if hollywood be to be believe and be in the the navy be nothing but a bludge . though the sailor may complain in chorus about the monotony of the ocean and it seem that their oceanic duty be completely non existent and and somehow fred astaire find enough free time during the day to offer dance class to a fleet of would be romantic . such be the world of astaire and rogers . mark sandrich previous film and top hat ( 1935 ) and completely ignore the great depression that be then bring america to it knee and and present audience with a glittering world of the rich and famous while it be the film optimistic outlook on life that perhaps contribute to it success . likewise and here sandrich deliberately forget that the life of a naval officer be difficult and drain and and instead substitute the duty of a sailor with an assortment of catchy lightweight musical number . bake baker ( astaire ) and sherry martin ( rogers ) be two former dance partner whose romantic relationship fell apart after the latter reject a marriage proposal . after bake return from several year of duty in the navy and he find sherry a dance hostess in an unsophisticated san francisco ballroom . while the two former lover alternately attempt to woo and rebuff each other and sherry plain and music teacher sister ( harriet hilliard and look really quite pretty ) receive a complete makeover and try to charm superficial sailor bilge bilgey smith ( randolph scott ) . there be plenty of the usual screwball comedy shenanigan and a few moment of mistaken identity and and even a hilarious trained monkey that steal every scene it in . particularly amusing be the scene in which bake sabotage a performer audition in order to create a window for his estranged girl while unluckily for both of them and it be an unfortunate sherry who drink the bicarbonate of soda and lose her ability to sing . follow the fleet ( 1936 ) be the fifth win collaboration between fred astaire and ginger rogers and and the third ( of five ) in which sandrich direct the pair . irving berlin provide the film music and lyric and and each musical number be enjoyably lighthearted and entertain and even if they aren not quite as memorable a those in top hat ( 1935 ) and swing time ( 1936 ) or shall we dance ( 1937 ) . astaire attempt to break free from his typical rich man about town persona and without much success and but it hard to imagine the performer without the boyish carefree charm that could only accompany be considerably wealthy . the side plot of the romance between connie and bilge work well with the antic of the two main star and and harriet hilliard ( wear a brunette wig to avoid clash with ginger blonde hair ) have a couple of emotional solo number and include get thee behind me satan and which be originally write for top hat .