Protraph Lack of good storyline.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

dzizwheel Many have described this movie as a screwball comedy. It is far too lumbering in it's pace, dialog and timing to be any such thing.It has a few good musical numbers in it that break up the tedium, but wastes a fine cast in beyond ridiculous situations. Ginger Rogers looks fantastic but her attempts at comedy while her character is under anesthesia look like a community theater amateur trying to be funny. Embarrassing. Same thing in her scene with Fred Astaire, as a psychiatrist, where she invents a dream to convince him she needs her help. The lines aren't funny,Rogers looks as if the director told her to improvise and the audience gets the message that her improvisational skills are all in her feet.Not good. And not amusing in any way.For prime examples of screwball comedy seek out My Man Godfrey, Bombshell. or more recently What's Up Doc. Any earlier Astaire/Rogers movie will do as well.The musical numbers are what one would expect and certainly up to the pair's skills. The rest of it could have used a good editor. Or writer. Your fast forward button will have to do.Better than many but a stinker for these two.

utgard14 Psychiatrist Fred Astaire is asked by friend Ralph Bellamy to speak with Bellamy's fiancée Ginger Rogers. Ginger seems to have cold feet about their wedding and Ralph wants Fred to somehow help her overcome her issues and marry him. Things get out of control thanks to drugs, dreams, and hypnosis. Ginger falls for Fred but Fred thinks it isn't real so he hypnotizes her into thinking she loves Ralph. Then Fred realizes he loves her and it's screwball comedy greatness from then on.An atypical Fred & Ginger movie but one of my favorites. More comedy than musical but it's very light and fun. Ginger is adorable and hilarious here. Love her repeated "ha ha ha" bit. You have to hear her delivery to get it. Fred's good as usual, though his character is the worst psychiatrist ever. While the hypnotism stuff is way out there, it does lead to a wonderful dance number at the end where the duo move like Ginger is under a trance. There are no real classics in the musical numbers but they're all pleasant and enjoyable. "The Yam" is lots of fun and probably the highlight. The supporting cast is terrific. Stage actress Luella Gear shines as Ginger's friend. Her first scene with Jack Carson is a hoot. Another movie where Ralph Bellamy doesn't get the girl. Poor guy. It's a great movie but it might not appeal to all Fred & Ginger fans for the fact that it's light on musical numbers (there's only four). Try to keep an open mind and give it a shot.

Neil Doyle I don't know why so many of the reviewers here have taken such a strong dislike to CAREFREE simply because they take the characters too seriously. Sure, FRED ASTAIRE doesn't show the most ethical side of a therapist but, hey, we know this is a Fred and Ginger movie, and isn't it a nice change of pace to have him playing a professional for a change, even if he is a cad? And how can anyone fault GINGER ROGERS for being goofy when this is a screwball comedy that gives her a chance to demonstrate what she could do with physical comedy--such as her uninhibited way with breaking glass while under hypnosis? It's all done in good-natured style, with the usual "other man" role for RALPH BELLAMY as the guy who never has a chance of getting the girl. Although "Change Partners" is clearly the best Irving Berlin song in the whole show, it definitely needed better showcasing than it gets here. It comes across as a weak, throwaway number as performed in the film.JACK Carson has a brief comic assignment that he handles deftly, but the film puts the spotlight on Ginger's comic abilities and it's she who has the meatiest role. Astaire, when dancing with or without Ginger, is at his usual peak of perfection, particularly in the golf course number.Summing up: Highly enjoyable, if not among the best of the pair's best films.

JasonLeeSmith If you attempt to look at the plot carefully (never a good idea in a musical) this is a rather repellent movie. The practice of Psychotherapy wasn't as well known or as well respected as it is today, and the film was clearly written by someone who seemed to think of it as some fad medical cure indulged in mainly by rich and foolish women. As such we get to see Fred Astaire, the therapist, subjecting Ginger Rogers, the patient, to all manner of barbaric (to modern eyes) treatments in order to find out why she won't marry his best friend. Eventually Astaire uses hypnosis to force her to marry him, and then force him not to. Clearly, movie doctors were not subjected to as severe a code of ethics as are real ones.Its a pretty typical outing for Astaire and Rogers. Astaire's dancing is extraordinary (the dance scene on the golf course is great, as is the one where he dances with a hypnotized Rogers). Rogers' comic timing is, as always, wonderful. The secondary characters are all two-dimension cut-outs, but they're entertaining ones. If the characters didn't have quite the same sparkle to their interplay, remember, this was Astaire and Rogers' eighth film together and artistic differences were beginning to create a strain.My biggest issue with this movie was the scene in which they sing the song "I Used To Be Colorblind". This was dream sequence, and it lasted about five minutes. "Carefree" is a black and white movie and the intent originally was to film the dream sequence in color a'la "Wizard of Oz". Apparently, somewhere in the production process, people balked at the cost and it was produced in black and white along with the rest of the film. Being filmed in black and white makes the song, and the entire sequence makes not one lick of sense, because the song is about how crisp and clear the world seems in color. Not only that, but since it was designed to be viewed on color film, not in black and white, the sets weren't designed with that same high degree of contrasts they would have if they had been designed to be viewed in black and white. As such, things in the dream sequence are LESS clear than in the rest of the movie, not more. I'm just appalled that the studio could spring for a few minutes of color footage for a film with such proved money-makes as Astaire and Rogers.