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