“THE CASTLES” ANOTHER ASTAIRE-ROGERS SUCCESS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVI, Issue 21362, 3 June 1939, Page 16

“THE CASTLES” ANOTHER ASTAIRE-ROGERS SUCCESS

In many ways an unusual vehicle for two such specialised stars as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, “The Story

of Vernon and Irene Castle,” which was screened privately in Wellington recently, should be one of the most welcome of the many successful films the famous dance team has made.

The film spans the years from 1911 to 1918, nd is b sed on fact, but practically all the events to which it refers are beyond the memory of anybody under the age of 30. To those it must be explained that Vernon and Irene Castle were a famous dar e team, and had a greater influence on the modes of the young r .-n and women of their day than any pair of dancers since. It was they who made the ballroom dance a spectacle, who were the first “demonstration dancers,” and who introduced within a few years dance after dance that instantly became the fashion m the ballrooms of the wor‘ ’. It is not absurd to say that girls now cut their hair because Irene Castle bobbed hers away back before the war. A glamour surrounded the couple, and that glamour is conveyed in the film. An audience likes to feel that a dancer and his partner are lover s, and so they are in this story. rr he courtship, marriage, success and tragedy of the Castles (Vernon, a member of the Royal Flying Corps, was killed in an air crash), are told in a respectful but effective manner. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance and dances made famous by Mr and Mrs Castle, the Castle Walk, the maxixe, and the tango, and one cannot but remark that the effect of the film is heightened by the fact that Astaire and Rogers are to the youth of to-day something like what the ( ties weie to the youth of yesterday. The film links two generations. It has the atmosphere of another day without being musty. There are long skirts and blouses, shortish trousers with big cuffs and straw hats, spanking horses in gigs, and white touring cars; but the story will touch the hearts of old ,nd young. “Who’s Your Lady Friend,” and “Missouri Waltz,” and typical - of the music. Prominent supporting players are JValter Brennan and Edna May Oliver.