I can see how fans of the previous Astaire - Rogers musicals would have been disappointed with this movie. It's really barely a musical - virtually no new musical numbers - and there isn't that much dancing in it. Most of what there is isn't of the sweepingly romantic style that the couple had done so well in their previous movies. This is more of a drama with an occasional dance step and, frankly, not a particularly interesting one, as the Castles, at least as presented here, didn't have any interesting problems in their lives.What I did find interesting was the end, the part devoted to World War I. If you put it in the context of its era - the movie was released in 1939, as war loomed up once again over Europe - the last part can be seen as part of the interventionist propaganda that Hollywood produced from 1939 until Pearl Harbor, and which included such much better pictures as Casablanca, some of Erol Flynn's movies, and even Mrs. Miniver. The joy of the French when America enters the war "because now it will come to a quick end" was certainly meant to suggest that if America only intervened in any new European conflict, it too would end quickly. (That's not how it worked out, but who could have known that in 1939?) There isn't a single memorable number in this movie, either in terms of the music or the dancing. And the story just isn't that interesting. Astaire - Rogers fans could skip this one, as could others, and feel that they have missed very little.

I'm glad there are a lot of positive reviews for this film as it is definitely one of my favourite Astaire / Rogers teamings.Vernon and Irene Castle's popularity in the years before World War One was phenomenal. The film recreates the sensation they caused as the public flocked to buy Irene Castle hats, shoes, frocks and coats - she was even a trend setter with her hairstyles (the costumes in the film were designed by Irene Castle). Apparently Irene Castle, who was quite involved as an adviser on the film, while admiring Fred Astaire, did not get on with Ginger and there were some fights on the set.Vernon Castle (Fred Astaire) is a comedian playing vaudeville (he is teamed with Lew Fields). He has organized to meet the troupes' leading lady at the beach at New Rochelle. When she doesn't show up, an accidental meeting with Irene Foote (Ginger Rogers) (they are both trying to rescue a very cute pup from drowning) causes him to spend the afternoon at her house. I found this part very funny. Irene is a star- struck, would be performer and her family (with the exception of her father) have great faith in her abilities. She performs "The Yama Yama Man" (introduced by Bessie McCoy in the Ziegfeld Follies) with great gusto - much to Vernon's and the rescued pup's fright. Walter Brennan is great in his role as Walt, who has a blind faith in Irene's talent. Vernon calls her a "ham" and she is thrilled (not knowing what it means but she soon learns). Vernon then performs a skillful tap dance to "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" at the train station and Irene can hardly wait to see him perform at the theater. She brings her girlfriends, but is horrified when instead of a dance routine he is the buffoon in a slapstick comic barbershop act. She then hears someone calling him a ham and goes back to his dressing room to tell him off.Despite the bad beginning they hit it off and Vernon teaches Irene to dance in the hope of forming a dancing partnership. Of course there is a theme song - this time it is the beautiful "Only When You're in My Arms". Their first audition is a fabulous dance to "Waiting For the Robert E. Lee" - but Mr. Fields is not impressed - "who would pay money to see a man dance with his wife??" After that disappointment they are approached by two men who want them for their club in Paris. Vernon and Irene think it is for their dancing but it is really for Vernon's comedy routine. By the time they get over there they are penniless and must get a job to tide them over.They meet Maggie Sutton (Edna May Oliver) who gets them an audition at the Cafe De Paris. They dance the wonderful Castle Walk to "Too Much Mustard" and create a sensation - Irene looks beautiful and wears her lucky Dutch cap. They made ballroom dancing popular and introduced many now standard dances to European audiences - the Tango, the Foxtrot and the Castle Polka. The Maxixe was particularly stylish with Irene in a beautiful striped silk dress with her now familiar Dutch cap. They do a tour of the United States. A very effective scene shows them dancing across a map of the United States leaving cheering fans in each state. They also write a book entitled "Modern Dancing". They eventually settle in England but war is declared.While doing a benefit performance Fred (doing a mean imitation of James Cagney doing George M. Cohan)enlists. On one of his leaves, he and Irene do a medley of the dances they have made famous - Irene looks beautiful in a floaty chiffon dress. When the Americans enter the war, Irene volunteers for war work and even takes time out to make a patriotic serial in Hollywood - "Patria".The ending is beautifully done as an image of Irene and Vernon (who had been killed in a freak air accident) dance down a treed walk to their song, "Only When You're in My Arms".Highly Recommended.

The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle is the last of the 9 RKO musicals Astaire did with Rogers. However, from a story point-of-view, it is their best film by a mile. The contest isn't even close, IMO.It's not their best musical. This film is really a drama with a few musical interludes, whereas most of the other Astaire-Rogers films were musical comedies. Those other films had flimsy plots at best and were saved only by their songs and dances. BUT - "Vernon and Irene" could easily stands alone without any songs or dances. It even has some action sequences as is typical of war-time films (WWI, in this case).The film is a bio-pic about the Castles, who in their heyday were even bigger than Astaire and Rogers. The choreography is more attuned to 1910's sensibilities than the usual Astaire and Rogers film, but that's okay. Astaire and Rogers dance just well as always.As the dancing duo's last RKO film, V&C is quite classy and a fine close to a great RKO dancing career for the two.

Do people watch Astaire and Rogers films for more than the pleasure of their dancing and singing? Both performed the dialog parts in their musical comedies well too, but most people think of their movies as a series of opportunities to see great dance numbers and to hear music by Gershwin, Kern, Berlin, Porter, or Youmans. I doubt if they recall the plots."Flying Down To Rio" deals with a traveling orchestra that assists in advertising a hotel in Rio De Janairo. Nobody recalls that, but they recall Youmans' melody "Orchids in the Moonlight" and his dance (for Astaire and Rogers) "The Carioca". They also remember the big production number of the young women on the airplane wing ("Ah, Rio, Rio by the Sea - Oh!"). Except for that, few recall the hero is Gene Raymond and the heroine is Delores Del Rio. The running gag of the three agents of the bank that is trying to sabotage the new hotel (and who are only seen as top hatted shadows) may be recalled - but it isn't really worth recalling.In the later musicals the same problems exist. The story of "Gay Divorcée" (originally "Gay Divorce" on Broadway) is how Rogers hires Eric Rhodes to be found with her at a resort hotel so her husband can have grounds for divorce. The Porter score including "Night and Day" and "The Continental" was good - but who recalls the plot (though Rhodes is very funny as the perpetual hired "other man" for instant divorces. The final irony of the plot (almost like a flat joke's punch line) is that Eric Blore knows a nasty secret about the husband, who (for his own reasons) does not want a divorce.The series did try to tie the couple down to more than frivolous plots dealing with mistaken identities or fake personalities. FOLLOW THE FLEET and CAREFREE tried to have plots dealing with sailors putting on a show and with a psychologist falling in love with a patient who was engaged to his best friend (Ralph Bellamy, of course). Both were amusing, but rather slapdash. CAREFREE had a curious concluding moment, when a hypnotized Rogers is literally slapped out of her state of hypnosis. Rogers looks like she has been the victim of domestic violence as she is married.By 1939 Astaire and Rogers were tired of the series, and wanted to go their separate ways. The public was also getting tired of the series. So finally they were given a property that reversed the formula. Instead of the music and dancing ornamenting a bare plot, the plot incorporated the music and dance by telling the story of the greatest ballroom dance team of the first half of the 20th Century, Vernon and Irene Castle.I have often felt that had Vernon Castle lived beyond 1917 into the period of talkie movies, and stayed married to Irene, they might have been in some of the Astaire Rogers films (the choreography of two rival couples dancing would have been fascinating). Vernon might have played a mentor or rival or father to Fred. But it wasn't to be. As the film shows Vernon (who was English-born) enlisted in the Air Corps in 1917, and was killed in a freak accident saving the life of a pilot he was training (the scene in the film is quite savage in showing the crash).In the four years (1913 - 1917) when they swept the world with their mastery of dancing, Vernon and Irene Castle became leading celebrities. The film follows the slow steps to fame they took, including getting stuck for awhile in Paris because Vernon was hired only to be a comic actor, not to be a dancer. It shows how Edna Mae Oliver (as their agent and friend) gets them the breaks they deserve, and how they end as figures of social change (ballroom dancing regained popularity, and they did create not only fashions for men and women but also "the Castle Walk" dance step). That this all happened in four years suggests what their impact would have been if they lived into the 1940s together (Irene Castle died in the 1960s).There are some delightful moments in the film: Ginger Rogers auditioning for her date Fred Astaire by doing "Yama Yama Man" complete with a costume in her parlor. She is imitating the originator of the song, Bessie McCoy. Walter Brennan trying to protect Rogers from Astaire (whose intentions he constantly suspects). Watch him in a small scene watering the grass of the lawn, and ignoring Astaire's questions. Oliver noticing the rhythmic swaying of the overhead lamp in her apartment due to the dancing going on upstairs (where Fred and Ginger are dancing). But what is best is the feeling of impending doom over the couple. We know Vernon is going to die so that means their success and their life together will end soon.This sense of doom makes "The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle" unique among the Astaire - Rogers films - it is a downer. There is no getting away from the loss of happiness Irene Castle suffered, nor the loss of talent the theater and dance world suffered. The concluding moment of the film always haunted me - Irene and Vernon dancing in spirit together, twirling in a never-ending, eventually disappearing embrace. When I saw the film the first time, Irene Castle was still alive. The second time she was gone but the two stars were still living. Now Fred and Ginger are gone too. That final ghostly dance manages to encompass two sets of dance legends, and increases the sadness that surrounds this - to me - best of their films.