Shall We Dance

Perhaps the best number in this is Fred and Ginger's dance 'n tap on roller-skates, but the terrific Gershwin score helps a lot (including 'Let's Call The Whole Thing Off', 'They Can't Take That Away From Me' and several others).

This is one of the pair's best, with the usual strong support from Edward Everett Horton, Eric Blore and Jerome Cowan. A silly plot, with Astaire as a Russian ballet dancer (not really Russian, his real name is Peter P Peters!) and Rogers as a musical revue star, who meet and get embroiled in a fake marriage run-around. Horton plays Astaire's fussy manager, Blore plays a pompous hotel manager (the scene in the jail prompting the cop to ask 'what is this, a spelling bee?' is hilarious), and Cowan plays Rogers' manager (a chap distractingly named Arthur Miller).

'Shall We Dance' showcases Ginger Rogers in particular and gives her chance to shine; Fred Astaire remains the usual unattractive pest until he breaks into singing and dancing; and the finale, with a bevy of masked honeys who look like Ginger, has a certain originality. A great team at their very best.

... because there's not that much Fred and Ginger actually dancing together versus the other Astaire and Rogers films of the 1930s.

As for the plot, Fred Astaire plays Peter Peters, an American ballet dancer billed as "Petrov". Publicity has him billed as such so that he can cultivate the public persona of a demanding and temperamental Russian. He falls for fellow American singer/dancer Linda Keene (Rogers) and finds out she is sailing the next morning on the Queen Anne. He also books passage on the same ship at the same time, hoping to strike up an acquaintance with her on the voyage from Europe to New York. Both Peters and his manager Jeffrey Baird (Edward Everett Horton) tell a woman who is basically stalking Peters -to put it in modern terms - that Peters is secretly married to Linda Keene in order to get her off his case. Instead, this rumor begins to circulate in the press with Linda blaming Peter for telling the press this falsehood, and the resulting misunderstanding threatening any burgeoning relationship. Complications ensue that include a rather frightening looking mannequin in a comedic situation.

It was good to have Eric Blore and Edward Everett Horton back in larger doses in this film. Astaire always made a great comic foil for Horton and Blore and Horton always played off of each other exceedingly well.

Astaire and choreographer Hermes Pan try some new and novel numbers in this one. Included is "slap that bass" with Fred dancing and an African American band singing and playing in the engine room of a ship. Also, there is the dance duo with Astaire and Rogers doing a dance number on roller skates. Astaire liked to do his dance numbers in one take, without editing, but the complexity of this number required multiple takes, and Astaire realized that. The duo skated 80 miles before shooting was complete. Then there is the ballet number that is part of the big finale with ballet soloist Harriet Hoctor whose specialty was performing an elliptical backbend. It hurt just to watch her, and she is probably one of the few people on earth who could kick herself in the head.

If you like the other Astaire/Rogers collaborations you'll like this one. Sure, it's the same basic romantic formula, but the song and dance numbers always delight.

The big takeaway on Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers is how well they danced together. My big takeaway from "Shall We Dance" is how well they acted.

It's one thing to give a good performance in a musical like "Carousel" or "Singing In The Rain", and quite another to deliver amid the creaky jokes, plummy patter, and contrived plot twists that make up "Shall We Dance". But they do, and thanks to them, the show turns out not only okay but rather fine.

Astaire is a faux-Russian ballet dancer, Petrov, who dreams of pairing up with celebrated tap dancer Linda Keene (Rogers) both on-stage and off. Linda just wants to retire, but Petrov's earnestness begins to win her over - until she is led to believe he is using her. She leaves him just as word spreads that the two are married (and really spreads, in the form of front-page news stories and radio flashes), forcing them to face a surreal prospect.

"We're the only people in the world who don't think we're married!" Linda exclaims.

People watching "Shall We Dance" for the first time need patience. Astaire and Rogers don't dance for an hour, their one musical moment all that time involving walking a dog around a ship in time to a musical theme (provided by one George Gershwin, who did the score with his lyricist brother Ira). Matters are too often dominated by Edward Everett Horton's over-the-top eye rolls and leaden asides as Petrov's snooty, disapproving manager. Later on William Brisbane arrives as Linda's rich-guy suitor, adding more overbaked ham to the menu.

But Astaire keeps his end up, dancing to a skipping record or later overplaying a mock Russian accent in his first face-to-face with Linda. "You don't want to dance with the great Petrov," he declares, playing up a Slavic superiority trip. "Don't be a silly horse." The way he elongates that last "o" is positively indecent.

Some reviewers here say Rogers seems bored in this film. She's playing a withdrawn character, though, and does give off passion when called upon. A big musical moment between her and Astaire, when he declares "They Can't Take That Away From Me", is a remarkable duet despite the fact she doesn't sing a note, just looks off with tear-filled eyes. Yet she gets the song's one close-up, and rightly so. When they have their first performance in front of an audience and he dances up a storm by way of an introduction, the look on her face is priceless. "What am I supposed to do?" she deadpans.

Give director Mark Sandrich credit for keeping things light. Too light at times, like when Linda's manager somehow gets a photo of the couple in bed together by using a manikin of her he just happens to have in his closet (better I guess we don't know why he does). Sandrich does make the good scenes better with doses of gentle humor, like the capper to a roller-skating dance that is the movie's best moment. There are some nice dissolves from scene to scene, like a flip-book view of Linda dancing that melts into the real thing.

Watching this the first time, the minutes stretched like rubber. The second time things flew much faster, because I knew what I wanted to see and could look forward to its arrival. I guess audiences of the 1930s had that expectation built in, one reason perhaps why these movies were so popular and no one cared when they were a bit inane.

With a fluff plot that's sillier than usual, Shall We Dance marks the one and only time the brothers Gershwin wrote a score for an Astaire/ Rogers musical. Fred was certainly no stranger to George and Ira, they had written Funny Face on Broadway for him and also had done Damsel in Distress which he co-starred with Joan Fontaine the year before.

This also is the last complete score the Gershwins did for the screen. While writing the score for the Goldwyn Follies, George would suddenly die of a brain tumor. It's a beautiful selection of songs, topped off by They Can't Take That Away From Me, a song forever after identified with Fred Astaire. It's also one of my favorite Gershwin songs, in fact one of my favorites period.

Fred's a hoofer at heart, but he's pretending to be a Russian ballet star named Petrov, appropriate for a guy named Peter Peters in real life. The girl he's infatuated with, musical comedy star Ginger Rogers is sailing to America on the same ship.

Through an incredible combination of circumstances rumor gets around that the two of them are in fact married. All the doing of her producer Jerome Cowan and Fred's manager Edward Everett Horton. They actually have to get married to keep the ruse going. Of course I needn't say what happens after that.

Two other Gershwin standards, They All Laughed and Nice Work If You Can Get It are sung and danced by the pair, the latter on roller skates. I also liked Fred's solo number with the engine room men on the ocean liner, Slap That Bass. The brothers Gershwin obviously saw the success Astaire had with Bojangles of Harlem in Swing Time and decided to imitate shall we say.

Look for a nice performance also by Eric Blore who plays the frustrated hotel manager who is getting positively flustered about how to handle the married/unmarried pair of Astaire and Rogers in his hotel.

There is a touch of sadness to this musical realizing that an incredible talent in George Gershwin would be stilled very shortly. I do love that man's music so.

You'll keep the memory of this film long after seeing it even once.

In recent years, the title of this film has become overshadowed by two modern movies of the same name: a superb Japanese movie and its American remake, respectively entitled Shall We Dansu? and Shall We Dance. Yet this 1937 classic is worth revisiting not only for its famous Gershwin numbers, but as the last of a series of classic-format films between Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Deeply flawed, yet the tremendous effort poured into its production is evident. And, when viewed as part of a series, touchingly beautiful.

Utilising talent from their earlier films, Shall We Dance pushes the established formula of light romantic farce coupled with stunning dance routines. But here are many innovations and subtle references to delight fans. At the end of their previous film together (Swing Time), Fred serenaded Ginger with the song Never Gonna Dance, so Shall We Dance? suggests a delightful comeback through association. Their respective characters have grown through successive films, as has their on screen relationship. Now, for the first time, both play fully fledged divas in their own right. Fred is Petrov, a Russian ballet star, and Ginger is Linda, a celebrated jazz dancer. Many of the gags involve rumours about the characters being secretly married or having children. By way of a complex plot, half conducted on a transatlantic liner, the couple do actually get married for the first time in their films together. Copy picture

The star personas of both Astaire and Rogers have been carefully managed by the studios since their debut together in Flying Down to Rio (1933). Fred woos her with increasing conviction or intensity in each successive movie. To suspend disbelief effectively, the audience has to be thoroughly confused for a while about the nature of their relationship (in real life, both Astaire and Rogers are married to other people at this time). The on screen characters are not married at the start of the story – Fred is pursuing Ginger, as usual. But an offhand comment by Petrov to an over-persistent admirer (to the effect that he and Linda are secretly married) is blown up by the newspapers in the story. The only way they can dispel rumours is to get a divorce – which means they first have to get married.

In terms of dance routines, most things had been done already, so Shall We Dance has to come up with something new. One idea is a duet on roller skates. Depending on which account we read, it took filming up to fifty takes to complete (unusually, as Fred would mostly insist on a single one). It's filmed in Central Park, and the idea is to make it look like something people would naturally be doing. It's also the longest dance Fred and Ginger have together in the film, and is made even more enjoyable by their singing Let's Call the Whole Thing Off.

Another innovation is the way the story line is tied up. (Note – a light spoiler follows, but I think it's worth knowing what is coming in this case, so as not to miss the full effect). Petrov, now distraught that Linda won't dance with him, has a choreographed scene where he serenades with numerous showgirls who wear Linda masks. This in itself recalls earlier scenes involving a dummy positioned next to a sleeping Petrov, to 'prove' in the tabloids that they are married; and also in a flick-book he has that creates moving images of Linda. Unbeknown to Petrov, Linda yearns for them to be together. She insists on being taken backstage. Petrov's dance involves unmasking the lookalikes only to find that none are the real Linda. When he touches the real Linda's chin, he finds it is not a mask but really her. She extends her hand and, whoever the 'real' Petrov and Linda have been (they both have several identities even within the film), the audience is satisfied that the real living couple finally have a dance of love. Almost all the emotion of the film has been saved for this moment.

Shall We Dance not only reprises two established stars; it examines the real life pressures and glare of publicity facing them. They were both under pressure: during filming, Ginger Rogers received a real-life extortion notice and a death threat to her mother. The movie's final dance scene maybe hints at something that is beyond words, beyond the glare of the limelight, and something eternally personal – as the song implies: "They Can't Take That Away from Me."

The film's weaknesses include living up to expectations when a formula has peaked. In earlier pairings, Fred's character woos Ginger through dance rather than words. Here, they enjoy some comedy together but there are maybe one too many dance solos. The plot and characterisation has weaknesses too – Astaire is a very accomplished dancer performing balletic moves, but he was the first to admit he is no ballet star. Dance fans may feel unconvinced (similarly, the songs have been covered by much more competent singers). One of the main dance routines sees Harriet Hoctor, not Ginger, imported to dance with Fred – largely on account of her ability to tap through remarkable back-bends. Shall We Dance lacks much of the natural dance chemistry between Fred and Ginger displayed in earlier films, but it is an outstanding piece of their film history that should not be missed.