93. TOP HAT (1935)

Running Time: 101 minutes
Directed By: Mark Sandrich
Written By: Allan Scott, Dwight Taylor
Main Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton, Erik Rhodes, Helen Broderick

ON MY JOURNEY I MET A COUPLE OF DANCERS NAMED 'FRED' AND 'GINGER'

Actually I've already "met" Ginger in films like "42nd Street" and "Gold Diggers of 1933", but it was her partnership with the great Fred Astaire that gave Ginger her claim to fame, or so I'm told. "Top Hat" was a whole lot of fun and just what I expected out of these two.

The whole film starts when Horace Hardwick (Horton) brings Jerry Travers (Astaire) over to London to be in his musical show. Upon arriving in London and meeting up with Horace, Jerry soon meets Dale Tremont (Rogers). When Jerry breaks into song and dance in the hotel room of his friend, Horace, this awakes the sleeping beauty, Tremont, in the room below. They meet, she yells, he swoons. From that point on, Jerry makes it a point to constantly romance Ms. Tremont, by way of sending her flowers and taking over the reigns of her horse drawn carriage. Eventually it works out for Jerry and the two find themselves caught in a thunderstorm, singing and dancing to the tune "Isn't This a Lovely Day."

Later on, Dale is mislead into believing that Jerry is actually Horace Harwick and having never learned his name, she believes he is and that he's married to her good friend Madge Hardwick. She slaps him in the face promptly and leaves him to care for his swolen cheek. However, this doesn't stop Jerry, as he finds out that she has gone to Italy to visit her friend Madge (Horace's wife), so he and Horace charter a plane and go to Italy immediately. Upon arriving in Italy, the confusion continues and it's a whole, big hilarious mess that all of these characters find themselves in, all the while singing and dancing is going on and Fred and Ginger are mesmerizing me on the screen. Throw a couple more characters into the mix, in the form of Horace's butler, Bates and Italian dress maker, Alberto Beddini and you get even more comedy on top of the whole confusion angle that is being played out.

I just love watching Ginger Rogers on the screen. There's something about her that just grabs me and makes me give her my full attention. I loved her in the previous movies I saw her in and the fact that she stars in this one, makes it even better. Fred Astaire was a delight too and watching him tap dance was almost as mesmerizing as the beautiful Rogers. The songs were catchy too, with renditions of: "Top Hat, White Tie and Tails", "Cheek to Cheek" and "The Piccolino", and watching Fred and Ginger dance is something that every movie fan MUST experience at least once in their lives, especially the "Cheek to Cheek" number. Edward Everett Horton was also hilarious as Horace Hardwick and the fact that he always seemed to misunderstand people and have to do a verbal double take to realize what they said. The whole affair was great and "Top Hat" was a hit with me. Case closed.

RATING: 8/10 Cannot wait until my next Astaire/Rogers film, which will come sometime next week, in the form of "Swing Time".

NEXT UP: A Day in the Country...Another Jean Renoir film, that up until a few days ago was all ready to be my next unfound film, but I came across it on YouTube and the review should be ready by tomorrow.

February 5, 2010 3:31pm