Shall We Dance (1937)

Shall We Dance is an American comedy romance film first released in 1937, directed by Mark Sandrich.  The film stars Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton, Eric Blore and Jerome Cowan.  Our overall rating for this film is: good.


Pete Peters is a renowned ballet star, better known by his soubriquet Petrov.   Whilst performing in Paris, he hears about the popular American dancer Linda Keene and resolves to see her.  Tired of well-wishers, Miss Keene gives him the brush off, but Pete Peters is not a man who is easily dissuaded.  Hearing that the dancer is heading back to America on an ocean liner, Pete persuades his impresario, Jeffrey Baird, to book him a cabin on the same ship.  To free himself from the attentions of another female admirer, Pete hints that he is already married and within no time the whole world believes that he and Miss Keene are husband and wife...

Shall We Dance marked the beginning of the decline of the fortunes for one of Hollywood’s most successful double acts.  Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers had worked box office magic in their previous six films together, providing the perfect antidote to the Depression blues.  But now audiences were looking for something fresh and the Astaire-Rogers formula was beginning to look distinctly passé.  It didn’t help that their studio, RKO, were running out of ideas with what to do with them and were content to recycle story ideas from their previous films.

Despite having a considerably larger budget than all of the previous Astaire-Rogers films, Shall We Dance is pretty weak compared with their earlier offerings, notably Top Hat (1935) and Swing Time (1936).  The ludicrously convoluted plot is partly to blame but there is also a noticeable dearth of song and dance routines to rival what we find in previous Fred and Ginger films.  This film appears to be dogged by complacency and lack of ambition, and even the large set piece dance routines appear soulless and mechanical compared with the mind-blowing extravaganzas that we find in, say, The Gay Divorcee (1934) and Swing Time.

Not vintage Fred and Ginger then, but Shall We Dance is still entertaining enough, if only for the jaunty songs provided by the Gerswins.  These include the hit Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off, which the stars inexplicably end up performing on roller skates.  The ballet routines are also well choreographed but feel inappropriate for an Astaire-Rogers film.  With a bit more energy and inspiration, and a lot less plot, Shall We Dance could have been another classic.

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