Rent Shall We Dance (1937)

Musical Screwball. - Shall We Dance review by Steve

Superior Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers screwball musical which is utterly typical of their collaborations while including a few curious departures. There's nothing new in the mistaken identity set up with Fred as an American in Paris posing as Russian ballet dancer, who gets snagged up with Ginger's hot jazz babe on the luxury liner back to New York.

Still, the plot is entertaining, and there's an above average script with some pretty good gags. There's even some lightweight thematic content which compares classical and modern dancing. The main difference is one of tone; George and Ira Gershwin's romantic songs have a comical touch. And they are all time classics.

Rogers sings They All Laughed; Astaire performs the Oscar nominated They Can't Take That Away from Me; they duet on Let's Call the Whole Thing Off and deliver a routine on roller skates! It's always great to see Eric Blore doing his unctuous hireling schtick. French actor Ketti Gallian adds a little chic bitchiness.

This is the seventh Astaire-Rogers musical so maybe they wanted to freshen up the formula. Regrettably we don't get a climactic ballroom romance number. Instead there's some mock-ballet. The box office was slow and Ginger sometimes looks bored... But there are only ten of these! Anyone who loves the '30s musical will adore this.