Shall We Dance (1937), 7+

A budding romance between a ballet master and a tap dancer becomes complicated when rumors surface that they're already married.
(109 min) Released 1937-04-29
Director: Mark Sandrich
Stars: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton, Eric Blore, Harriet Hoctor
Harry Losee ... ballet stager
Hermes Pan ... ballet stager

Genres: Comedy | Musical | Romance
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029546/

Random thought: Who got custody of the painting of FA as Petrov in ballet pose?

Songs by Gershwin, George and Ira:

• Scene 7: Slap That Bass, sung and danced by FA, accompanied by engine workers with musical instruments, in the cleanest, shiniest-floored, roomiest engine room imagined
• Scenes 9&11: Walking the Dog - Promenade, walked by FA & GR
• Scene 12: Beginner's Luck, sung by FA aboard ship, on deck in moonlight
• Scenes 17 song, 18 dance: They All Laughed, sung by GR, danced by FA and GR in ship's nightclub, where GR finally sees that FA is hip and dances her language sublimely
• Scene 22: Let's Call The Whole Thing Off, sung and danced by FA and GR on roller skates in NYC 
• Scene 25: They Can't Take That Away from Me, sung by FA to GR on foggy ferry from NJ wedding
• Scene 30: Shall We Dance, danced by FA and Harriet Hoctor in the ballet sequence opening Petrov's B'way show, transitions to
• Scene 31 of 32: Shall We Dance, danced by FA and many GR replicants, and finally GR in the closing sequence 

The plot doesn't allow GR to fall and stay in love with FA. She has great fun with him in scene 18, but fighting the rumor that these two are long-married, and the titled European who wants FA for herself, and GR's desire for privacy and to quit showbiz, interfere until the final scene. 

And the absence again of any Ensemble dancing is a big missing ingredient for me. I like to see large number of well-rehearsed, well-choreographed dancers in pretty costumes making pretty patterns in time with pretty music. The closest we get are the GR replicants, but they are just chorus-girl support to FA, not a dancing unit unto themselves. It's like they're pilot fish to FA's shark. I want to see a school of fish making pretty patterns of their own.

Like mediocre Hitchcock, it's still much better than the average musical. I wouldn't recommend it as a novice's first F&G musical, but it represents all musicals well. And the Gershwin tunes are far superior to those of a typical musical.

RKO, dir. Sandrich; 7+