Film Review
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, one of Hollywood's most successful
partnerships, were at their peak when they made their fourth film,
Top Hat. This was to be their
greatest success and, with box office receipts amounting to three
million dollars, it proved to be the most profitable film of the decade
for RKO, the studio that made it. Although Astaire and Rogers
would go on to make a further six films together - including the
superlative
Swing Time (1936)
- this would be the high point of their legendary career together,
their best known and best loved film. The film was
director Mark Sandrich's second collaboration with
Astaire and Rogers after
The Gay Divorcee (1934).
The trio would would work together on
Follow the Fleet (1936),
and
Shall We Dance (1937) and
Carefree (1938).
In plot terms,
Top Hat is
little more than a reworking of
The Gay Divorcee, with
which it shares the same production team and most of the principal
cast. The most substantial difference between the two films is
that here the music is supplied by Irving Berlin and includes some of
the composer's best known numbers:
Isn't
This a Lovely Day,
Cheek to
Cheek and
Top Hat, White Tie
and Tails, the latter of which became Astaire's signature
song. The highlight of the film is the spellbinding
Cheek to Cheek song and dance
routine, arguably the most memorable in the entire Astaire-Rogers
repertoire.
A film that was intended to lift the spirits of a nation which had
yet to rid itself of the Great Depression,
Top Hat stands as one of the most
uplifting of the 1930s musicals. With its effervescent sense of fun,
perfectly choreographed song and dance numbers and the Astaire-Rogers
duo at their slick and seductive best (to say nothing of the lavish sets
which include a wonderfully bizarre Art Deco recreation of Venice),
Top Hat is still a great
piece of escapist entertainment.
© James Travers 2009
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
American song-and-dance man Jerry Travers arrives in London to perform
in a show produced by his friend Horace Hardwick. Whilst
practicing his tap dance routine in his hotel room one evening, Jerry
disturbs Dale Tremont, a young woman in the room below his. As
Dale vents her spleen on Jerry, the dancer falls madly in love with her
and he ends up chasing her around London, ignoring Horace's warnings
that she may be a dangerous woman. Through a silly
misunderstanding, Dale mixes up the identities of Jerry and
Horace. Since the latter is a married man, and in fact the
husband of her best friend Madge, Dale feels she has been deceived and
resolves never to see Jerry again. Hearing that the woman of his
dreams has gone off to Venice to model some clothes for couturier
Alberto Beddini, Jerry hastens after her, accompanied by Horace.
In Venice, Dale can hardly believe Madge's nonchalance when she tells
her that her husband has been flirting with another woman. She
concludes that the best solution is for her to reject Jerry, whom she
still thinks is Horace (i.e. Madge's husband), and marry Alberto instead...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.