Sandrich did some uncredited second unit work with Flying Down to Rio (1933), a musical featuring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

In 1934, Sandrich was given the job of directing the first proper Astaire–Rogers musical, The Gay Divorcee, which proved a tremendous success.

[4] After directing Katharine Hepburn in A Woman Rebels (1936) he returned to Astaire and Rogers for Shall We Dance (1937), and Carefree (1938).

While all of these films made profits for the studio, Holiday Inn (1942), starring Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby, with music by Irving Berlin, is most remembered today.

It was extremely popular and featured a pair of performers – Adrian Booth (billed as "Lorna Gray" in this picture) and George Reeves – whom Sandrich had intended to bring to stardom after the war.

[8] In 1945, he was in pre-production on a follow-up to Holiday Inn called Blue Skies, starring Bing Crosby and featuring Irving Berlin's music.

Insisting that he could complete all of his assignments, and feeling pressure to be an involved and loving family man, Sandrich died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 44.