SHALL WE DANCE (RKO Radio, 1937), directed by Mark Sandrich, which reunites Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers for the seventh time on the musical screen, ventures them into a new world of dance, the art of ballet. While the opening credits focus silhouettes of ballet dancers in the backdrop, the movie itself is not necessarily devoted to ballet, but only a combination of that and modern dance.
Astaire plays Petrov, an American dancer born under the name of Peter P. Peters of Philadelphia, P.A., who's won fame as a Russian ballet star with the help of his impresario, Jeffrey Baird (Edward Everett Horton). While in Paris, where the first portion of the story takes place, Petrov has fallen in love with Linda Keene (Ginger Rogers), an American dancer whom he hasn't met, but knows of her by profession and still photographs he keeps with him. After Petrov briefly meets Linda in her hotel room, by which he made no impression (especially with that Russian accent that sounds more like Charles Boyer than Mischa Auer!), he soon learns she's leaving Paris setting sail on the Queen Anne bound for New York. In order on getting to know her better, Petrov agrees to an engagement dancing at the Metropolitan only if Jeffrey arranges for him to book passage on the Queen Anne. Before sailing, Petrov is reunited with Lady Denise Tarrington (Ketti Gallian), his former ballet dancing partner whom he now wants out the way. This is done through Jeffrey informing her of that Petrov is a married man with five children. When news of Petrov's marriage reaches the media, compliments of Denise, the passengers, having read of the secret marriage in the ship newspaper, believe Linda Keene, with whom he has been seen, to be the wife. In order to prevent Linda from quitting her dancing career to marry the well-to-do but dull Jim Montgomery (William Brisbane), Arthur Miller (Jerome Cowan), Linda's manager, joins forces with Jeffrey in keeping the marriage and scandal alive through practical jokes. After boarding in New York, Petrov and Linda decide to stop the rumors by actually getting married and then file for divorce. Situations are proved more difficult when Denise comes back to Petrov's life once again.
A casual reworking and revamping of the earlier Astaire and Rogers themes, SHALL WE DANCE (an appropriate title for them) succeeds on a higher level with a bright score and creative dancing by Astaire than on the flimsy plot. Aside from Horton making his third and final engagement with the team, Eric Blore returns for the fifth and final time playing the bewildered Cecil Flintridge, a New York City hotel floorwalker. The scene where Cecil gets arrested and telephones for Jeffrey to bail him out from the Susquhanna Street Jail, is amusing in itself, a reminder of an Abbott and Costello routine. While Rogers usually has female companions to accompany her, usually middle-aged types as Alice Brady or Helen Broderick (and later Edna May Oliver) for moral support, she has no such bonding here. Jerome Cowan as Arthur Miller steps in for them.
On the musical program, with words and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin, the songs include: "Slap That Bass" (sung by Mantan Moreland and Fred Astaire); "Walking the Dog" (instrumental); "I've Got Beginner's Luck" (sung by Fred Astaire); "They All Laughed" (sung by Ginger Rogers/ danced by Rogers and Astaire); "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" (sung/ danced by Astaire and Rogers on roller skates); "They Can't Take That Away From Me" (sung by Astaire); "They Can't Take That Away From Me" (ballet dance with Astaire and Harriet Hoctor); "Shall We Dance?" (sung by Astaire/ danced by Astaire and Rogers); and "They All Laughed" (reprise by Astaire and Rogers).
A notch below their previous efforts, SHALL WE DANCE takes a while getting down to business. In fact, Astaire and Rogers don't dance together until almost a hour from the start of the story. After that, the plot moves briskly followed by one good song after another, all standards from the Gershwin songbook. Of the tunes selected for this production, "They Can't Take That Away From Me" was nominated for an Academy Award. This is one where Astaire sings to Rogers in the foggy night on the Staten Island ferry. It's not followed by a dance but a sentimental gesture well handled by Rogers. Other than Astaire's dancing in the steam room surrounded by black stokers, another memorable moment occurs with "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" where Astaire and Rogers dance on roller skates in Central Park. One wonders what they could have done on ice skates to compete with the recent performer, Sonja Henie, of 20th Century-Fox musicals? After a lengthy ballet sequence featuring Astaire and Harriet Hoctor (who arches her head to her heals dancing like a swan), it returns to familiar territory when Rogers steps in for the "Shall We Dance?" number.
One final note. Ketti Gallian, whose brief Hollywood movie career was coming to a close, usually a blonde now seen here as a brunette, playing Petrov's former ballet partner. While her part is relatively small, with scenes occurring in the beginning and near the conclusion, it's a wonder why Harriet Hoctor does the ballet dancing instead of Gallian, or why Hoctor didn't assume the role of Denise so not to add to the confusion? Overlooking this and other minor flaws as to the drawn-out double-takes between Horton and Blore, SHALL WE DANCE, is true to its word in title, especially during the film's second half. SHALL WE DANCE, distributed to home video and DVD, and formerly presented on American Movie Classics, can be found on Turner Classic Movies. (***1/2)
