vert001 Somewhere I read that you'll think more highly of the Astaire/Rogers SHALL WE DANCE if it's the first of their movies that you've seen. Watching them in order leaves you with the impression that we've seen all this before, and what's more, that we've seen it all done better before as well.Unquestionably the great strength of the film is its musical score, by my count the fifth great musical score in a row for the series, but I'd have to agree with George Gershwin that it wasn't used very well. The main problem: Ginger and Fred don't dance together enough. Indeed, they only have one major duet in the whole movie, danced to 'They All Laughed'. It's a dandy, but even here they'd done comparable dances even more brilliantly in ROBERTA, TOP HAT AND SWING TIME. Of course, they also roller skate, and practically everyone adores the scene so who am I to knock it? Nevertheless, I miss them dancing, and the final duet to the title song comes and goes in about 30 seconds and only whets my appetite for more.After giving possibly the best performance in the entire series in SWING TIME, Ginger Rogers seems off here, irritable practically from beginning to end and considerably less fun than she was in the rest of the series (and during practically the rest of her career). The fact that she was the victim of an extortion attempt during the film's shooting may have had something to do with it. For those interested, she received a note demanding $50,000 or else they would kill Ginger's mother. Turning it over to the FBI, the fellow was apprehended at the scheduled drop point and turned out to be a sailor who was simply after the money, not the mother. He'd chosen Ginger because she was his favorite actress!But getting back to the movie, unlike in the rest of the series the songs are generally ill-fitted into the plot. While it's not unusual for Fred's solo to be a simple exhibition of his dancing ability that has little to do with the rest of the film, it is unusual for their major duets to move the plot exactly nowhere. As John Mueller points out in ASTAIRE DANCES, during the marvelous dance to 'They All Laughed', Ginger's character seems to be loosening up emotionally and moving closer to Fred's, the typical character movement in their up tempo numbers, but here she simply reverts to exactly where she had been before, i.e., simply resentful towards him. It's as if the dance had never happened. And what her motivation was for the reconciliation dance at the end I'll never understand. Would you be attracted to someone dancing with people wearing masks of you? I'd more likely call the nearest mental hospital.Speaking of motivation, what exactly would possess Fred to suddenly play hard to get once Ginger had finally invited him into her apartment on their wedding night? It did lead to probably the most artful shot that Mark Sandrich devised in the entire series (the one of them both hesitating before opposite sides of the door between them), but still...Ah, I'm sure I'm being too hard on SHALL WE DANCE. It's an elaborate production featuring two great performers, a few laughs, and terrific music. Who could ask for anything more?

Prismark10 Poor Fred Astaire. When I was growing up they were still debating who was the best dancer. Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire?Kelly's film have been all spruced up by MGM, they were shot in colour as they were made later. Fred still remains in these creaky, black and white RKO pictures with scratchy audio and inferior picture quality that desperately needs to be remastered.I recently watched Singin in the Rain with my young son, he recognised some of the songs because he sang some of them at school. That was enough of a pull for him to keep watching the film.When I got him to watch Shall we Dance, he got bored, in fact so was I. Astaire plays Petrov a faux Russian ballet dancer chasing a musical comedy star, Ginger Rogers, across the ocean with a series of misunderstandings about them being a married couple and broad double takes from some of the supporting cast.There is an innovative dance sequence with Astaire (Slap that Bass) and a group of black musicians set in a ship which stands out a lot more now and I guess it would had been daring for the time.Astaire gets to mix some ballet with tap dance but Ginger is rather sidelined here and the screwball comedy part is groan inducing. Still a few classic songs are included in the film but I felt they were too good for this film.

ilprofessore-1 Surely one of the silliest and most improbable plots in all the Astaire-Rogers series –-and that's saying a lot! — this 1937 film still features many delights: foremost among them of course are the dances of Fred solo and with Ginger, and the now classic songs of the Gershwin brothers. Amazingly, some of the best of these, the immortal "They Can't Take That Away from Me" for example, take up only a minute or two of screen time, as if the producers at RKO couldn't wait to get them over with so they could get back to the story. More time in the film is given over to the confused and outraged antics of floor manager Eric Blore than to some greatest songs in the great American Song Book. The film ends, however, with a breath-taking bit of pure exuberance, American dancing at its very, very best. The quarreling lovers are reunited singing and dancing to the title song. "Shall we dance or keep on moping?" As then and now a very good question. Absurd plot line and bad jokes aside, a film classic well worth watching again and again.

Jem Odewahn Fun Astaire-Rogers musical, directed by Mark Sandrich with a Gershwin songbook. This confection has the usual slight plot of the team's films, but the musical numbers and the charisma of the two stars more than make up for the implausibilities. The supporting players Eric Blore and Edward Everett Horton are a hoot as ever. My favourite number was the classic "Let's Call The Whole Thing Off", which is concluded by Fred and Ginger doing their famous roller skate dance. I can't even skate properly, let alone dance in them! While it is great entertainment, it is overlong (the dog gag is cute, but gets tired quickly) and pales in comparison to "Swing Time" and the wonderful, wonderful "Top Hat".