Roberta

For several reasons, this is the comparatively hidden entry in the classic Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers filmography, but this 1935 film has been blissfully released in a fairly clean print transfer on DVD, both as an individual purchase and as part of a complete Astaire-Rogers DVD set. With great songs from the Jerome Kern songbook, the movie certainly contains the high-caliber musical quality of the other films starring the dancing pair. The challenge is really in the cumbersome story set-up and in the simple fact that Astaire and Rogers play decidedly secondary characters in the story.

The film's primary focus is on Stephanie, an exiled Russian princess working as a sales assistant in the House of Roberta, the most fashionable couturière in all of Paris. It is run by a lovable dowager referred to as Aunt Minnie, whose nephew Jack Kent ends up in Paris after his band gets fired right after they disembark from their transatlantic voyage. Astaire plays Jack's best friend, bandleader "Huck" Haines, and Rogers is a faux-Polish countess named Sharvenka a.k.a. Lizzie Gatz, Huck's ex-dancing partner who has become a Paris nightclub headliner. The various romantic pairings occur, but an unexpected tragedy strikes with Minnie's death and her wish to leave the shop to the woefully unqualified Jack, who of course needs Stephanie's fashion sense to make the company continue to thrive.

The plot threads start to feel unwieldy after a while, but journeyman director William A. Seiter is smart enough to know when to include the musical interludes. Astaire-Rogers fans may be disappointed to find them dance only twice in the film together, the first well after the half-hour mark in an informal but energetic tap routine and the second near the end in their standard formal wear. Astaire has only one solo to "I Won't Dance"; and perhaps to pacify fans, there is a brief reprisal dance inserted after the story's actual ending though dramatically it makes little sense. Irene Dunne gets to sing three songs - a Russian lullaby and three Kern gems ("Yesterdays", "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and "Lovely to Look At") - in her bell-like operatic soprano, pretty in itself but seemingly at odds with the jazzy sound of the rest of the score.

A year before she let her inner screwball comedienne emerge in "Theodora Goes Wild", a severe-looking Dunne is saddled with a stiff, uninteresting part as Stephanie, and she is not aided much by a bumptious Randolph Scott, who has to play the somewhat ignorant and judgmental Jack on a relative one note. Astaire and a particularly funny Rogers, on the other hand, are breezy and sharp with the little screen time they do get. Little-remembered Claire Dodd predictably plays Jack's slithery fiancée Sophie, while character actress Helen Westley plays Minnie with her amusing gruffness intact (she was to reunite with Dunne the next year in James Whale's classic version of "Showboat").

There's an extended fashion show at the end, and you can easily spot a bleached blonde, baby-faced Lucille Ball in ostrich feathers among the models. The resulting movie shows the whole to be somewhat less than the sum of its parts, but it's still worthwhile for the talent involved in the production. The 2006 DVD contains some interesting curios as extras - the original trailer (in relatively poor condition); a full-color twenty-minute 1935 musical short, "Starlit Days the Lido", with oddly attired variety acts entertaining bemused Hollywood stars like Clark Gable and Robert Montgomery; a vintage cartoon, "The Calico Dragon" about a little girl's dream of her stuffed animals coming to life to protect her from the dragon; and an eleven-minute audio-only radio promo for the movie.

Huckleberry Haines (Fred Astaire) and his band, the Wabash Indianians, arrive at Le Havre, in France, for a season in a Russian nightclub. However, the owner Alexander Petrovitch Moskovich Voyda (Luis Alberni) expects the arrival of an Indian band and he calls off their contract.

Haines and the band head to Paris, and his friend John Kent (Randolph Scott) decides to visit his Aunt Minnie (Helen Westley), who owns the fashion house Roberta, to use her influence to find a work for the band. John meets the manager Stephanie (Irene Dunne) and they immediately feel attracted for each other. Huck Haines meets in the Roberta's salon his old friend Liz with the artistic identity of Comtesse Scharwenka (Ginger Rogers) and she helps him to get a job with Voyda.

When Aunt Minnie passes away, John Kent is the heir of her fortune and also Roberta. However he decides to give the fashion house for Stephanie, but she proposes a partnership between them two. But when John's old passion, the gold digger Sophie Teale (Claire Dodd) seeks out John, the infatuated Stephanie decides to leave the business and travel abroad with the Russian Prince Ladislaw (Victor Varconi).

"Roberta" is an adorable musical with one of the most beautiful songs of the cinema ever. With music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Otto A. Harbach, "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" is performed by Irene Dunne. The plot is naive, but the musical numbers, the dances and the fashion parade are delightful. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Roberta"

'Roberta (1935)' marked the third teaming of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and, like 'Flying Down to Rio (1933),' it suffers from a studio oversight: RKO hadn't yet realized that Fred and Ginger were the main attraction. This, of course, is to take nothing away from Irene Dunne, who is first-billed, a talented actress and a genuine box-office draw, but, with the apology of hindsight, it's not Dunne for whom I'm watching this film {just out of interest, this was my eighth Astaire/Rogers film – now I need only to track down 'The Gay Divorcée (1934)' and 'Carefree (1938)'}. The main plot concerns All-American football player John Kent (Randolph Scott), who has arrived in Paris with his friend Huckleberry Haines (Astaire), who has brought along his orchestra, the Wabash Indianians. While John falls in love with fashion designer Stephaine (Dunne), Haines reacquaints with childhood sweetheart Lizzie Gatz (Rogers), who is now, for show-business purposes, sporting a fake European accent and the prestigious title of Countess Scharwenka.

Randolph Scott appeared with Astaire in two 1930s musicals, and it's interesting to observe how their respective roles changed in such a short time. In 'Roberta,' he is clearly the leading man, and makes a good go at it, too – John Kent is sincere, likable and slightly naive in that Frank Capra All-American sense. Astaire is there to provide slightly goofy comedic support, and his musical routines help obscure the fact that Scott has no musical talents to complement Irene Dunne's incredible singing voice. Just one year later in 'Follow the Fleet (1936)' – after 'Top Hat (1935)' had made box-office gold of Fred and Ginger – Scott is similarly relegated to a romantic supporting role, having to settle for Ginger's nondescript sister (Harriet Hilliard). The bulk of the plot in 'Roberta' concerns John's complicated romance with Stephanie, and it occasionally gets bogged down by it. Still, whenever Fred and Ginger get tapping they kick up a storm, with memorable musical numbers including "I'll Be Hard to Handle," "Lovely to Look At" and "I Won't Dance."

Though Dunne certainly has an excellent singing voice (and it is, indeed, her own voice), the contrast between her solemn, operatic songs, and Fred and Ginger's playful vaudeville routines is too great to sit comfortably together. This, and the over-dependence on a central love story, makes the film enjoyable but uneven. As did many of the Astaire/Rogers films, 'Roberta' proved successful with audiences because it consciously defied the woeful economic conditions in which the United States still found itself. Aside from an elevator that doesn't quite get there, the hotels and nightclubs of Paris are glittering hot-spots of class and high fashion. Much effort was evidently spent designing the range of outfits that appeared in the film, and, had I cared one bit about fashion, I might have found myself in Heaven – as it were, the fashion show itself proved a little tedious. In any case, it's fascinating to note how times have changed since the 1930s. That controversial dress that Randolph Scott dismissed as "vulgar?" I thought it was a knockout!

Irene Dunne, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and Randolph Scott shine in "Roberta," a 1935 film directed by William Seite, based on the Broadway play, with music by Jerome Kern This isn't a typical Astaire-Rogers film, so if you're looking for that, you may be disappointed. The emphasis here is on fashion, and on the design house of Roberta - in reality, John Kent's (Randolph Scott) Aunt Minnie (Helen Westley), a dressmaker who found success in Paris. Astaire plays Kent's friend, Huckleberry Haines, a bandleader. Irene Dunne is Stephanie, the head designer at Roberta's. Actually, she and her doorman cousin Ladislaw (Victor Varooni) are Russian royalty. Rogers plays Countess Schwarwenka, a troublemaking client who's recognized by Huckleberry as Lizzie Gatz, an old girlfriend from back home. The Countess gets Hucklebery and his band a job at the Cafe Russe, and Stephanie and John find they're interested in one another. Then Roberta dies, and John inherits the design shop.

The film is filled with not only beautiful music but the fashions of the day in gorgeous art deco settings, making for a very sophisticated and polished look. Astaire and Rogers are actually comic support, but they're knockouts.

The music consists of some familiar tunes, including the haunting "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," sung by Irene Dunne and later danced by Astaire and Rogers, "Lovely to Look At," sung by Dunne and then danced by Astaire and Rogers, "Yesterdays," sung by Irene Dunne, and, of course, "I Won't Dance" - but they do. Astaire sings the lively "Let's Begin" as well.

This enchanting musical was re-made in 1952 as "Lovely to Look At," but somehow, it's not as good, lacking the cast. "Roberta" shows up on TCM occasionally. Don't miss it.

(Spoilers, sort of) Everyone seems to be saying the same thing about this film: great music, burdensome plot. But virtually all 9 RKO Astaire-Rogers films borrowed their plots from one another. They were, after all, the comic relief in 3 different films- including FLYING DOWN TO RIO and FOLLOW THE FLEET. These films- in terms of chronological release- alternated with GAY Divorcée, TOP HAT, and SWING TIME- all which had some combination of Erik Rhodes, Helen Broderick, and Eric Blore as comic support. I could stand the 'two-couple' formula a little more so, because Astaire and Rogers weren't carrying the heavier half of the plot. They usually already know each other and make wicked sideline commentary while waiting to go on the dance floor. This is most evident in their first duet in ROBERTA, "I'll Be Hard To Handle," which appears completely spontaneous, even though it is a rehearsal. Astaire and Rogers wear matching shirts and slacks and enjoy a very funny debate with their tapping feet. We seamlessly go from this sequence to a breathtaking moment with Irene Dunne and title character Helen Westley framed around the song "Yesterdays." (It's a bewitching moment when the light dims in the room as the vocal simultaneously fades away.) And to those of you complaining about the excessive fashion show sequences: well, that's the plot of the movie; didn't you see that coming? All the crazy clothes are worth seeing for the Astaire-Rogers duet of "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes." Following a cameo by a platinum-haired Lucille Ball, Rogers emerges as one of the models on parade in a satin gown and joins Astaire for a tender 'walk-around-the-floor' turn. Sublime stuff.