Another Fred&Ginger thought that I don't fully care if it's realistic or not and it's really more of a question.
I've watched "Once upon a Honeymoon" (1942) with absolute delight and I could recommend that movie to everyone, it's really swell and entertaining even (remarkable for a movie that is set in the middle of the war)!
Anyways, there is so much meta I would enjoy to unpack but I've been thinking about one scene. Cary Grant in my opinion is a really good partner for Ginger in the movies that they've made. Not so much romantically but as a friend, as an opposite to play her comedic side wonderfully and as a good guy and friend she could relax with and be a couple with. At least that was my impression of their on-screen exchange. I would have to read up on what Ginger had to say about it and what Cary Grant thought about it.
So anyway, about this one scene, it takes place in the second half of the movie when they're in Paris again and have their pictures taken by a bit of a shady fella at first. Cary Grant moves to leave in order to buy them both new clothes after their long journey and he leaves her with the shady photographer for a while. His character does otherwise a pretty good job at keeping her safe all through the craziness of that movie. Which is quite a bit to mention, my grandparents were on actual tracks as actual wartime-refugees and this stuff is absolutely so much no joke.
Ginger pleads him not to go, which I personally found heart-wrenching. It's a bit unusual for her in my opinion but it seemed so honest. In a very small voice she pleads with him and if he really has to go. This is the scene I am referring to:
So now the big sparkling question is - would Fred have left her there? There is so much to say about the whole thing and why Cary Grant's character is somewhat more likely to not really hear her plea and leave her there. If this were a real story, I still think Ginger was miles better off with a guy like Cary Grant than with a guy like Fred Astaire in the midst of this war and survival time. But still, for this specific scene I have been trying to find an answer for myself and I haven't yet. Would Fred have left her there or would he have heard her plea and acted differently? I want to tell myself that he would've made sure to stay with her automatically. But honestly I really don't know. I've been trying to compare it with similar situations in their movies together but I haven't found a satisfying answer yet.
Still, a really good movie that you can rewatch many times just for the light footed way in which the story is told. I wish Ginger and Cary Grant had made more movies also. ☺️