Top Hat (1935)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Mark Sandrich

Writers:

Allan Scott (writer)
Dwight Taylor (screenplay)

Release Date:

6 September 1935 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical | Romance

Tagline:

They're Dancing Cheek-To-Cheek Again!

Plot:

Showman Jerry Travers is working for producer Horace Hardwick in London. Jerry demonstrates his new dance steps late one night in Horace's hotel...

Plot Keywords:

Dance | Face Slap | Reference To Gertrude Stein | Misandry | Man's Hat

Awards:

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Fred Astaire	...	Jerry Travers
Ginger Rogers	...	Dale Tremont
Edward Everett Horton	...	Horace Hardwick
Erik Rhodes	...	Alberto Beddini
Eric Blore	...	Bates
Helen Broderick	...	Madge Hardwick

Runtime:

101 min | USA:81 min (re-release) (re-edited version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Italian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Victor System)

Certification:

Portugal:M/6 | South Korea:All | Argentina:Atp | Germany:12 | Sweden:Btl | UK:U | USA:Approved

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

The titles appear over a top hat. Vincente Minnelli would borrow this device for the titles of The Band Wagon (1953).

Goofs:

Continuity: When Horace and Bates are speaking to the hotel manager, the hook of the coat hanger that Bates is holding changes orientation between shots.

Quotes:

Dale Tremont: I still feel a little guilty, being here with you while Alberto is out looking for us.
Jerry Travers: Come on! Let's eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we have to face him.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Yellow Submarine (1968)

Soundtrack:

No Strings (I'm Fancy Free)

Pursued by a love-sick dancer

TOP HAT (RKO Radio, 1935), directed by Mark Sandrich, marks the fourth teaming of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and up to that time, their best yet. A reworking in plot from their earlier outing of THE GAY DIVORCEE (1934), TOP HAT, in fact, the most admired of the two, could easily pass as a partial remake, rehash or possibly a sequel, mainly because of the sameness of the casting crew from THE GAY DIVORCEE, also directed by Mark Sandrich, making a return engagement, including Edward Everett Horton, Erik Rhodes and Eric Blore. Stepping in for Alice Brady is Helen Broderick, who proves somewhat far more amusing over Brady's silliness mainly because of her deadpan humor and dry-wit personality. Broderick makes her first appearance 46 minutes from the start of the story and gets things rolling afterwards. Also as in THE GAY DIVORCEE, Ginger Rogers gets to sing one song at the end of the film while Astaire carries on most of the vocalization.

The story opens in London. Jerry Travers (Fred Astaire) is an American dancer (what else!) who is to perform in one of Horace Hardwick's (Edward Everett Horton) upcoming musical shows. They share a hotel suite together where Jerry has an urge to sing and dance. His tap dancing disturbs a sleeping patron in the room below. Dale Tremont (Ginger Rogers), the upset hotel guest in question, comes up to the room above to register her complaint. After Jerry meets his complainer, he immediately falls in love with her, and decides to soft-shoe her to sleep by dancing on sand after she returns to her room. During his stay in London, he pursues Dale whenever he can, and sweeps her off her feet by dancing with her in the gazebo in the park during a rain storm. Because she doesn't know his name, she affectionately calls him "Adam." Dale is to later meet with her best friend, Madge Hardwick (Helen Broderick) in Venice, Italy, who wants to play matchmaker and pair this single young girl with her husband's friend, Jerry. The fun really begins when Dale mistakes Jerry for Madge's husband, and matters gets further complicated and funnier when Madge, Dale and Jerry meet in Venice with Madge giving the impression of pushing "her husband" over to Dale. But poor Horace, the innocent bystander, who has never met Dale but had confessed to once having a fling with a designing woman, finding himself being threatened with the sword by the accented Alberto Beddini (Erik Rhodes), Dale's dress designer admirer, and later, for no reason being given a black eye from Madge, who by then has been told by Dale about "her husband's" pursuit and wanting to marry her. Also in the storyline comes Bates (Eric Blore), Horace's faithful butler. Because Horace believes Dale Tremont to be a gold digger out to trap Jerry, he assigns Bates to follow Dale everywhere she goes in order to find out what kind of woman she really is. Bates going about in numerous disguises are some of the highlights this drawing room comedy of errors.

Aside from TOP HAT being long on laughs, with complications getting more confusing and better as it goes along, the movie takes time for five classic dance numbers with a score composed by the legendary Irving Berlin, including: "I'm Fancy Free" (sung and danced by Fred Astaire); "Isn't It a Lovely Day to be Caught in the Rain" (sung by Astaire/ danced by Astaire and Ginger Rogers); "Top Hat" (sung by Astaire); "Cheek to Cheek" (sung by Astaire/ danced by Astaire and Rogers); and "The Piccolino" (sung by Ginger Rogers and chorus/ danced by Astaire and Rogers); and "The Piccolino" (reprise, finale). Of the five, "Cheek to Cheek" remains a classic, used in film clips in many documentaries in regards to musicals or Astaire and Rogers. "Cheek to Cheek" was nominated for best song of 1935. Although it didn't win, it remains a memorable tune.

Any similarities between THE GAY DIVORCEE and TOP HAT are purely coincidental, but also an improvement. Both films are not only the most famous and televised of the Astaire and Rogers musicals, but present itself like a stage play. The only twist here is that TOP HAT, which borrows from THE GAY DIVORCEE, is actually an original screenplay (by Dwight Taylor), written especially for the leading pair. Other than the horse and buggy ride on the streets of London, the focal point remains mostly in the hotel suites, lobbies, dining areas and a brief ride on the gondola. TOP HAT gives the impression to be the most expensive musical ever released by RKO. It does. Even Ginger Rogers' dresses are glittering and rich in appearance, right down to her sleeping attire. A musical fantasy by way of costumes (how many women sleep with nightgowns flashier than a dinner dress?), TOP HAT finds Astaire singing and dancing right out of the blue, something very common in stage plays. Only the song, "Top Hat, White Tie and Tails" is a production number played to a theater audience on screen. Interesting to note that a title song, which usually comes at the end of the movie, is played and performed midway. In "Cheek to Cheek," and "The Piccolino," Astaire and Rogers start off by dancing along with the patrons, but soon they disappear and the camera catches them dancing alone. "The Piccolino" borrows and captures the mood from "The Carioca" from FLYING DOWN TO RIO (1933) and "The Continental" from THE GAY DIVORCEE in way of numerous dancers performing in brief montage effects, but "The Piccolino" happens to be shorter than the two aforementioned production numbers.

TOP HAT, available on video cassette and/or DVD, and presented either American Movie Classics or Turner Classic Movies cable stations, is fortunate to have had some deleted scenes currently restored. During the years of commercial television back in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, the scene involving Bates (Eric Blore) insulting an Italian police official (mainly because he believes he does not understand a word of English, but in reality does), and getting arrested afterwards, was among the missing. Whether seeing TOP HAT at 99 minute screen time, or in shorter prints of 93 minutes, the movie itself is a joyful musical experience that has stood the test of time. And look closely at the blonde flower clerk in the London sequence early in the story. Yes, that's Lucille Ball, the future "queen of television."