Follow the Fleet comes from a pre-existing play that seems less custom-tailored than Astaire and Rogers' other vehicles. Some of the changes are rather refreshing. Astaire excels playing not a suave man-about-town but a lower-class seaman who chews gum and cuts up with the boys. It's a switch to see him alter his dancing style to suit a hoofer familiar with work down in the vaudeville trenches. Astaire is one of the few actors who can alter his dancing style to suit different characters, and we believe that his Bake Baker might be a guy with some fancy steps who quit to join the Navy because of a fight with his girl.

In one very amusing scene, Bake and Sherry enter a dance contest and find they have to really get cooking to compete with the hot amateur talent around them. About five steps into his dancing, Bake is tapped on the shoulder, disqualified by the judge!

The composer of note here is Irving Berlin, which makes us think of how much more conducive Hollywood was to great talent back then, when the country's best composers and lyricists were writing for musicals as well as putting out hit pop songs. Great work flowed into pictures like Follow the Fleet; putting together such a talent combo today would be impossible because everyone with a name big enough to draw an audience demands to be in creative control ... there's little evidence of stars of any ilk subordinating their positions or taking career risks in the name of creating something special.

Several of the hit numbers in Follow the Fleet function as songs do in ordinary musicals, interrupting the story instead of advancing it. One wonderful rehearsal dance builds its humor around a series of mistakes and accidents. We Saw the Sea is used as a standard intro for Fred. Let Yourself Go and I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket are pleasant enough, but don't have the contextual presence of songs in other titles - something like Pick Yourself Up is an integral part of the story development in Swing Time.

The timeless tune of the show is the delirious Let's Face the Music and Dance. It takes place on a stage and jumps the characters back into fancy-gown and tuxedo mode. An illustrated story of potential suicide and romantic harmony borne of despair, it has the strangest mood of any Astaire and Rogers dance scene; until the two lost souls find strength in each other, it almost evokes the doomed romantic melancholy of Val Lewton's The Seventh Victim: "There may be trouble ahead ..."

Follow the Fleet's story is a tired "tars 'n dolls" adventure in dating, with beefy sailors on shore leave. Fred's Bake makes promises he can't keep and accidentally louses up Sherry's singing audition by dosing her with bicarbonate of soda. The various hijinks are amusing but not up to the level of wit or romantic invention of the earlier pix, even though some of the same writers and director Mark Sandrich are involved.

Bake and Sherry's story is no more complicated than old sweethearts giving their romance another try. Equal screen time is devoted to the less satisfying courtship between Sherry's sister Connie and Bake's best friend Bilge. Bilge is Randolph Scott, he of the perfect profile and warm smile. But when it comes to women Bilge is an unlikeable cad, rudely brushing off schoolteacher Connie (read: glasses, hair in a bun) with curt statements like "Women don't agree with me." He then comes on strong to the made-over Connie, gobbles up pie from her refrigerator, and then scoots off to greener pastures when fast (and married) society girl Iris Manning comes sniffing around.

Also turning our heads is a very tall Lucille Ball, who gets the opportunity to deliver a couple of sassy dialogue lines. Less active but immediately recognizable is Betty Grable -- she looks as if she were told to stand in one place, shut up and smile.

Warners' DVD of Follow the Fleet is in fine shape. The encoding helps a so-so transfer element to look its best, and the audio track is greatly enhanced by careful re-recording.

The docu this time (The Origins of Those Dancing Feet) is straight bio coverage of Astaire and Rogers' whole childhood to fame tale. Since both of them have remarkable backstories, it plays well. The part about Let's Face the Music and Dance details the old story of Fred being smacked by Ginger's beaded sleeve during a dance spin, and the take staying in the show. It may have been a startling sting, but the dress looks too sheer and light to deliver the punch described in the voiceover.

The cartoon this go-round is a winner about a rooster with a Crosby-like voice that has the henhouse in an uproar. The cynical ending is similar to the old classic about a country chick taken in by a big movie star. The short subject is Melody Master: Jimme Lunceford and his Dance Orchestra. As Lunceford is a ready-for-prime-time version of Cab Calloway, it's more lively than many musical diversions from the time.

An original theatrical trailer rounds out the package. The original poster art on the cover is one of the nicest in the collection.

On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Follow the Fleet rates:
Movie: Very Good
Video: Very Good
Sound: Excellent
Supplements: Featurette Follow the Fleet: The Origins of Those Dancing Feet, Musical short Melody Master: Jimmie Lunceford and His Dance Orchestra; Cartoon: Let It Be Me, Trailer
Packaging: Keep case
Reviewed: August 12, 2005