The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939) on Netflix
Approved19391h 33mBiographyDramaMusic
In 1911, Vernon Castle, a vaudeville comic, meets Irene Foote, who longs for the stage. They marry and give up comedy for ballroom dancing. In Paris, an agent notices them.
- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb6.9/102,999 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes86%
Trailer
Plot summary
The year is 1911. Irene Foote is an American dancer just starting out, with her heart set on the stage, and Vernon Castle is a British comic performing slapstick routines in New York vaudeville. She persuades him to set comedy aside and turn to sophisticated ballroom dancing, and the two marry and become a husband and wife dance team. Their big break comes after they are stranded in Paris with their friend Walter Ashe and no money. The influential agent Maggie Sutton notices them and arranges a tryout at the prestigious Café de Paris, where the pair become an overnight sensation.
Cast
- Clarence Derwentas Papa Louis
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The real Irene Castle acted as advisor on the film and constantly disagreed with the director over costuming and the liberties taken; she was dumbfounded to learn that white actor Walter Brennan would play the faithful servant Walter, since the real Walter was black.
- It is the only Astaire-Rogers musical biography, the only one of their films on which Oscar Hammerstein II worked, and it drops their usual screwball-comedy relief players Edward Everett Horton, Victor Moore and Helen Broderick.
SPOILER
It is the only Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musical with a tragic ending, and the only one in which Fred Astaire's character dies.
