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Astaire & Rogers Collection, Vol. 2 (Flying Down to Rio / The Gay Divorcee / Roberta / Carefree / The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle)
Availability:
In Stock
Price:
$59.98
$42.77*
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| Part No: | B000H6SXM4 |
| Manufacturer: | Warner Home Video |
| MFG Part: | WARD76438D |
| Customer Rating: | 4.5 / 5.0 |
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Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 10/24/2006
2006 marks the arrival of five Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers films (
Flying Down to Rio,
The Gay Divorcee,
Roberta,
Carefree, and
The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle) on DVD after the first five were released in 2005. If you only want the five new films, pick up this
Astaire & Rogers Collection, Vol. 2 as a bookend to your
Astaire & Rogers Collection, Vol. 1. Or you can get the big package,
Astaire & Rogers Ultimate Collector's Edition, which contains all 10 films plus a CD, a bonus DVD with the documentary
Astaire and Rogers: Partners in Rhythm, press-book replicas, and some other material. If you want the big package with the extra stuff but already bought the five films in 2005, you can get the
Astaire & Rogers Partial Ultimate Collector's Edition, which includes everything listed above except the actual discs of those first five films.
Flying Down to Rio (1933) headlined Dolores Del Rio and Gene Raymond, but it was the fourth- and fifth-billed stars who would rewrite cinematic history. Astaire and Rogers had limited screen time, but were still able to establish many of the trademarks of their later films. The heart of the film is "The Carioca," a company dance extravaganza in which they take the floor together for the first time; their eyes meet and their foreheads touch. Their dance lasts only a few minutes, but it was the highlight of the film and audiences wanted more. The Gay Divorcee (1934) is their best early picture, a loose adaptation of Astaire's stage show, The Gay Divorce. The only song retained for the movie is Cole Porter's smash hit "Night and Day," which is the setting for a sublime pas de deux between Fred and Ginger. The closer is the sprawling 17-minute ensemble number "The Continental." Roberta (1935) was a step backward, with too much time spent on 1930s Parisian fashion and the romance between top-billed Irene Dunne (who gets the best Jerome Kern ballads, "Yesterdays" and "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes") and Randolph Scott. But as the second-banana couple Astaire and Rogers still get a tap battle, a romantic duet, and plenty of comic banter.
The eighth and ninth entries in the series tried some different approaches, with the underrated Carefree (1938) more of a comedy vehicle for Ginger (yet still including some fine dances and Irving Berlin songs as well as their first onscreen kiss) and The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939) portraying the pair as historical dancing stars and using a score of turn-of-the-century standards. --David Horiuchi
| A Must Have If You Like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers!!! | 2008-04-22 | 5 / 5 |
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I am a huge Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers fan and bought Vol 2 as I had finished watching all of the movies in Vol 1. The movies are great, the extra features in each movie are interesting. I especially like the original trailers for the movies. So cool!
I highly recommend this DVD set. |
| The best team ever | 2008-03-11 | 5 / 5 |
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| For those who already have the first collection, this is a treat. Here we have the first time they danced together and the progression of style and elegance that made them the best dance team ever. For those who do not have the first collecion volume, you will want to get that one too, than you have the complete picture of why they were unexcelled. It becomes obvious when Fred Astaire took over more of the control of the dance choreograpy, sheer genius. He never had another partner that worked so well with him. They seem to be enjoying themselves. Be sure to listen to the commentaries by his daughter and the others. |
| Astaire & Rogers Collection vol.2 | 2007-11-02 | 5 / 5 |
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| The collection is superb, their joy in the dance is so easy to catch. I appreciate all my favorites in one box. |
| Astaire and Rogers: They made movie history | 2007-10-25 | 5 / 5 |
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| Great moments, great music, great dancing scenes. I am happy to call the entire Astaire/Rogers Collection my own. A must for any musical and classic film collection. And it was an sale at for a great price, too!! |
| See how it all started and ended for the duo at RKO | 2007-05-31 | 5 / 5 |
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The first volume of Astaire & Rogers has four of their best films at RKO plus one that didn't really fit in with the motif of the other Astaire & Rogers films - The Barkleys of Broadway - that was actually an MGM musical.
This set of five films shows you how it all started and ended for the duo at RKO. "Flying Down to Rio" is the duo's first film, and is enjoyable enough but would probably be long forgotten were it not for the fourth and fifth billed Astaire and Rogers dancing the "The Carioca" about half-way through the film plus the witty banter of the two that goes on throughout and really spices up the movie. Also, the pre-code raciness of some of the film may surprise you with lines like "What have those girls got below the equator that we haven't got?" as uttered by one of the chorines about a Brazilian girl.
"Roberta" moves the pair up to second and third billing, with Irene Dunne top billed. The two have a greatly expanded screen time trading jabs that is much like what they did in "Rio", but the main emphasis is on the romance between Randolph Scott and Irene Dunne. Dunne's singing even crowds out the singing and dancing of Astaire & Rogers. Thus these first two films really have the pair as a wise cracking entertainment duo rather than involving the romantic comedy of their other films. This is the last film in which Ginger Rogers is playing her tough-girl chorine persona that she had starting in "42nd Street".
With "Divorcee" and "Carefree" we finally get to see Astaire & Rogers more in classic form. Not only are they finally musically headlining, but these films feature them more as romantic leads in which comic misunderstandings work to keep them apart. These two films are the best of the five in my opinion.
Many people don't like "The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle". This is probably because there is virtually no romantic conflict between the two in this film. Astaire & Rogers spend practically the entire film either allied or happily married. The conflict is first economic and professional as the pair struggled to get recognized as great dancers, and then there is World War I in which Vernon Castle, as an English native, feels compelled to enlist. The film is quite good, but it is very sentimental and atypical of Astaire & Rogers' other films. This was intended to be the pair's last film together, and was their last film together at RKO. It was just a series of accidental recasting decisions that led them to reunite in "The Barkleys of Broadway" at MGM ten years later.
There are shorts and cartoons included on these five films in the extra features department, but there are no mini-documentaries on Astaire and/or Rogers and no commentary track on any of the films.
There are an array of Astaire & Rogers collections, so I'll try to summarize my recommendations here. If you are unfamiliar with their movies, go with Volume 1 first. It contains their best work minus "Divorcee", which is in Volume 2. If you already are a fan and for some reason never bought volume 1, you could go with "The Astaire & Rogers Ultimate Collector's Edition" which contains all ten of their films, a bonus documentary DVD, and an audio CD. If you just want the films, you can go with volumes 1 and 2 individually. Plus, there is documentary material on the films in volume 1. If you buy volume one and decide you want the bonus material of the ultimate collector's edition, you can purchase "The Astaire & Rogers Partial Ultimate Collector's Edition" which has all of the bonus material of the Ultimate Collector's Edition minus the five films in Volume one. |
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