There's no more iconic a couple in Hollywood history than Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers; between 1933 and 1940 they appeared in eight pictures together (they were actually billed as "supporting players" in two, *Flying Down to Rio* (1933) and *Roberta* (1935) in both of which they're the only thing worth watching), and contrived almost singlehandedly to keep RKO Pictures afloat through the depression. It's generally agreed that the top two are *Top Hat* (1935) and *Swing Time* (1936), with films such as *The Gay Divorcee* (1934) and the film reviewed here, *Shall We Dance* (1937) a notch or two below. All of their films, except the last one (*The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle*, a serious biopic) share the same essential ingredients:

-amazing dance numbers, both intimate duets and lavish chorus lines

-wonderful show tunes: RKO commissioned songs from the creme-de-la-creme of Broadway composers - Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, among others

-silly plots which function merely to link together the dance and music numbers which the public really paid to see

How you rank the films relative to each other depends on how each of these categories shapes up. In the case of *Shall We Dance*, there's nothing wrong with the first two; the plot, however, at times crosses the line between amusingly unbelievable and annoyingly unbelievable. Hence its lesser status. But, as the byline of this review states, who ever watched an Astaire-Rogers movie for its tight plot construction or character development?

RKO brought back its tried-and-true production team; director Mark Sandrich (four other Astaire-Rogers films, not to mention *Holiday Inn* and a few other major vehicles in the 40's) and supporting players Edward Everett Horton (playing, as usual, Fred's bumbling friend/adviser/chaperone) and Eric Blore (playing his usual bumbling butler/detective/hotel manager role). There were some changes. For example, in this film there is no featherheaded society matron married to or in pursuit of E.E.Horton, to balance the pairing of Fred and Ginger; this is to some extent replaced by the role of Ginger's wisecracking manager (Jerome Cowan, who's OK, nothing more) and the role of an old flame of Fred's who is determined to reclaim him (French actress Ketti Gallian, utterly miscast and a total drag on the picture). The icing on the cake, though, are the words and music of George and Ira Gershwin.

Let's get the plot synopsis over with. We are introduced to Fred as "The Great Petrov", world-famous Russian ballet dancer, who is in fact apple-pie American Pete Peters from Philadelphia, whose urges to indulge himself artistically (jazz and taps) his bumbling impresario (E.E. Horton) tries to check. Even worse than jazz and taps, Peter has fallen in love with the publicity photo of a variety dancer, Linda Keene (Ginger, naturally). At first, Fred tries approaching her in the guise of the temperamental Russian 'artiste' (heavy Russian accent and repetition of the phrase "Off Chichonye" - is that supposed to be Russian? Anyway, it's good for some laughs later in the movie). No good; Linda is tired of fighting off stage-door johnnies and is leaving the stage to marry a rich admirer (William Brisbane), in spite of the pleas of her agent (Jerome Cowan - "your first marriage, and my third bankruptcy"). Fred's pursuit is further complicated by the appearance of the scheming "Lady Tarrington" (Ketti Gallian), an old flame who longs to get her hooks back into Fred, and is put off (for the moment) only by being told that Petrov is already married - to Linda Keene. This unsuspected marriage is soon trumpeted on front pages everywhere (as if there wasn't anything else happening in the papers in the runup to World War II) and 'Petrov' and 'Linda Keene' (a stage name for her too, as will emerge in interesting circumstances later on) soon find it convenient to play along with the idea, until the inevitable complications ensue.

It sounds pretty flimsy. Still, although they make up less than the sum of their parts, there are some amusing episodes along the way. Fred's Russian impersonation is uproarious. Later, on an ocean voyage he gets pesky Horton out of the way by rolling and pitching his body as only a sinuous dancer could, and inducing seasickness in the susceptible impresario! Still later, there's a hilarious phone conversation between Horton and Eric Blore, who's trying to get Horton to bail him out of jail; and one of the running gags through the film is possession of the key opening the door between the adjacent hotel suites of Linda and Petrov, periodically offered and reclaimed by fussy hotel manager Blore.

Of course the dancing and music are the thing here. Surprisingly, it takes Fred and Ginger almost half the film to get together for a dance, but the Gershwins are geared up from the start, giving Fred "They All Laughed" to croon, and then a lively singing-dancing scene, "Slap that Bass" which takes place between Fred and the all-black(!) ship's crew in an ocean liner engine room. Even a dog-walking scene between Fred and Ginger is enlivened by a classic Gershwin instrumental (which I'd *swear* I've heard in some other movie) and shortly thereafter the two finally pair up for their first big number. The two big songs from this film are "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" - sung amidst an amazing roller-skate routine between the two - and "They Can't Take That Away From Me", frequently reprised, especially in the concluding dance number. This final number, regarded as boring by some, I find fascinating; another long orchestral piece by Gershwin, with an elaborate ballet number morphing into a Broadway-style chorus line (a subtext of the film is the contrast between ballet and popular stage dancing), in which Fred plays hide-and-seek with Ginger, who's hidden in a chorus line in which all the dancers wear Ginger Rogers masks! Contrived? Sure. But imaginative, almost surreal!

*Shall we Dance* made back its expenses, but not much more, for RKO; half a million depression $$, vs., say the 3 million earned by *Top Hat*. But it definitely belongs in the same class. And hey! did you know that NONE of the classic Astaire-Rogers films is yet available in DVD? Whoever owns the rights to the RKO library, get on the ball!






Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older