Matylda Swan It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

gkeith_1 Spoilers. Observations. Opinions. Excellent. Biopic of pre Great War famous dancing couple. Who else better to portray them than Fred and Ginger?Maggie and Walter were excellent. I always love Zowie and the other dogs. Good to see the real Lew Fields. Ginger's costumes were divine. I hated to see all of the hair cutting, however. Postwar period may have been bad for theatricals, so Vernon's and Irene's careers may not have survived, anyway. Changing tastes may have had a great effect, but in a bad way. The Castles were correct for the time, however, and they introduced a lot of great dances. I am a degreed historian, actress, singer, dancer, fashion designer, film critic and movie reviewer. I am very interested in theatrical history.

Jay Raskin This is a worthy tribute to Irene and Vernon Castle who really were the Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire Dance sensation for their own time 1913-1917. This was the ninth and last RKO musical for Fred and Ginger, although they did a reunion picture in 1949. Consider that they started dancing on-screen together in Dec 1933 with "Flying Down to Rio" and this film came out in March of 1939, so Fred and Ginger mania really lasted only 5 1/2 years, not much more than the Castles' time at the top of popular American culture. The Beatles lasted about the same 1964-1970. Social Icons have a limited shelf life before they are replaced, but the fan base does continue for many decades and even into new generations.The first half of the film is quite hilarious and really typical Fred and Ginger. Ginger's "The Yama Yama Man" is the highlight for me. The second half does become more serious. This is appropriate, as they were honoring two dancers who really paved the way for all popular dancers in the century. I loved the great special effect shot here of the couple dancing across a map of the United States and hundreds of tiny dancers suddenly popping up where ever they went.Some people have commented that Irene Castle was unhappy about some things in the production. I think she was probably trying to make the production as truthful as possible and largely succeeded. The fact that her black friend and companion was portrayed as a white man would have upset anyone who was not a racist. This is, in fact the only problem that I have with the film. Hollywood missed a great opportunity to show a case of real interracial harmony. It was a sad misjudgment on the part of RKO management. Irene Castle was entirely correct to criticize the decision.Walter Brennan and Edna May Oliver do a good job of providing the sidekick laughs, allowing Fred and Ginger to stick more to the romance. Oliver received a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination that same year for "Drums Along the Mohawk." Oliver played Maggie Sutton, a character based on Elizabeth Marbury, one of the most famous lesbians of the her time. She was one of the first literary and theatrical agents who included Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw and Jerome Kern among her clients. Sadly, the Hayes Codes made it impossible to show any suggestion that she was gay. If there was a remake today, I'm sure that would be a major point.So far I have watched six of the ten Fred and Ginger movies. Each of them has been a joy. This one was a joy, but I also shed a tear. I hope to watch the other four in the coming weeks.

MartinHafer BEWARE--SPOILER AHEAD--READ AT YOUR OWN RISKThis film is one of the most unusual Astaire-Rogers musicals because for once the story is about a real couple, Vernon and Irene Castle--famous dancers in the early part of the 20th century. So we have a musical bio-pic, though in many other ways it's very similar to the rest of the films Astaire and Rogers made together. Once again, there are strong supporting comic players (Edna May Oliver and Walter Brennan) and plenty of ballroom-style and tap dancing. But what truly makes this different is that the film is forced to stick to the main facts about the people they are portraying, so there is no fairy tale happy ending, since Vernon was killed towards the end of WWI. Those who want the happy ending and demand the Astaire-Rogers formula remain intact will be disappointed, but I was actually pretty impressed that the story DIDN'T include some sort of sappy ending or ended on a cliché. While not a great film, the acting, dancing, direction and writing were just fine and I do respect the fact that it is not just the "same old story".

writers_reign There was probably a good reason why RKO put these top-rated stars into a vehicle that was alien to everything they had done before; it's interesting to speculate that perhaps the studio felt the franchise was winding down and needed kick-starting in a new direction, or maybe the studio felt the partnership was growing too demanding and wanted to 'teach them a lesson' or, to explore another avenue, maybe they HAD been unable to persuade Astaire to sign another contract and decided his last contractual obligation would be in a movie weighted towards Ginger. Whatever, they came up with a bio-pic of two dancers who had revolutionized ballroom dancing a quarter of a century earlier but were, at the time of filming, virtually forgotten. Unlike the others in the franchise this time around there would be no mistaken identity ploys to keep the couple apart until the last reel, no new score (just a single new number) from the likes of Berling, Kern or Gershwin AND for good measure an unhappy ending.Vernon Castle was an Englishman from Norwich who moved to America and appeared in a dozen or so Broadway shows before forming a dance partnership with his wife, Irene, which brought them fame and fortune. He enlisted soon after the outbreak of World War I and was killed in February, 1918, and the film more or less follows that outline. This time around there is virtually no chasing the girl; they meet and marry within two reels, spend another reel starving then become an overnight sensation, enjoy it for five or six years until Vernon dies in an airplane accident.Fred and Ginger do what they did best, sing and dance but this time in a completely different style to the one fans were used to and expected. Nevertheless they still manage to charm and captivate and actually carry much more of the film with no Eric Blore, Edward Everett Horton, Erik Rhodes or Helen Broderick to share the load. In lieu of these comic stalwarts we get Walter Brennan (playing the part of a man who, in real life, was Black) and Edna May Oliver, both of whom are up to the little they get to do. Apparently it disappointed fans on its initial release but today it stands up well and reminds us just what our grandparents, parents, and even ourselves loved about Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.