Roberta (1935) on Netflix
NR19351h 46mComedyMusicRomance
John Kent, a former Harvard football star, goes to Paris with Huck Haines and the Wabash Indianians, whose booking falls through. At his aunt's gown shop he meets Stephanie, her assistant.
- Watch on NetflixThis title is not on Netflix right now. Please check back later for updates.
- Watch on Prime
- Watch on NordVPN
- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb7.0/104,001 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes86%
Trailer
Plot summary
Alexander Voyda, a nightclub owner in Paris, books the Wabash Indianians, the band Huck Haines leads, then refuses to let the musicians play when he finds they are not the Indians he expected but men from Indiana. John Kent, a former Harvard football star, has come to the city with his friend Huck, and he turns to his Aunt Minnie, who owns the Roberta gown shop, where Stephanie is her chief assistant. John is drawn to her. Huck runs into a customer there who calls herself Countess Scharwenka but is Lizzie Gatz, his hometown sweetheart; she gets the band a job at the nightclub where she performs, and Huck agrees to keep her identity secret. Sophie, the girlfriend he parted with after an argument, is still on his mind.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Roberta (1935)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Several scenes in the film were written while it was in production; screenwriter Alan Scott and producer Pandro S. Berman were traveling by train, so the new scenes were telegraphed to the set.
- The rehearsal period lasted nine weeks, and shooting was postponed so Ginger Rogers could marry actor Lew Ayres.
- Two songs were added to the film: "I Won't Dance," resurrected from the flop Kern show Three Sisters, and "Lovely to Look At." Both became #1 hits in 1935, and "Lovely to Look At" was nominated for the Best Song Oscar.
- Lucille Ball, with platinum blond hair, made her first RKO film appearance as a model wearing an elaborate feather cape in the fashion show, after the vocal by Dunne.
- Roberta is the only Astaire-Rogers film to be remade with other actors; MGM bought the rights in 1945, kept the original out of circulation until the 1970s, and made its Technicolor version Lovely to Look At in 1952.
- The Venetian fashion house Roberta di Camerino, founded by Giuliana Camerino in 1945, was named for the film.
- Hermes Pan was dance director and received the credit for the first time, as "assistant dance director"; Fred Astaire choreographed his dances two weeks before Kern had finished the score.
