Follow The Fleet 1936 RKO Studios

Follow The Fleet

RKO – 1936

If you’ve ever watched NCIS, then you have seen Mark Harmon, the actor who plays Gibbs.  His sister, in real life, married Rick Nelson.  Rick Nelson was a super popular singer who died in an accident.  Rick got his start on a TV show with his brother David, and his parents Ozzie and Harriet Nelson.  The show was called  “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.”  Ozzie Nelson was a smiley band leader who was married to a singer named Harriet Hilliard.  They aged very gracefully and became a pleasant example of parenthood and family life for TV audiences in the mid-20^th century.

Well, before she was a sweet kind wise Mommy, Harriet Hilliard flirted with sailors on shore leave, wore skimpy little bias-cut satin dresses and sang songs like “Get thee behind me Satan.”  And that’s this movie!  She also gets a makeover from frumpy to fabulous by none other than Lucille Ball.  Blonde Lucy actually has a speaking part this time as a character named Kitty. 

The troupe this time includes Lucy, as mentioned, and Betty Grable and Randolph Scott.  He plays a sailor character named “Bilge” who is, frankly, a jerk.

The script is by Allan Scott.  Irving Berlin did the music again, and there are some classics in this film.  My own kids like singing “We joined the Navy to see the world, and what did we see?  We saw the sea!” because it’s funny.  The dances are also spectacular.  Even though this plot is as light as an anchor, the dialogue is witty and the nautical theme is fun.  Watch the dance scenes twice.  

Follow The Fleet is not as fancy as Top Hat.  This time Fred is a U.S. Navy sailor named “Bake” Baker.  This was filmed before WWII, so not wartime Navy, but peacetime Navy.  Sherry Martin (Ginger Rogers) is a dancer and singer at a San Francisco ballroom that caters to singles and sailors on a pay-to-dance-with-dance-hall-girls basis (back then it was called “taxi dancing”).  Sherry’s sister Connie Martin (Harriet Hilliard) is a lonely teacher.  They live together and are the daughters of a late sea captain who left them a broken-down ship.  Connie wants to set sail again, and falls in love at first sight with Bilge.

My favorite moment:  After getting the brush-off from Bilge, Connie gets her makeover and tries again.  She gathers her courage and does a swirly little walk past him that is, quite frankly, amazing.  Every woman should have this skill.

Bake and Sherry were a dance team and a romantic couple before he enlisted in the Navy.  They don’t expect to run into each other at the ballroom, but they do.  She’s singing and dancing, then they dance together.  It’s all so wonderful!

This film gives Ginger more moments to shine than the previous movies.  She is able to demonstrate just what a song-and-dance girl she really is.  Don’t get me wrong, Fred shines too!  It’s a festival of talent!

As the movie proceeds, the plot thickens.  Once again we are reminded that in the 1930s divorce was not common, and not the same as it is today.  The term “going to Reno” often meant going to Nevada to get an easier divorce than was available in other states.  Even after a divorce, a woman was called “Mrs.” One of the characters in this movie is Sherry’s friend “Mrs. Manning.”  She is actually very single and very interested in Bilge.  This is a complicating feature of the plot.

There is plenty of sailor dancing by Fred.  He and Ginger do some comedy dancing together too.  Ginger also has a solo comedic song and dance in fringe shorts.  And Fred plays the piano for us again, hooray!  (Cigarettes were more common back then -- smart people don't smoke them now.)  My mother Bo loved this piano part – right in her wheelhouse.  He’s really good.  

In order to have an excuse for a major ballroom A&R dance, they did a plot device.  “Let’s put on a show!”  They have a show as a fund-raiser for fixing up the boat Connie inherited.  We won’t delve too deeply into the believability of this.  It does give them a chance to don gown and tuxedo on an Art Deco set and dance to a classic Berlin tune, even if the pantomimed story of the song is creepy.  It’s called “Let’s Face The Music and Dance.”  You probably know that the old saying “Let’s face the music” means to be accountable for your actions, even if it gets you into trouble.  I haven’t heard it much recently.  This title is a little play on words of that popular saying of the day.  This time her dress is a heavy, beaded, translucent thing.  Bo said that Ginger needed a slip.

My favorite moment:  The sleeve of that heavy dress whomps Fred right in the face.  Watch for it on the second viewing.