Shall We Dance

Directed by Mark Sandrich

A ballet dancer and a showgirl fake a marriage for publicity purposes, then fall in love.

1937 1h 56m Musical TV-G

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CAST

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0

169598|107481

Mark Sandrich

Director

1

6516|54767

Fred Astaire

Petrov [also known as..

2

164119|61650

Ginger Rogers

Linda Keene

3

89195|45155

Edward Everett Ho..

Jeffrey Baird

4

17793|48083

Eric Blore

Cecil Flintridge

5

40224|81650

Jerome Cowan

Arthur Miller

FULL SYNOPSIS

Smitten with photographs of musical revue star Linda Keene, Pete P. Peters, an American ballet dancer living in Paris and performing under the name Petrov, vows to his impresario, Jeffrey Baird, that he will meet and marry her. However, when Pete, who secretly prefers jazz dancing to formal ballet, finally arrives at Linda's apartment, he overhears her eschewing her fawning male admirers and expressing to her nearly bankrupt producer, Arthur Miller, her desire to quit show business. With his thickest Russian accent, Pete introduces himself as Petrov, the temperamental ballet star, and pretends to be unimpressed by Linda. Then, to be near her as well as be away from Lady Tarrington, a former ballerina and dogged admirer of his, Pete tricks Jeffrey into booking passage for him on the same New York-bound boat on which Linda is sailing the next day. Before boarding the liner, Pete encounters Lady Tarrington and, in order to rid himself of her, confirms Jeffrey's story that he has been married in secret for four years. While sailing to New York, Pete connives to join Linda as she takes her little dog on his daily walks and gradually wins favor with her. However, after rumors generated through Lady Tarrington about Pete's "secret marriage" begin to spread around the boat, Linda's attentions to Pete lead to speculation that she is Pete's wife and is pregnant. When an outraged Linda then hears from Jeffrey that Pete used her to avoid Lady Tarrington, she grabs the next m...

VIDEOS

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Ben Mankiewicz Intro...

Hosted Intro

I Hope To Dance With Her Some...

Movie Clip

Slap That Bass!

Movie Clip

They All Laughed

Movie Clip

Let's Call the Whole Thing Of...

Movie Clip

Robert Osborne Intro...

Hosted Intro

ARTICLES

Shall We Dance (1937) was the seventh outing within four years for RKO superstars Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Having kept the RKO studio financially afloat during the darker days of the Great Depression, Astaire and Rogers kept movie audiences entertained too, with sublime dance numbers, romantic fantasies of Boy-Meets-Girl, and songs that stayed with the audience long after the house lights came up. But by the time Shall We Dance was released in May 1937, the luster on the Astaire & Rogers films was beginning to fade. Shall We Dance was not a critical or even a box office success, but it was not the first indication that the team was losing steam. It was while this film was being shot that RKO studio bosses met to commiserate on the disappointing returns from Swing Time, released in 1936. That film made a profit of $413,000, well below the team's usual performance. In the case of Shall We Dance, audiences may have been disappointed by the decreased number of dance routines, while critics noted that the musical was less original and the plot a virtual rehash of their previous outings. But seen today, Shall We Dance succeeds as a stylish and superior musical entertainment from the Art Deco era. There are many things to praise here, including some truly memorable dance sequences. An outing in a park sets the stage for the most imaginative dance number in the film, a roller skate sequence set to the song "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off." Despite rumors at the tim...

ARCHIVES

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Shall We Dance

Scenes Pan Photo

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Shall We Dance

Scenes Stills

NOTES

The working titles of this film were Watch Your Step, which also was the title of the screen story, and Stepping Toes. Modern sources also list On Your Ballet, Stepping Stones, Stepping High, Round the Town, Dance with Me, Let's Dance and Twinkle, Twinkle as other working titles. The production, which according to a Hollywood Reporter news item, required 300 hours of rehearsal, was the seventh film in which Rogers and Astaire appeared together. Rehearsals began in November 1936. Shall We Dance was the first film that George and Ira Gershwin worked on with Astaire, and only the second film for which the brothers had composed music. The Gershwins wrote the music for two of Astaire's broadway shows, Lady, Be Good! and Funny Face, as well as composing for Girl Crazy, a Broadway musical that starred Rogers. Their song "They Can't Take That Away from Me" was nominated for an Academy Awar...