- Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
- Producers: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
- Writers: Hans Christian Andersen, Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, Keith Winter
- Genres: Drama, Romance, Music
- Actors: Moira Shearer, Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring
Victoria ‘Vicky’ Page (played by Moira Shearer) is a young, unknown dancer from an aristocratic background. At an after-ballet party, arranged by her aunt as a surreptitious audition, she meets Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook), the ruthless but charismatic impresario of the Ballet Lermontov, who questions her:
Lermontov: Why do you want to dance? Vicky: Why do you want to live? Lermontov: Well, I don’t know exactly why, but… I must. Vicky: That’s my answer too.
Lermontov takes her on as a student, where she is taught by, among others, Grisha Ljubov (Léonide Massine), the company’s chief choreographer.
After seeing her dance in a matinee performance of Swan Lake [3], Lermontov realises her potential and invites Vicky to go with the company to Paris and Monte Carlo. When he loses his prima ballerina (Ludmilla Tchérina) to marriage, Lermontov begins to see Vicky as a possible successor. Backstage, as Vicky is waiting to make an entrance with the corps de ballet, he pronounces that:
A dancer who relies upon the doubtful comforts of human love will never be a great dancer. Never.
When Ljubov objects that you cannot change human nature, Lermontov responds “I think you can do even better than that — you can ignore it.” He decides to create a starring role for Vicky in a new ballet, The Red Shoes, the music for which is to be written by Julian Craster (Marius Goring) a brilliant young composer engaged as orchestral coach the same day that Vicky was brought into the company.
…
The inconsistency can also be explained by Vicky’s desire to check the red shoes before the performance, intending to remove them before the ballet begins. She is prevented from doing so by the encounter between Lermontov and Julian. Whatever the explanation, the dramatic necessity for her to be wearing the red shoes at the end is clear.