The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle 1939 RKO Studios

The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle

RKO – 1939

Before there were Fred and Ginger, there were the Castles.

This is a completely different type of film from the others.  It’s a true-story biographical movie about real-life married-couple dance team Vernon and Irene Castle.  In the early 20^th century, they popularized dances such as the Foxtrot, the Castlewalk and the Tango.  They were celebrities and trend-setters. 

When this film was made, Vernon Castle had already died and Irene oversaw the production.  She wanted all the details to be correct.  This film covers the time they met in 1910 clear through their career together and his death. 

The dances are great, but are completely different.  The music of the early 20^th century was pre-Charleston and didn’t have the jazz rhythms or harmonies yet.  The Castles themselves are part of the reason jazz and ragtime became popular. 

The dances are so well done that it’s a fun movie to watch.  The story moves along nicely too.  Oscar Hammerstein II helped write the screenplay.

My favorite moment:  The doggie at the beach.

I can’t really get through a guide-book of each dance because this movie is structured differently.  This is a real story with the dancing rehearsals and performances embedded in the daily lives of these real working dancers.  It’s based in the reality (more or less) of an historical period.   

You will like the dancing across the country interlude.  This was done 56 years before Tom Hanks used this device in 1995 in “That Thing You Do.”  It was used in other movies too.  This one might be the first.

This film is the last one they made at RKO fully 6 years after Flying Down To Rio.  However, Ginger Rogers actually looks younger in this one because of the way she was made-up and costumed.  She is supposed to be a teenager when she meets Vernon and she looks the part.  Irene was 17 and Vernon was 23 when they met.  Fred was 40 when he made this film, but he also looks young enough on camera.  Good job, guys.

The costumes are period pieces based upon the clothes that Irene and Vernon actually wore.  These were the days of bathing dresses and bloomers for swimming, so the clothes are much less revealing than the other films.  No bias-cut spaghetti-strap satin slip dresses in this one.  Nope – high collars and layered dresses.  They both look great in the clothes. 

I have photos of my grandparents, aunts and uncles during this time period pre- and during-WWI and this is really how people dressed.  These are serious clothes that were a lot of work to make, wear and care for.  It must have been a challenge to dance in these clothes in real life.

May I just say that the barber scene and the boogie-man dance are both really dumb.  But they are supposed to be.  Endure and wince as necessary to get to the better parts of this movie.

My favorite moment:  Little Dutch cap.

Vernon and Irene Castle’s love story was interrupted by World War I.  Vernon left home to serve.  This dance portrays a moment right before he leaves.

The dance style of the Castles develops over the course of the story.   They helped to shape dance in America for at least a century so far.  Without Vernon and Irene Castle, there would have been no Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.  It was nice to have A&R be the pair to do homage to their predecessors.