One of the best Astaire-Rogers film is this 1936 gem of a flick.With the constant theme of Let Yourself Go in the background, Astaire and Rogers dance up their usual storm and by film's ending- Let's Face the Music and Dance is so appropriately for how the story has turned.Astaire meets up with Rogers, his ex-girlfriend, while he is on liberty from the navy.Harriet Hilliard steals the show, particularly at the beginning, as the sister of Rogers. A spinster schoolteacher, she almost looked like Bette Davis in beginning scenes of 1942's "Now, Voyager."Randolph Scott co-stars as Astaire's mate, who falls for Hilliard after she dolls herself up.The plot may be corny, but the dance routines sparkle and there is a story after all.

Unfortunately, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers are dead and will no longer make films. Except movies that you can imagine, those who have this something called imagination, in this world polluted with superheroes, bad taste and a lot of stupidity. Ginger and Fred had something magical, unique, unmatched talent as dancers and singers. Their stories, simple, captivates and charm you in any movie of their own. Harriet Hilliard, in this Follow the Fleet, is also excellent in the role of Ginger Rogers' sister character. Great songs and great dance, the grace of Heaven on Earth, descended by these two angels named Ginger & Fred.

I don't know if it was planned this way, but through the first 6 films including Fred and Ginger, every other one included another developing romantic couple, with the male being classically handsome and charming, contrasting with Fred's emaciated ordinary looks. Gave the women another type of desirable man to relate to, along with Fred's dancing, singing and physical and verbal comedic skills. Tall, handsome, charming Randolph Scott returns in this one, from "Roberta", as Fred's shipboard buddy. It was hoped that Irene Dunn would again be romantically paired with Scott, as in "Roberta", but this wasn't in the cards. Thus, band singer and ex-vaudevillian Harriet Hilliard, now wife of band leader Ossie Nelson, took Irene's place, in her first feature film role. Like Irene, she shared the female solo singing roles with Ginger. Unlike Irene, she got two rather unmemorable songs, in contrast to some memorable songs and dances for Ginger.This is the first major musical I'm aware of with the plot centered on sailors, with much of the action supposedly taking place on a ship. It was fun seeing Fred and buddy Scott(Bilge) clowning around in sailor suits, instead of Fred's typical ballroom tux and, sometimes, top hat, attire. Of course, later, Gene Kelley and Frank Sinatra would play sailor buddies in the musical comedies "Anchors Aweigh" and "On the Town". Other sailor-oriented MGM musicals of this era include "Two Girls and a Sailor" and "Hit the Deck". But, those of you who prefer to have Fred and Ginger dancing in ballroom formal attire and surroundings won't be entirely disappointed. The last musical number, to "Let's Face the Music and Dance" fits this description. The lyrics, initially sung by Fred, had personal relevance to the characters played by Fred and Ginger. You see, Fred was due to spend some time in a military prison, for going AWOL to do this show, to finish fixing up an old private ship inherited by Harriet's character, who is scripted as Ginger's sister. Thus, they will have to 'face the music' and wait until he is released to continue their romantic relationship. But, in the present, they can 'face the music' and dance.The interconnected romantic scenario is not much different from the previous one that included Scott, in "Roberta". Again, we have Fred trying to rekindle a romance with Ginger, after a few year's absence. Again, Scott is trying to juggle two women during part of the film. However, achieving these connections is presented as much more plausible in this film than in "Roberta", or the earlier "Flying Down to Rio", which also had an additional developing romantic couple. True, there are other implausibilities in this film. In this screenplay, Scott is presented as more of a heel, when it comes to women, than in "Roberta". Clearly, unlike Harriet's character, he is not interested in matrimony in the near future, only in hanging out with 'hot' women, as Harriet discovers when the fleet arrives back in SF, Scott made a bee line for the slender blond socialite Iris, rather than her, as anticipated. Since Iris has a chauffeured limo, presumably she is wealthy, which presumably also impresses Scott. But Harriet hasn't quite given up the chase, and Fred cools Scott's infatuation with Iris by staging a date with her, with Iris's puzzling collusion. In revenge, Scott had Fred's leave to perform in a staged show cancelled. Fred jumps ship anyway, and Scott is assigned the duty of bringing him back, to serve some prison time. The crescendo in this drama is reached when Fred tells Scott some info about why the show is being done, and Scott has to decide whether to take Fred back now, or wait until the show is over, risking his own punishment.The film starts right off with a shipboard Fred-led group sing to "We Saw the Sea". The lyrics are rather trivial. However, it's a catchy tune, and effectively expresses the frustrations of the sailors....On the whole, I can't say that the songs and dancing are superior to most of the other Fred & Ginger films. It's more the interactions between the principle characters and superior comedy that makes this one of my favorites of the Fred & Ginger films. Scott's failure to recognize Harriet, after her Ginger-inspired makeover, is but one of many comedic elements.Unfortunately, Harriet's scripted schoolmarmish character, despite a humorous introduction to Scott's character, spends much of the film being inhibited or moping, in contrast to her reported gay private personality, which more fit Ginger's advice in her song "Let yourself Go". Despite considerable dance training , she wasn't given any show dancing role. Although a natural blond, her hair was died dark to provide more contrast with Ginger, and presumably to enhance her schoolmarmish image. Ironically, Ginger, with naturally dark hair, always appeared in films as a blond.Irving Berlin was given the honor of scoring the film, after doing the same for "Top Hat": perhaps the highest rated of the Fred & Ginger films. The Gershwins or Jerome Kerns & Dorothy Fields would score the last two of the classic Fred & Ginger films. Irving then scored the much inferior "Carefree", which RKO didn't put much resources in, sensing that the public was tiring of Fred & Ginger. Of course, Irving also scored the classic Bing & Fred films "Holiday Inn" and "Blue Skies",as well as the Fred & Judy "Easter Parade", in the '40s.

I saw this shown not long after the most famous on screen dancing couple's first film together in The Gay Divorce, this was the third film together, and I am happy I spotted it, from director Mark Sandrich (Top Hat, Shall We Dance). Basically it follows a similar theme as On the Town, all the sailors of a Navy ship are on shore leave and spending time in San Francisco, and it is there that former dance partners, sailor Bake Baker (Fred Astaire) and ballroom dance hostess Sherry Martin (Ginger Rogers) reunite. While they reform their relationship with each other, Bake's Navy buddy Bilge Smith (Randolph Scott) finds himself his own attraction with Sherry's sister Connie (Harriet Hilliard), but eventually he loses interest, with the discussion of marriage, and he fancies divorced socialite Mrs. Iris Manning (Astrid Allwyn). While Connie is raising money to salvage her deceased father's ship the sailors are forced to return to the sea to do their duty, but when they return Bake is keen to help Sherry get a Broadway role, only for mistaken identities and misunderstandings to cause this to fail. But Bake redeems himself by helping raise the few hundred of dollars needed to fix the ship, and after a big concert Sherry does get a Broadway show offer, and in the end she accepts his proposal for marriage. Also starring Betty Grable as Trio Singer, Lucille Ball as Kitty Collins and Harry Beresford as Captain Hickey. Astaire is as usual highly talented with his dancing and charming with his nice guy attitude, and Rogers as always is cute and equally talented as well, and together they light up the screen with their individual and combined dances, the songs including "We Saw the Saw", "But Where Are You?", and the most memorable "Let's Face the Music and Dance" are a delight, overall, a nice fun musical comedy. Very good!