Ginger Rogers filmography with RKO Radio Pictures, where she was paired with dancer Fred Astaire in commercially successful "Flying Down to Rio" (1933). The pair achieved greater success in subsequent musicals "The Gay Divorcee" (1934), "Top Hat" (1935), "Swing Time" (1936), and "Shall We Dance" (1937), totaling 8 films made between 1933 and 1939. Without Astaire, Rogers starred in critically and commercially successful non-musicals throughout the remainder of the 1930s such as "Stage Door" (1937) with Katharine Hepburn, "Vivacious Lady" (1938) with James Stewart, and "Bachelor Mother" (1939) with David Niven, culminating with an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers long period apart, Astaire and Rogers made only one movie together in 1938, the 80-minute "Carefree". During their time apart, Rogers appeared in the successful movie "Stage Door", while Astaire's career did not reach the same heights he had experienced with Rogers. The duo reunited, but "Carefree" marked a departure for their on-screen partnership, featuring Astaire in a role unlike his usual typecast persona, as well as less emphasis on the musical element of the film. "Carefree" was originally going to contain sequences shot in Technicolor, but RKO considered the cost prohibitive so it was filmed in black and white.