Shall We Dance (1937 film)


Shall We Dance, released in 1937, is the seventh of the ten Astaire-Rogers musical comedy films. The idea for the film originated in the studio's desire to exploit the successful formula created by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart with their 1936 Broadway hit On Your Toes. The musical featured an American dancer getting involved with a touring Russian ballet company. In a major coup for RKO, Pandro Berman managed to attract the Gershwins - George Gershwin who wrote the symphonic underscore and Ira Gershwin the lyrics - to score this, their second Hollywood musical after Delicious in 1931.

Plot

Peter P. Peters, an American ballet dancer billed as "Petrov", dances for a ballet company in Paris owned by the bumbling Jeffrey Baird. Peters secretly wants to blend classical ballet with modern jazz dancing, and when he sees a photo of famous tap dancer Linda Keene, he falls in love with her. He contrives to meet her, but she is less than impressed. They meet again on an ocean liner traveling back to New York, and Linda warms to Petrov. Unknown to them, a plot is launched as a publicity stunt "proving" that they are actually married. Outraged, Linda becomes engaged to the bumbling Jim Montgomery, much to the chagrin of both Peters and Arthur Miller, her manager, who secretly launches more fake publicity.
Peters and Keene, unable to squelch the rumor, decide to actually marry and then immediately get divorced. Linda begins to fall in love with her husband, but then discovers him with another woman, Lady Denise Tarrington, and leaves before he can explain. Later, when she comes to his new show to personally serve him divorce papers, she sees him dancing with dozens of women, all wearing masks with her face on them: Peters has decided that if he cannot dance with Linda, he will dance with images of Linda. Seeing that he truly loves her, she happily joins him onstage.

Cast

George Gershwin - who had become famous for blending jazz with classical forms - wrote each scene in a different style of dance music, and he composed one scene specifically for the ballerina Harriet Hoctor. Ira Gershwin seemed decidedly less excited by the idea; none of his lyrics make reference to the notion of blending different styles of dance, and Astaire was also not enthusiastic about the concept.
The score of Shall We Dance is probably the largest source of Gershwin orchestral works unavailable to the general public, at least since the advent of modern stereo recording techniques in the 1950s. The movie contains the only recordings of some of the instrumental pieces currently available to Gershwin aficionados Some of the cuts arranged and orchestrated by Gershwin include: "Dance of the Waves", "Waltz of the Red Balloons", "Graceful and Elegant", "Hoctor's Ballet" and "French Ballet Class". The instrumental track "Walking the Dog", however, has been frequently recorded and has been played from time to time on classical music radio stations.
Nathaniel Shilkret, musical director for the movie, hired Jimmy Dorsey and all or part of the Dorsey band as the nucleus of a fifty-piece studio orchestra including strings. Dorsey was in Hollywood at the time working the "Kraft Music Hall" radio show on NBC hosted by Bing Crosby. Dorsey is heard soloing on "Slap That Bass," "Walking the Dog" and "They All Laughed."
Gershwin was already suffering during the production of the motion picture from the brain tumor that was shortly to kill him, and Shilkret contributed by assisting with orchestration on some of the numbers.

Musical numbers

collaborated with Astaire on the choreography throughout and Harry Losee was brought in to help with the ballet finale. Gershwin modeled the score on the great ballets of the 19th century, but with obvious swing and jazz influences, as well as polytonalism. While Astaire made further attempts—notably in Ziegfeld Follies, Yolanda and the Thief and Daddy Long Legs —it was his rival and friend Gene Kelly who would eventually succeed in creating a modern original dance style based on this concept. Some critics have attributed Astaire's discomfort with ballet to his oft-expressed disdain for "inventing up to the arty".
While the film - the couple's most expensive to date - benefits from quality comedy specialists, opulent art direction by Carroll Clark under Van Nest Polglase's supervision, and a timeless score which introduces three classic Gershwin songs, the convoluted plot and the curious absence of a romantic partnered duet for Astaire and Rogers - a hallmark of their musicals since The Gay Divorcee - contributed to their least profitable picture to date.
Astaire was no stranger to the Gershwins, having headlined, with his sister Adele, two Gershwin Broadway shows: Lady Be Good! in 1924 and Funny Face in 1927. George Gershwin also accompanied the pair on piano in a set of recordings in 1926. Rogers first came to Hollywood's attention when she appeared in the Gershwins' 1930 stage musical Girl Crazy.
Shall We Dance was named at the suggestion of Vincente Minnelli, who was a friend of the Gershwins. Minnelli originally suggested "Shall We Dance?" with a question mark, which disappeared at some point.

Reception

Shall We Dance earned $1,275,000 in the US and Canada and $893,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $413,000, less than half the previous Astaire-Rogers film. It was neither a box office nor a critical success, and was taken as an indication that the Astaire-Rogers pairing was slipping in its audience appeal.
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
On September 22, 2013 it was announced that a musicological critical edition of the full orchestral score of Shall We Dance will eventually be released. The Gershwin family, working in conjunction with the Library of Congress and the University of Michigan, are working to make scores available to the public that represent Gershwin's true intent. The entire Gershwin project may take 30 to 40 years to complete, and it is unclear when Shall We Dance will be released. Other than the sequences Hoctor's Ballet and Walking The Dog, it will be the first time the score has been published.

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