After directing Katharine Hepburn in Alice Adams (1935) and Barbara Stanwyck in Annie Oakley (1935), director George Stevens turned his cameras on Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Swing Time, an entertaining, beautifully choreographed musical that marked the sixth collaboration between the two stars. John "Lucky" Garnett (Astaire), a dancer turned gambler, is challenged to raise $25,000 to prove to his future father-in-law that he can support and marry his fiancee, Margaret Watson (Betty Furness). He then meets Penny Carroll (Rogers), a dance instructor, and forgets his promise to Margaret. Told through dance duets, Art Deco sets and songs by Jerome Kern (there were six tunes in the film), this Depression-era film garnered two Academy Award nominations: for Hermes Pan's wonderful choreography in the "Bojangles of Harlem" number, and the song "The Way You Look Tonight" (music by Jerome Kern; Lyrics by Dorothy Fields). RKO Radio Pictures. B/W. 103 minutes. 1936. The Academy gratefully acknowledges Warner Bros. for permission to screen this newly struck print of Swing Time from the collection of the Academy Film Archive.

Preceding our feature presentation, the Academy is pleased to bring you Disney's The Country Cousin. Based on a fable by Aesop, "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse," The Country Cousin won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject, Cartoon in 1936. Released by United Artists Pictures, Inc. Technicolor. 9 minutes. The Academy thanks the Walt Disney Company for providing the print for this screening.