Follow the Fleet | Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers | fine and somewhat underrated Fred and Ginger...

Follow the Fleet | Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers | They Remeet Cute in This One

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Follow the Fleet

	Follow the Fleet Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers Turner Home Entertai, 1994 average customer review:based on 30 reviews
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highly recommended

Of the nine films Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers completed for RKO Pictures, Follow the Fleet falls short of the top echelon. Coming between series peaks Top Hat and Swing Time, Fleet repeats the mistake (à la Flying Down to Rio and Roberta) of casting Fred and Ginger as the comic couple, while the romantic roles went to Randolph Scott and Harriet Hilliard (before she went on to fame with her husband, Ozzie Nelson, in Ozzie and Harriet). Fred puts down his top hat to become sailor Bake Baker (yet another of his alliterative screen names), while Ginger plays old flame Sherry Martin. The two are reunited when Fred takes shore leave in San Francisco, and soon their efforts turn to helping Ginger's sister Connie (Hilliard) land Fred's shipmate Bilge (Scott). (Look for Lucille Ball and Betty Grable in small roles.) Too much screen time is spent on Hilliard and Scott, but Fred and Ginger make up for it with plenty of laughs and some classic musical numbers, and Irving Berlin's score is one of the best of the series, with cunning lyrics and melodies that linger in the memory. Highlights include Fred and Ginger in a dance contest, a Ginger solo tap number, and "I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket," their best comic dance. The pièce de résistance is "Let's Face the Music and Dance," a show within a show in which Fred and Ginger don their customary evening formals. Effortlessly flowing from pantomime to song to dance, this sublime piece of storytelling is one of Fred and Ginger's defining moments. --David Horiuchi

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fine and somewhat underrated Fred and Ginger musical

Follow The Fleet is a solid RKO musical from 1936 that gives us Fred Astaire as Bake Baker, navy seaman and Ginger Rogers as Sherry Martin dancing at their best, even if the plot is rather thin. Look also for a great performance by Randolph Scott as Bilge Smith, Bake's buddy in the navy; and Harriet Hilliard plays Connie Martin, Sherry's sister. The plot and the action move along at a good pace; and the convincing acting was very nicely done.

The action starts when a navy ship carrying Bake Baker and his buddy Bilge Smith come into San Francisco's port. Bake wants to rekindle his old romance with Sherry but for now at least she wants nothing of the sort between them. Bilge soon falls for Sherry's sister Connie; and this provides a subplot even though too much time is spent on Bilge and Connie's relationship, in my opinion.

Bake wants Sherry back very badly--and he even ruins a job or two for her just to make sure she's still available! This causes obvious complications between Sherry and Bake. Meanwhile, Connie wants marriage with Bilge; but Bilge certainly isn't ready for marriage with any woman.

The song and dance numbers shared by Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire are nothing less than heavenly; they dance exceptionally well together especially in the film's finale, "Let's Face The Music And Dance." We also get a scene in which Ginger dances by herself; and this is noteworthy simply because it so rarely happened in the movies.

Look also for some great musical numbers on board the navy ship. Fred really knew how to dance!

The DVD comes with a very good bonus about Fred and Ginger; it has historians and Fred's daughter discussing how Fred and Ginger got into show business and finally movies. There's also a cute cartoon and another brief extra entitled Melody Master: Jimmy Lunceford and His Dance Orchestra. This is great bonus material!

Although some believe that Follow The Fleet is not the strongest Fred and Ginger movie, it kept my attention very well and I enjoyed it thoroughly. The song and dance numbers couldn't have been better; and it's nice to see Lucille Ball as a friend of Sherry Martin even if Lucille's part was rather small. The finale features Ginger in the famous beaded dress that she maintained weighed 35 pounds!

I highly recommend this movie for fans of classic movie musicals; and fans of Fred and Ginger will not want to overlook this one!

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They Remeet Cute in This One

"Follow The Fleet," (1936), was the fifth of ten pictures made for RKO Radio Pictures by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. It was made after "Top Hat," and is, of course, another romantic musical comedy, this time with a score by Irving Berlin. Once again, its family resemblance to the others is unmistakable, as substantially the same team was utilized behind the camera. It was produced by Pandro S. Berman; directed by Mark Sandrich; choreographed by Hermes Pan; Dwight Taylor and Allan Scott adapted it for the screen from the play "Shore Leave." Van Nest Polglase, in his capacity as art director, again produced the sparkling black and white art deco sets.

The plot's silly as ever, maybe even sillier, as Astaire and Rogers play Bake Baker - again with the alliterative name - and Sherry Martin, the comic couple. Probably, this stems from the play on which the film was based, but you have to ask: what were they all thinking? Well, at least Astaire and Rogers play an established, if broken-up couple in this one, and don't meet cute. They remeet cute. The romantic couple is Harriet Hilliard, in her pre Ozzie Nelson days, as Rogers' confidant, and sister Connie; and Randolph Scott, who doesn't exactly cast a testosterone-fueled shadow, as Astaire's shipmate Bilge Smith. Astrid Allwyn plays Mrs. Iris Manning, the spoiler. The young Lucille Ball and Betty Grable get some screen time, too. Astaire has supposedly joined the peacetime, between the wars navy, as his beloved dancing partner Rogers refused to marry him. So he looks fabulous in bellbottoms, chews gum like a madman, and finally gets to hit San Francisco again, where the Martin sisters are based, on shore leave. With Randolph Scott, billed as a ladies' man, in tow. Oh boy.

Berlin contributed seven numbers to the score. Two of them go to Hilliard: "Get Thee behind Me Satan," and "But Where are You?" She acquits herself well. Rogers gets an unusual solo song and dance to the kicky "Let Yourself Go." Astaire solos on the well-known "We Saw the Sea," and the lesser-known "I'd Rather Lead the Band." The great stars, who somehow stay out of top hat and evening dress until the closing number, duet on the comically-oriented "I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket."

And then there is what they'd call in the theater the "11 o'clock song," the one that the audience will remember as it walks out: "Let's Face the Music and Dance." Irving Berlin nodded now and then, but he was no June/moon/spoon dollar a day tunesmith. "Let's Face the Music," opens on a rather dark outlook, and moves, powerfully, to the affirmative. Both song and dance have great emotional content. "Follow the Fleet," as a whole, may not be the most distinguished of the Astaire-Rogers canon, but "Let's Face the Music" belongs to the ages.

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Different!

What I liked most about this Gem is that for once we loose the generally ingratiating pair of shrill characters in Eric Blore and Edward Everet Horton. I guess to some their absense seems almost sacriligious for and A & R film but to me it was most welcomed! Also for "shock" value we get a very young Harriet Nelson aka Harriet Hilliard who to my complete surprise not only holds her own but actually stands out! She exhibits pathos she was never afforded in her role as third star billing in the Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Fred and Ginger offer a more earthy and gritty street dancing style rarely utilized in their other films. Except for the final dance number which is elegant and graceful the rest of the dancing on disply in this movie is riproaring! Ginger finally gets her chance to put everybody under the table with an out-of-this-world tap and vocal number complete with Andrew Sisters type backup singers! I can't believe some of these low star reviews. Other than Top Hat which is one of the greatest movies ever made.....this is one of their best! Don't miss it!

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follow the fleet

DVD received in excellent condition. Sorry thought I had already sent a good review.

Astaire and Rogers back to earth

"Follow the Fleet" is the 5th of the Astaire/Rogers films and while not their best, their presence still puts it ahead of most other musicals. The pluses include:

- Rogers returning to her more sassy roots as a spunky nightclub performer. Both her singing and dancing are better than before and she really socks across "Let Yourself Go" with a very pretty Betty Grable as one of a trio of backup singers.
- Astaire having a lot of fun as a gum chewing sailor and demonstrating his spot on comedy timing particularly in a funny scene when he sets up Astrid Allwyn.
- Lucille Ball in a small supporting role as a tough pal of Rogers and showing hints of the comedian she became.
- Harriet Hilliard in the sappy lead, the sort of mindless part which Ruby Keeler played, but singing in her husky voice the haunting "Get Thee Behind Me Satan" memorably.
- the spellbinding classy dance to "Let's Face the Music and Dance", the pinnacle at that point of the Astaire/Rogers duets.

The negatives really are that the plot is dumb, the film too drawn out and Randolph Scott is a really clunky leading man for Hilliard.

The DVD package is quite good. The print is unrestored which is disappointing but the extras include a first rate featurette discussing the film and with Astaire's daughter appearing. There is a musical short from 1936 starring a long forgotten jazz band headed by Jimmie Lunceford. If you like jazz, you will like the short. The theatrical trailer for the film is in poor condition and the cartoon is OK.

All in all, this is a good package but better value if purchased as part of one of the Astaire/Rogers collections.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

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