The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939)

Synopsis: Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers star in this musical tribute to a famous real life dance team. 20 years before Astaire and Rogers, there were the elegant Castles, so it was no surprise that the most... Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers star in this musical tribute to a famous real life dance team. 20 years before Astaire and Rogers, there were the elegant Castles, so it was no surprise that the most famous dance pair of the silver screen ultimately played their illustrious predecessors. In the 1910s, Irene and Vernon Castle took the dances of the Americas, the tango of Argentina, the maxixe of Brazil, and the foxtrot of the United States to France and became the talk of Paris. With the Castles' success, the formal waltzes of the past gave way to the looser, ragtime-influenced choreography of the future. The plot follows the pair from their first audition as a team for a café in Paris through Vernon's enlistment as a flight instructor in the war. Director H. C. Potter stays true to the team, keeping all the song and the dance numbers typical of the early 20th Century. This is top-notch cinematic entertainment which includes over 40 pop songs from the past. Irene Castle herself diligently over saw the entire production. [More]

Starring: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edna May Oliver, Walter Brennan

Starring: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edna May Oliver, Walter Brennan, Lew Fields, Etienne Girardot, Janet Beecher, Sonny Lamont

Director: H.C. Potter

Director: H.C. Potter
Producer: George Haight, Pandro S. Berman
Story: Irene Castle

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