Top Hat (1935)

 

Star Rating- 4

Length of Film- 101 minutes

Director- Mark Sandrich
Cast- Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton, Erik Rhodes, Eric Blore, Helen Broderick
Oscar Nominations- Pandro S. Berman (best picture), Carroll Clark, Van Nest Polglase (art direction), Irving Berlin (music), Hermes Pan (dance)

This movie was so refreshing and quirky, I loved it! If you enjoyed Bringing Up Baby (1938) and The Lady Eve (1941) you’ll appreciate this movie.

The movie starts out with Jerry Travers (Fred Astaire) tap dancing in his hotel room. Downstairs in the room right below him, the beautiful Dale Tremont (Ginger Rogers) was trying to sleep and was annoyed by the ruckus. With her robe on, she marched herself up the stairs and knocked on the door. (You see…the room is Jerry Travers’ producers, Horace Hardwick (Edward Everett Horton) From the beginning, Dale thought Jerry was Mr. Hardwick and that’s where this comedy becomes a “screwball”.

The beautiful and gracious Ginger Rogers

Dale is quite enthralled with this man, but soon finds out that he’s a married man. He’s married to her good friend, Madge (Helen Broderick). Throughout this whole thing, she does not know that who she likes, is actually a single bachelor.

 

Someone gets punched in the face, someone pretends to be a priest, someone breaks into the bridal suite. It’s a great plot and the dancing is unbelieveable! My favorite part of the movie is “Top Hat, White Tie and Tails", Jerry Travers is performing solo tap with a company of dancers. With his can in hand, the company of men, in top hats, ties, and tails stand in a straight line and Travers shoots them dead. He pretends his cane is the gun and the shooting of the gun his feet. Here’s a video I found on youtube. Start at 3 minutes and 13 seconds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akD7r3PClRc

 

Watch this movie! It’s amazing!!! And the dancing is so elegant and effortless looking. I mean, look at this backbend! FUN FACT: During "Cheek to Cheek", Rogers' gown shed so many feathers that Astaire became exasperated and insisted something be done. The feathers were sewn down, causing delays, but you can still see them flying. The big to-do earned Astaire teh nicname "Feathers".

 

I’m debating whether or not I should buy it, because I was that impressed by it. I only wished Fred Astaire was cuter to look at, but he has the dancing ability, so just look past the face :)