The last of the Astaire-Rogers vehicles produced during their dazzling RKO run forgoes devil-may-care Deco fantasy in favor of a surprisingly moving comedic drama based on the lives of the celebrated early 1900s husband-and-wife dance team. When they meet cute on a New York beach, Vernon Castle (Astaire) is a ham vaudeville comedian and Irene (Rogers) is a stagestruck wannabe actress. But with his natural talent for dancing and her tenacity, the pair is soon the foxtrotting toast of Paris. For the first time, real world problems—financial worries, war, death—are present in the Astaire-Rogers universe, and the result is an appropriately bittersweet coda to the RKO era.