What was that line from Hondo? "Him very young. Will learn." "If he lives..."
Any stray thoughts and updates I've included with the inevitable asterisked post-scripts.
Follow the Fleet (Mark Sandrich, 1936) They begin this way: From the black the upper hemisphere of a globe revolves in a cloud-filled sky. Perched atop the globe at its very hub, is a gigantic radio tower that beeps out the insignia "An RKO Radio Picture." 
That trademark holds something special for me, for it announces that it was made by the RKO Studios--the studios that fostered such film classics as Citizen Kane and the truly original King Kong. RKO made its share of turkeys but even in those, RKO's studios put a certain feel into their films. It comes from their sets. It comes from the equipment. It comes from the team. That's why M-G-M musicals look so glossily over-produced, and current Universal films look so cheesy.
The two films in 130 Kane Hall this Friday are both RKO films and they are Follow the Fleet and Stage Door.
Follow the Fleet is very generally a Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musical. And it is a pleasant enough entertainment. Oh, there are some things that will not be tolerated, I'm sure--there are a few lines that a lot of feminists will hiss at, and you can chuckle over some of the clothes,* the dances and the more's displayed in the film. After all, we are so much more advanced and sophisticated nowadays and Saturday's films--The Rocky Horrow Picture Show, and Private Parts shows this to be so.**
But there are some very neat things here, too. Some familiar faces--Fred and Ginger, Randolph Scott, Harriett Hillyard (who would become world-famous as the TV and real-life wife of bandleader Ozzie Nelson), and in lesser roles, Betty Grable and Lucille Ball. There are the songs by Irving Berlin ("Let Yourself Go," "Let's Face the Music and Dance") orchestrated by film music great Max Steiner.
And then there are the dance numbers--the reason this film was made, its the reason this film is structured the way it was, and it's what made Astaire and Rogers stars, doubly and singly. There is a mutual smash-up-your-partners'-work dance rehearsal about 3/4 through the film that will undoubtedly impress as a great number of stumbles, but is actually as well-choreographed as any of the other dance numbers in the film.***
So, gee whiz gosh, folks, why don't you forget your 70's whatever-it-is attitude and enjoy yourself.
There's not much I can add, other than to say that Follow the Fleet introduced the standard "Let's Face the Music and Dance," and that the choreography of Astaire (with Hermes Pan) and the dance performance of Astaire and Rogers (and remember, "she had to do everything he did...only backwards and in high-heels!") are some of the most sublimely beautiful things you will see in movies. In all the years since I've seen this film and the others, I've never seen anything that can compare. Sure, Gene Kelly had that ferocious athletic aggressiveness...but Astaire and Rogers achieved Grace with a capital "G."
2020 Addendum: Oh, there's a LOT I can add: Astaire (originally Frederick Austerlitz—on imdb.com, he is "nm0000001/") had a disastrous screen-test at RKO: "Can't sing. Can't act. Balding. Can dance a little." read the card-synopsis; producer David O. Selznick—who signed Astaire to his RKO contract wrote in one of his famous memo's "I am uncertain about the man, but I feel, in spite of his enormous ears and bad chin line, that his charm is so tremendous that it comes through even on this wretched test." Astaire's first film for RKO, Flying Down to Rio, had him fifth-billed—right after Ginger Rogers. He didn't want to be part of another dance duo (he started out on-stage with his sister Adele); he wrote his agent "I don't mind making another picture with her, but as for this 'team' idea, it's 'out!' I've just managed to live down one partnership and I don't want to be bothered with any more." But, they made nine films together in one of the greatest pairings in film.
Katherine Hepburn (who'd worked with Rogers on Stage Door) said of them: "He gives her class and she gives him sex appeal." Astaire said of her: "Ginger had never danced with a partner before Flying Down to Rio. She faked it an awful lot. She couldn't tap and she couldn't do this and that ... but Ginger had style and talent and improved as she went along. She got so that after a while everyone else who danced with me looked wrong." Part of that is Ginger Rogers proved to be a consummate actress. Yes, she could get the routines "down," but most importantly, she could act the dance and its emotional effect—like a good opera singer who can hit all the notes, but also emote beyond them to touch the audience. It's athleticism and skill to hit the marks, but the acting makes it less of a spectator sport and brings the audience in to become part of the experience. Astaire was likable, but Rogers made him a romantic lead—just by her acting.
One might not like musicals. One might not like dancing in films. But, watching Astaire and Rogers is experiencing artistry...and that is thrilling, whatever one's prejudices. Excellence always beats them.
* Now, bear in mind, I was writing this during the "disco" 70's! Everybody was wearing platform shoes and bell-bottoms, fergodsake.
** I believe I was being sarcastic here, but I'm not sure. I think I was merely pandering to the audience of a 10 watt rock station on the University campus and this was the first review I'd written (I think). I was being unsure and general—why else would I start with an explanation of RKO Radio Pictures" (it would be "explained" musically in Rocky Horror on the next night, after all), plus I thought I had to "sell" an Astaire-Rogers musical to the "hipsters" on campus. Balderdash. Anyway, the review of The Rocky Horror Picture Show is here and the one for Private Parts is here.
Stage Door, we will represent next week.
***
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