The Fred & Ginger movies ranked

by Cláudio Alves

87 years ago, someone at RKO had the brilliant idea to pair up an up-and-coming vaudevillian with a brassy character actress used to playing comic relief. The result was pure movie magic. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers quickly became two of their studio's biggest stars and their collaborations live on as some of the most glamourous musicals to ever grace the Silver Screen. Thanks to HBO Max, the majority of those flicks are now available to stream. The only one that isn't, Follow the Fleet, can be rented from Amazon if you wish to see its dancing delights.

With that in mind, it seemed like a good time to delve into the wonderful world of Fred and Ginger onscreen. Here's a ranked list of their ten movies together… 

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Introducing the Smackdown Panel for '38

Are you ready for the seventh episode in this super-sized Supporting Actress Smackdown season? Up next in 15 days is 1938. [UPDATE 09/16 - THE SMACKDOWN IS NOW PUBLISHED] That was only the third year of the Supporting categories at the Oscars but you can already see some tropes forming. Here's where you can watch the nominated performances/films.  

Let's meet the panelists

PLEASE WELCOME...  

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The Furniture: Fantasies of Castle and Forest in The Adventures of Robin Hood

"The Furniture," by Daniel Walber, is our weekly series on Production Design. You can click on the images to see them in magnified detail.

Eleven films were nominated for Best Production Design in 1938. And a number of them would be a great subject for a column, from lavish period pieces set in France (Marie Antoinette and If I Were King) to screwball comedies about class (Holiday and Merrily We Live). And four musicals.

Yet it’s hard to look past The Adventures of Robin Hood, which won. Warner Bros' first big budget Technicolor feature drops Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland into a lavish, colorful fantasy of Medieval England. Happily, it’s worth quite a bit more than its price tag. Its primary virtue is playfulness...

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What's streaming from 1938 and which films should we write about?

We'll be celebrating 1938 in between regular programming for the next few weeks as we approach the next Supporting Actress Smackdown (September 14th). But before you do your own '38 movie explorations, hit the Smackdown titles first so you can vote on the big event! They are: 

• The Great Waltz - just $1.99 to rent 
This nutso musical bio received 3 Oscar noms, winning for cinematography
• Jezebel - just $1.99 to rent 
This problematic Southern Belle drama is the one that lifted Bette Davis from exciting new talent to superstar (and won her her second Oscar). 5 Oscar noms, winning both Actress categories
• Merrily We Live - free (with ads) on Tubi 
Screwball comedy about a wealthy family taking in hobos. 5 Oscar noms
• Of Human Hearts - $2.99 to rent 
Drama about a preacher's family. Supporting Actress was the only nomination
• You Can't Take It With You - $3.99 to rent 
Frank Capra comedy. 7 Oscar nominations, winning Picture / Director

And you know what to do after you've screened them VOTE before the morning of Sunday, September 13th.

As you undoubtedly know if you're reading TFE, streaming services aren't particularly kind to films that are more than 20 years old. What's available is utterly random and it disappears suddenly and without warning -- for instance Hulu just decimated their once pretty ok "classics" section (which included our very favourite 1938 film, Bringing Up Baby) between when we began drafting this post a month or so ago and now. Now that section includes only 19 films, half of which are now from the 1980s or later. (They did this just when we had gotten used to telling people that they are way better than Netflix for anything pre 2000s and turned us into liars. AAARRRRRGH.)  Anyway, we've done the legwork for you and prepared a list of titles that are currently streaming for free (provided you have certain subscriptions of course) from this particular cinematic year. Let us know in the comments which you're most interested in discussing. This will come as a shocker but we're actually way ahead of the curve this month and have already finished screening all 5 Smackdown titles and most of the 10 Best Picture nominees, too... WUT?

TEN 1938 MOVIES THAT ARE FREE TO STREAM

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Sixteen Linkles

• Vulture why Charlize Theron is so pleasurable to watch in action films
• My New Plaid Pants Luca Guadagnino signing on to deliver a feature adaptation of Scotty Bower's "Full Service" which has already inspired a feature doc and that gas station as whorehouse in Ryan Murphy's Hollywood
• Vanity Fair What Olivia de Havilland remembered about the 1939 Oscars 

After the jump, Ramy's nominations, Michael Fassbender's return, Hugh Jackman's butt, Scarface memories, X-Men's 20th, and more...

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