Follow the Fleet
| Follow the Fleet | |
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original theatrical poster
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| Directed by | Mark Sandrich |
| Produced by | Pandro S. Berman |
| Written by |
Allan Scott Dwight Taylor Lew Lipton (add'l dialogue) |
| Based on |
Shore Leave by Hubert Osborne |
| Starring |
Fred Astaire Ginger Rogers |
| Music by |
Irving Berlin Max Steiner |
| Cinematography | David Abel |
| Edited by | Henry Berman |
| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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110 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $747,000 |
| Box office | $2,727,000 |
Follow the Fleet (RKO) is a 1936 Hollywood musical comedy film with a nautical theme starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in their fifth collaboration as dance partners. It also features Randolph Scott, Harriet Hilliard, and Astrid Allwyn, with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. Lucille Ball and Betty Grable also appear, in supporting roles. The film was directed by Mark Sandrich with script by Allan Scott and Dwight Taylor based on the 1922 play Shore Leave by Hubert Osborne.
Follow the Fleet was extremely successful at the box office, and during 1936, Astaire's recorded versions of "Let Yourself Go", "I'm Putting all My Eggs in One Basket", and "Let's Face the Music and Dance" reached their highest positions of 3rd, 2nd, 3rd respectively in the US Hit Parade. Harriet Hilliard and Tony Martin made their screen debuts in this film. RKO borrowed Randolph Scott from Paramount and Astrid Allwyn from Fox for the production.
Seaman "Bake" Baker (Fred Astaire) and Sherry (Ginger Rogers) are former dance partners, now separated, with Baker in the Navy and Sherry working as a dance hostess in a San Francisco ballroom, Paradise.
Bake visits the ballroom with his Navy buddy "Bilge" (Randolph Scott) during a period of liberty, reuniting with Sherry (but costing her job), while Bilge is initially attracted to Sherry's sister Connie (Harriet Hilliard). When Connie begins to talk about marriage, Bilge quickly diverts his attention towards a friend of Sherry's, Iris (Astrid Allwyn), a divorced socialite.
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Wikipedia