Roberta

It begins fairly strong, looking quite promising, but peters out after about half an hour. The inclusion of some great dancing by Rogers and Astaire and a small number of songs that, for the most part, fail, but a couple of them are decent. "I Won't Dance" is simply a fantastic song, too bad the rest of the movie can't hold up.

Irene Dunne is lovely and sincere, Rogers and Astaire are excellent in comic support (and of course, the dancing!), and the Jerome Kern score is first-rate ("Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," "Yesterdays," "I Won't Dance," "Lovely to Look at," and--my favorite--"Let's Begin"). The only drawback: Randolph Scott is rather stiff and almost completely forgettable.

There was something oddly paced about this. Like the bits and musical pieces was just randomly put in at various points whether they fit the mood or not. Didn't help that Randolph "Gee that's swell" Scott only had about one line that he repeated about a dozen times making his character even more one-dimensional then usual. Plenty of scenes that brought very little and quite a few great moments from Astaire/Rogers, plus Dunn bringing this to life when needed. Her crying moments was heartfelt one.

Might be my favorite Astaire/Rogers flick, perhaps because Astaire wasn't central. He wasn't his typical playboy self, ingratiating himself by being as obnoxious as possible. The dance sequences were, as usual, mesmerizing. Dunne was wonderful (did I even know she was a singer?). However, Scott's "Gee, that's swell" every few minutes was pretty annoying. Per usual, don't expect the plot to wow you. At least there were fewer stupid misunderstandings than usual, except the obligatory final one.

The way I see it is, why would you want Irene Dunn singing ballads in close-up when you could have Fred and Ginger doing literally anything? I'm afraid my modern ears just don't have what it takes to appreciate something like her take on "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes." Sequences like that stand in contrast to Fred and Ginger's light-as-air duets of "I Won't Dance" and "Lovely to Look At," which anybody with half a heart would love.

There's nothing really noteworthy or special about this forgettable musical. Not even Ginger Rogers horrible accent does more than cause an eye roll or two.