If you are expecting the operetta Roberta, you may be disappointed. Although the story is basically the same, the stars of this movie are Astaire & Rogers, (Huck & Liz) who were secondary parts in the operetta. In fact, John (the male lead of the operetta) doesn't sing and his songs have either been eliminated or are sung by someone else. Also, it is badly in need of remastering; the audio is poor and the video is fuzzy in spots. Nevertheless, it has good dancing and good music. I would recommend waiting until it comes out on DVD.

Jerome Kern's classic songs like "I'll Be Hard To Handle", "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes", "I Won't Dance", and "Lovely To Look At" are only part of the reason that I like Roberta. Even though Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers were not the main focus of this movie they stole the show with thier dancing and comedy. Many people say that this was not Fred & Ginger's best film but I disagree. No matter what anybody else thinks I still say that Roberta is "Lovely to look at"!

this movie is extremely entertaining. Ginger's accent is hilarious. (Vill you dell madame Robairta, that I have an engargment with de Marquis de Indianans.) She steals every scene she's in, and her 'I'll be hard to handle' number is one of my favorites. she and Fred have that friends type relationship which is very amusing. Wisecracks fly everywhere, incuding Fred biting Ginger's hand in the beginning!! They of course do fall into each other's arms at the end, but would the public want it any other way?

Astaire and Rogers were the number one box office draw for 1935, but it wasn't because of the farsightedness of RKO. After the two had managed to score unexpected popularity as a result of their second billed roles in FLYING TO RIO, they obviously needed to be paired in a follow up film. Actually, Fred was quite hesitant about this. He had been part of a dance team for most of his life, as the lesser half of Adele and Fred Astaire. He wasn't sure he wanted a new partner, and he wasn't confident that Rogers, with her background in completely different dance forms, would be the right partner under the best of circumstances. Luckily, he gave the pairing a try, and the result was the greatest dance team in cinema history.

Their second film together was THE GAY DIVORCEE, and it is shocking that after the success of that film, RKO could have even remotely considered having them second billed to anyone. Any film fan today can merely shake their head and ask, "What were they thinking?" Luckily, after this film they were first billed again and reunited with their best director, Mark Sandrich, to continue a string of musical films that remain unmatched.

So, trying to put the disappointment that Irene Dunne and not Fred and Ginger star in the film, how enjoyable is this film? It isn't unwatchable, and the scenes with Fred and Ginger are good. They have some nice dance numbers, though their performance of "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" seems more of an afterthought. Irene Dunne was a fine comedic actress, as films such as THE AWFUL TRUTH and MY FAVORITE WIFE would later show, but despite her later appearance in the James Whale version of SHOW BOAT a year later, I don't care for her in musicals. Her voice was a tad too shrill for my taste, and her vibrato irritatingly fast. Moreover, while I like Randolph Scott in Westerns, he always seemed out of place in comedy (though he would be appropriate for MY FAVORITE WIFE). He similarly marred FOLLOW THE FLEET, playing the second romantic lead to Fred. But there is another reason that this film falls far short of what we would later come to expect from an Astaire and Rogers film: the supporting cast. TOP HAT, THE GAY DIVORCEE, and SWINGTIME are all absolutely stellar films, and each one features a rich, deep, and talented cast of supporting players such as Edward Everett Horton, Eric Blore, Erik Rhodes, Helen Broderick, and Alice Brady. ROBERTA lacks this kind of depth, and as a result lacks the charm and wit we normally associate with their best films.

So, this is not an unwatchable film, but it is far from one of Fred and Ginger's best. But any serious fan of their work should see it at least once.

This Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers comedy starts out with great promise, as Astaire plays opposite the charmingly rugged and intensely charismatic Randolph Scott, who took a welcome break from his usual tough-guy roles in western oaters. Unfortunately, it turns out that this movie was really a vehicle for Irene Dunne, who is fine as a comedic supporting character, but stops the film dead in its tracks when the directors make her the center of attention. She particularly sucks the life out of the film when she sings not one, not two, not three, but a full four songs (the last with a reprise!) in her horrid, overly mannered operatic soprano... It's a prissy style which does not wear well over the years, and her songbird vocals -- along with a prolonged fashion show sequence, featuring a parade of unusually garish gowns -- bring this film to a grinding, painful halt. Rogers and Astaire are of course quite beautiful together, but they only have a little time onscreen, with Astaire's "I Won't Dance" the highlight of the show. Scott is absolutely magnetic as Astaire's good-natured, no-nonsense he-man pal (and actually upstages Fred in some of the early scenes!), but his role dwindles to insignificance in the second half of the film, when Dunne is elevated to center stage. Fabulous start, but it soon fizzles out.