Top Hat (1935)

Irving Berlin's overture at the beginning of Top Hat (1935) is a plunging, slightly menacing downward flight of notes punctuated visually with the clack of Gentleman's walking sticks. From this opening the movie creates a wonderful sense of anticipation. The story opens in a London Gentleman's club where a sign tells us that absolute silence is to be observed. As Fred Astaire appears from behind a newspaper and attempts to carry on a conversation through mime with Edward Everett Horton, it seems inevitable that he is going to be violating that sign in some really big way. He does. Just as he's about to exit he lets out a barrage of tap dance that leaves the old boys falling out of their chairs.

That's how I feel after every Fred and Ginger movie I've seen so far. These movies are so good they knock me out of my seat. They move from one spectacular musical set piece to another with a silly comic plot that keeps you pretty much in continuous idiot grin.

Fred and Ginger meet as only Fred and Ginger could. He is tap dancing away in his friend's hotel room and wakes her up. She comes upstairs to give him a piece of her mind and he falls immediately in love. Of course she has the wrong end of the walking stick and thinks that he is Horace Hardwicke (Horton) who is married to her good friend Madge (Helen Broderick). Determined to woo her, he kidnaps her in a handsome cab and stalks her after her riding lesson, which culminates in my favorite dance scene in the movie "Wouldn't it be lovely." This is a beautiful scene that toys with the audience moving from from a laid back swing to a frenetic dazzling tap section

Fred's big solo number is "Top Hat" which is famously choreographed with a stage full of anonymous men in evening dress. Fred blends in and out of crowd and eventually mimes machine gunning them down with his walking stick. I had something really insightful in my head to say about the meaning of this scene in relation to the rise of fascism in Europe, but frankly it just flew out of my head during the sensational "Dancing Cheek to Cheek." This final number takes place on the Venice set which is an impossible fairyland of high bridges over a really long swimming pool. I think that the Venice in Las Vegas is actually based on the Top Hat version rather than the real city. "Dancing Cheek to Cheek" is the point in the movie (and every Fred and Ginger movie has one) where the audience no longer cares about the plot at all because Fred and Ginger have let their love for their dancing completely overshadow everything else. After this the misunderstandings are tidily resolved and the movie comes to a swift and happy conclusion.

Lovely to Look At: Roberta

Ginger Rogers sings the intro to Hard to Handle in Roberta. In this scene, Ginger sports a ridiculous fake Russian accent though she is supposed to be from Indiana. (Irene Dunne who is supposed to be from Russia might as well be from Indiana.)

Though the movie is jam-packed with spectacular gowns, this is my favorite outfit. Ain't she just adorable?

What can you say about a movie so bursting with talent and entertainment that two hours can scarcely contain it? Well, you could just say "Roberta" and anyone whose seen it will know what you mean. Roberta is funny enough to stand as a comedy without singing or dancing and entertaining enough as a musical that it could be half as funny and still work. Throw in gorgeous Art Deco gowns enough for twenty movies and you have the eye candy of the century.

The ogling begins with Randolph Scott as the male object of desire who makes girls go giddy with the sheer bulk of his charm. I've always had a soft spot for Randy, due to his friendship with Cary Grant and his work in movies like My Favorite Wife. Pairing him with Irene Dunne, my favorite Cary co-star, has the feel of a bit of a family reunion of sorts. Scott and Dunne have a fun hick meets chic chick chemistry that is reminiscent of Ralph Bellamy and Dunne in the Awful Truth. I kept half-expecting Cary Grant to burst in, do a pratfall and win the girl. Really, that would be the only way you could improve on this already awesome movie.

Roberta marks the first-ever Rogers and Astaire movie I've ever seen. I loved it. Though, they weren't the leads in this movie, and take second-billing to Dunne and Scott, it is easy to see why they became the immortal legends they did. Their interactions are so easy and fun and their dancing is so seemingly effortless. My favorite number is Hard to Handle, in which Ginger almost seems to melt into Fred as they move around the stage. The band the so-called Wabash Indianians are no slouches either. Two years earlier, Bob Hope and George Murphy had starred in the Broadway version of Roberta. The producers of the film decided to combine their characters into the Huck Haines character played by Fred Astaire. They also removed a couple of numbers and added two discarded Jermome Kern songs "I Won't Dance" and "Lovely to Look At" which became more popular than any songs in the original version. I don't keep good record of such things, but this may be one of the few instances in which a film improved on stage play.