Follow the Fleet (1936) - film review

When his dancing partner, Sherry Martin, declines to marry him, Bake Baker decides to join the navy.  Bake soon grows disillusioned with the life of a sailor and, as soon as his ship docks at San Francisco, he heads straight for the nearest nightclub.  Sherry just happens to be working here as a dance hostess and Bake cannot resist trying to sweep her off her feet again.  Although the couple win a dancing competition, Bake’s troublesome tongue gets Sherry fired and their relationship is put on hold once more.  Meanwhile, Sherry’s sister Connie has fallen head over heels in love with one of Bake’s sailor friends, Bilge Smith.  Bilge seems to be just as taken with Connie, thanks to an instant makeover which has transformed her from a mousy schoolteacher into a hot temptress.  Alas, Bilge is not the settling kind and he is scared off when Connie hints that she would like to marry him.  With Sherry’s help, Connie starts to renovate a ship that her father bequeathed to her, hoping to make this a present to Bilge on their wedding day.  When Bilge’s intentions become clear and with Connie unable to raise the money to complete the renovation, Bake steps in to save the day...

The phenomenal success of Top Hat (1935) had established Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers as one of the most successful screen partnerships of all time.  How extraordinary then that, in their next film, Follow the Fleet, RKO relegated this winning duo to comedy support roles whilst lesser talents, Randolph Scott and Harriet Hilliard, played the romantic leads.  Fortunately, the script allows Fred and Ginger enough screen time so that, in spite of this obvious blunder, they appear to dominate the film, although it is a pity that they are kept apart for most of the time.

Follow the Fleet is certainly not as perfect as other Fred and Ginger offerings, and it looks pretty feeble compared with their subsequent Swing Time (1936).  The plot is overly complicated and predictably trite, and Mark Sandrich’s direction lacks the finesse and ambition that he had shown in the previous two films he had made with the legendary dancing duo.  Yet, flawed as it is, Follow the Fleet an enjoyable piece of escapism, guaranteed to brighten any dark day and have you tapping your feet in time to the jaunty musical numbers.

The film offers some great comedy.  Who can forget poor Ginger hiccupping her way through a singing audition, after having been nobbled with a glass of bicarbonate of soda, unwittingly supplied by Fred?  Of course what most sells the film are the exquisitely staged song and dance routines, which include the popular favourite Let’s Face the Music and Dance, all performed in the most amazing Art Deco sets. 

By this stage, Rogers was almost as good a dancer as Astaire (thanks to the latter’s insistence that every routine had to be rehearsed to perfection).  From this point on, the couple’s dances would never be anything less than faultless, the very essence of grace and elegance.  To watch a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film today is to be instantly transported to a far happier place – remarkable when you consider that they were made at the height of the Great Depression,

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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