Top Hat
D: Mark Sandrich (1935); with Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Helen Broderick, Edward Everett Horton, Eric Blore, Erik Rhodes, Lucille Ball, Donald Meek. Stretched over several evenings, Top Hat was especially delightful to watch for Astaire and Rogers’ magical dancing, freed from the film’s obviously ridiculous plot. Mistaken identity is stretched to its limit and then beyond in this suave, sophisticated romp. Promoter Horace Hardwick (the great Edward Everett Horton) is bringing American song-and-dance man Jerry Travers to London to headline a show. Hardwick puts the entertainer up in his hotel suite. Working out a tap routine, Travers wakes sleeping model Dale Tremont in the room below. At first annoyed and later charmed, she is troubled because she believes that Travers is Hardwick. Unknown to either of the men, the model is a dear friend of Hardwick’s wife Madge. Believing that Travers is married to her friend, she is both attracted and repulsed when he tries to seduce her. She can’t believe her friend’s husband is a philandering knave — though she certainly does believe it, finding him disturbingly attractive.In 1933, Astaire and Rogers landed a small part in the Dolores del Rio vehicle, Flying Down to Rio. Their chemistry, especially performing “The Carioca” — a terrific musical sequence — attracted RKO studio executives. The next year, the pair appeared in The Gay Divorcee, directed by Sandrich and featuring Horton, Blore, and Rhodes. (Notice a pattern? That was the studio system: “Why screw with a good thing?”) Showing how successful the couple had become, Top Hat was a first-class production featuring songs by Irving Berlin.
Eventually, Travers’ show has a hugely successful opening in London, featuring the film’s best routine “Top Hat, White Tie and Tails,” which finds Astaire at his most exquisite. Meanwhile, Tremont is off in Italy with Madge, telling her what a cad her husband is. Madge seems more impressed than angry. Finding out that Tremont is in Italy, Jerry grabs Horace, and they’re off. Although the improbabilities continue, if not accelerate, the romantic tangles are slowly worked out. A healthy part of the charm here is the supporting cast, with delightful turns from Horton, the reptilian Blore, and the ethnic playboy Rhodes. I’m giving nothing away to tell you that the ending finds Astaire and Rogers performing “Cheek to Cheek” — and it’s great!
This article appears in November 12 • 1999.