Shall We Dance

Petrov is a ballet star; his name is really Pete Peters and he is American. He works under a Russian name because the ballet world wants it so. He admires the musical star Linda Keene from a distance and arranges to cross the Atlantic on the same ship. They meet on board and she does not like him at all. Then a rumour reaches the press: it is written that the two are secretly married. The story spreads and denial does not work. The two find a strange solution to get out of it: they will really marry and divorce at once. Mark Sandrich directs. Fred Astaire plays Petrov and Ginger Rogers plays Linda; Edward Everett Horton and Eric Blore are in the cast. George and Ira Gershwin wrote the songs; They Can't Take That Away from Me came from this film and was nominated for an Oscar. George Gershwin died within the same year, shortly after the film opened. Its idea is the joining of ballet and jazz dance, and the dance numbers are built on it. The number in the ship's engine room takes its rhythm from the sound of the machinery. The skating number is the most cited section; the pair use roller skates rather than ice. Its limit is the script; the plot is weak and the misunderstanding device overused. Who it is for: viewers who like classic Hollywood musicals and the Astaire and Rogers pairing. Who it is not for: the story is thin, the humour dated, and the sections outside the dancing weak.