How a 1935 musical hit shaped fashion history and Hollywood's remake culture

Entertainment · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: The 1935 musical Roberta was a massive box office success that launched hit songs and even inspired a famous Italian fashion house. Yet, its legacy is complicated by a long-term studio blackout, as MGM bought the rights in 1945 and effectively buried the original film for decades to protect their remake.

Released by RKO Radio Pictures, Roberta was a significant financial triumph, generating a net profit of $770,000. The film, directed by William A. Seiter, featured a star-studded cast including Irene Dunne, Fred Astaire, and Ginger Rogers. It was adapted from the 1933 Broadway musical of the same name, which itself was based on Alice Duer Miller's novel, Gowns by Roberta. The production process was notably fluid; screenwriter Alan Scott and producer Pandro S. Berman telegraphed new scenes to the set while traveling by train across the country.

The film’s musical score became legendary, introducing hits like "I Won't Dance" and "Lovely to Look At," both of which reached number one in 1935. The latter was nominated for an Academy Award. While the film utilized several songs from the original stage play, such as "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and "Yesterdays," it also dropped others, including "You're Devastating." The dance sequences were meticulously crafted, with Fred Astaire handling arrangements and Hermes Pan receiving his first credit as an assistant dance director.

Beyond its immediate success, Roberta left a lasting cultural imprint. The Venetian fashion house Roberta di Camerino, established in 1945, took its name directly from the film. However, the movie's history is also a case study in studio control. After MGM purchased the rights in 1945 to produce a 1952 Technicolor remake titled Lovely to Look At, they kept the original 1935 version out of general circulation until the 1970s. This strategic suppression meant that for many years, the only way to see the story on screen was through the MGM version or two television broadcasts starring Bob Hope in the 1950s.

The film also marked the first of three collaborations between Irene Dunne and Randolph Scott, who would later reunite for High, Wide and Handsome in 1937 and My Favorite Wife in 1940. It remains the only Astaire-Rogers film to be remade with a different cast, cementing its unique, if somewhat obscured, place in cinematic history.

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