Why Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers' 1936 nautical musical remains a dance masterpiece
In short: Follow the Fleet is a 1936 musical comedy that paired Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers for the fifth time. Despite a plot critics found overlong, the film features some of the duo's most iconic dance routines, including a continuous two-minute-and-fifty-second shot that remains a landmark of Hollywood choreography.
Directed by Mark Sandrich, Follow the Fleet follows the romantic entanglements of two sailors, Bake and Bilge, and their partners in San Francisco. The film, based on the 1922 play Shore Leave, was a significant commercial success for RKO, earning a profit of $945,000. While contemporary reviewers like Graham Greene and John Mosher praised the dancing, they frequently noted that the film suffered from an excessive 110-minute runtime and a narrative that lacked the lightness of the leads' footwork.
The musical score, composed by Irving Berlin, is widely considered one of the film's greatest strengths. Berlin reportedly felt that Astaire’s unique abilities inspired his best work. The film includes classic numbers like 'Let's Face the Music and Dance' and 'I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket.' Notably, the former features a famous continuous take where Rogers's weighted dress accidentally struck Astaire in the face, a mistake he chose to keep in the final cut. The set design, created by Carroll Clark, is frequently cited as a premier example of the Hollywood Moderne style.
Dance commentators Arlene Croce and John Mueller highlight that the film showcases Rogers's remarkable improvement as a dancer. Under Astaire’s coaching, she developed an extraordinary range, which the choreography was specifically designed to display. This film also marks the only time Rogers performed a solo tap dance in her ten collaborations with Astaire. Despite the film's narrative flaws, it remains a vital entry in the musical canon, celebrated for its technical precision and the enduring chemistry of its stars.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Follow the Fleet
- Also: Wikidata — Follow the Fleet · CC0
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