Top Hat

While "Swing Time" may be the duo's funniest film, the main attraction at a Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers musical was one thing: elegance. The two dancing together is the absolute epitome of elegance, and none of their films is more elegant than "Top Hat". Steeped in Art Deco design (which was huge at the time), "Top Hat" is Astaire and Rogers at their most simplistic: rich people in tuxedos and gowns who go from luxury hotel to luxury hotel in exotic countries, dancing all the time, yet the grace, sophistication, and elegance of how it is done is breathtaking. This was the duo's first lavish outing and it shows. RKO realized the gold mine they were sitting on and spared no expense; the Art Deco inspired Venice set at the end of the film, complete with canals(!) is stunning. And, like "Swing Time", the film is aided immeasurably by its strong supporting cast featuring Edward Everett Horton, Helen Broderick, Eric Blore, and Erik Rhodes. The plot is nonsense (Rogers mistakes Astaire for her friend Broderick's husband, who is actually Astaire's friend Horton....), but everyone knows how to dance and the music is lovely. Written by Irving Berlin, "Top Hat" features the song perhaps most often associated with Astaire and Rogers: "Cheek to Cheek". Much like "The Way You Look Tonight" would in "Swing Time" the next year, "Cheek to Cheek" creates such a special mood in the film that you are willing to forgive all of the film's shortcomings for just one more frame of the two of them singing and dancing together. Featured in "The Green Mile", "Cheek to Cheek" is just one of many wonderful moments in "Top Hat", for my money, the most romantic of the Astaire/Rogers romantic comedies.

It is inconceivable today in these (relatively speaking) gaudy financial times to think of film as pure escapism. Movies in the 1930's had no other choice, unless they were about dirt poor workers, anything was an escape. Watching an Astaire/Rogers movie, you would never imagine that millions were out of work. The world they lived in was champagne, tuxedos, music and romance. Not to say that the studios were ignorant of the Depression; they gave the public what they wanted. The last thing America needed was cinema verite. They wanted glamorous stars jet setting about. They wanted period spectacles and fantastic monsters. Anything but bread lines and unemployment rates. The world of Jerry Travers and Dale Tremont is exactly what they wanted. Jerry (Astaire) is a successful dancer and notorious playboy. His friend and producer Horace (Horton) desperately wants to avoid any bad press Jerry might get himself into via female entanglements, so he plans on bringing Jerry with him to visit his wife at their estate in Venice until the contract is made official. What neither man knows though is that Horace's wife Madge (the wonderful Helen Broderick) is planning on bringing her friend Dale (Rogers) along too to set up with Jerry. Of course Jerry and Dale meet while still in London and playboy Jerry (a feat which is fairly silly in its own regard; Astaire is hardly handsome enough to be considered playboy, and even though he always ended up with beautiful women, it was his modest charm, not his brash confidence, that did the trick, but for this film, it works) of course gets involved with her. After the two share a dance while hiding out together from a thunderstorm (to the tunes of "Isn't It a Lovely Day?") Dale realizes she is falling for Jerry, except she does not know who he is. This is only made worse when she thinks she has been flirting for the past couple of days with Horace, who she knows to be married to her friend, and subsequently slaps Jerry for being so openly interested in her. Jerry is confused, and when he finds out Dale is going to be in Venice, immediately agrees to go with Horace, who is of course oblivious to it all.

Upon arrival in Venice Madge finds it hilarious that her husband is not only flirting with pretty young women, but succeeding in gaining their affection. After a series of circumstances keep the foursome from being together at the same time for another day, thus preventing them from clearing everything up, the relationship almost falters. Dale's patron, the pompous Italian designer Beddini takes great offense at "Horace" and vows to kill him in a sword fight. He also is in love with Dale and intends to marry her, which he nearly succeeds in doing. The two think they are married, but thanks to the quick thinking of Horace's valet Bates (played with perfect exasperation by character actor Eric Blore), the ceremony is actually presided over by Bates in a priest's frock. Jerry and Dale find each other, have Madge and Horace explain the whole thing, and breath a sigh of relief, knowing that the feelings that had been developing between them (beautifully realized during the "Cheek to Cheek" number, which as I said before, perfectly illustrates the relationship between beautiful music, dancing and just sheer elegance that made them such a popular pairing) are not at the expense of Madge and Horace. While "Cheek to Cheek" is the song that everyone remembers from this film, the movie actually concludes with "The Picolino", which I think was intended to be the film's big knockout number. For whatever reason (imdb surmises that it was because Astaire was not fond of the song) it is done as a Rogers solo (a rare experience in and of itself) and then the duo, with a large ensemble, dances to it. The tune is catchy, even if the lyrics are ridiculous, and the number is impressively staged, as the dancers weave their way throughout the elaborate Venice set. While this number is entertaining, and concludes the film, "Cheek to Cheek" serves as not only the film's highlight, but also the number which insured the legendary duo's place in cinematic history.