Carefree (film)

Carefree
theatrical release poster
Directed byMark Sandrich
Written byOriginal idea:
Marian Ainslee
Guy Endore
Story & adaptation:
Dudley Nichols
Hagar Wilde
Screenplay:
Allan Scott
Ernest Pagano
Produced byPandro S. Berman
StarringFred Astaire
Ginger Rogers
Ralph Bellamy
CinematographyRobert De Grasse
Edited byWilliam Hamilton
Music byIrving Berlin (songs)
Victor Baravalle (score)
Production
company
Distributed byRKO Radio Pictures
Release date
  • September 2, 1938 (1938-09-02)
Running time
83 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1,253,000[1]
Box office$1,731,000[1]

Carefree is a 1938 American musical 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.

Carefree was a reunion for the team of Astaire and Rogers after a brief hiatus following Shall We Dance and six other previous RKO pictures. The next film in the series, The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939), would be their final RKO film together, although they would reunite in 1949 for MGM's The Barkleys of Broadway.

  1. ^ a b Richard Jewel, 'RKO Film Grosses: 1931–1951', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol. 14 No. 1, 1994 p. 41