Discuss The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle
Discuss → Movies → The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle → General
Great Astaire and Rogers film!
posted by catmydogsSTAFFMOD on July 16, 2020 at 1:06 AM
This is a bit of an underrated film among the 9 RKO musicals with Astaire and Rogers. It is certainly unusual for many reasons. First, it is really a drama with some musical interludes. It’s played straight, no art deco sets or screwball comedy elements. Astaire and Rogers play a married couple based on the real-life pre-WW1 dance sensations. You can really see how they’ve grown as actors, Rogers especially. No surprise that she’d win an Oscar soon afterwards. And, the film is rather melancholy.
As a film, I think it is well-constructed with none of the unintentionally cringe-inducing comic scenes of their earlier, popular musical comedies. Not as much fun as the earlier escapist films, but all in all, a better film.
Swing Time is considered their best “dancing” film but the plot is just unwatchable aside from the musical scenes. Top Hat is probably their most popular and iconic film. But Story of Vernon and Irene Castle deserves a chance, too. I don’t think Astaire had a better drama film until decades later in On the Beach.
Reply by genplant29
on July 16, 2020 at 2:56 AM
I'm an Astaire-Rogers fan, but must admit this is one of their movies I'm unable to recall ever having watched. Definitely have heard of it many times (and most likely have actually seen it at some point, decades ago), but guess throughout recent years always opted to bypass it, whenever TCM broadcast it, no doubt assuming it wouldn't be entertaining like, say, Top Hat and the such are.
Reply by catmydogs
on July 16, 2020 at 12:32 PM
My favorites are actually Flying Down to Rio (because pre-Code) and Follow the Fleet for the fun dances and music.
The Castle film has its period-piece charms and even a rather impressive special effects dance on a huge USA map. But the dances and songs are traditional for obvious reasons, so the film has a decidedly different ambiance to the other RKO films, with their sometimes wild flights of invention and fancy.
Reply by Butterflygal
on January 23, 2022 at 9:24 PM
I just saw it, my late elders were fans of the iconic duo. I also read a bio on the Castles last year. They were trailblazers.
I did not know, they marketed candy, cosmetics, and clothing. Irene also had a hairstyle named after her. Was the Dutch cap really popular back then?