Top Hat 1935 RKO Studios

Top Hat

RKO 1935

I was with my Mom and Dad and brother in a glorious classic movie theater in San Francisco the first time I saw Top Hat during an Astaire and Rogers Film Festival.  This film introduces us to Ginger Rogers (playing Dale Tremont) in the most adorable way.  When this occurred, everyone in the audience laughed and cheered.  Me too.

Fred plays Jerry Travers, an American dancer.  This is, once again, a comedy of mistaken identity, and it’s pretty funny.  The troupers are there again – Eric Blore, Erik Rhodes, Edward Everett Horton and this time Helen Broderick is added.  You will see her again in other films, too. 

The script is by Allan Scott.  The music is by Irving Berlin (the man who wrote “God Bless America” and “White Christmas”).  Timeless classics were introduced in this movie.

The first dance is an Astaire solo, and moves the story forward (as usual).  It’s wonderful.  And get a load of these hotel rooms!

“Isn’t It A Lovely Day” is such a favorite of mine.  Dale (GR) is in English horseback riding togs, which are really nice, especially the jacket and ankle boots.  Switch out those jodhpurs for a pair of cute jeans and she is ready for the 21^st century.  Plus, when she is wearing these pants and boots her dancing is more defined to the viewer.  You can see her accuracy and skill.  It’s a completely different vibe than when she is in a formal gown.  I can’t imagine trying to do a tap dance in riding boots and tweed, however.  Watch it twice.  The mistaken identity story line requires some good facial acting during this dance.

Jerry performs a dance on stage, which is his job as a fabulous Broadway star, and it’s a signature concept for Fred Astaire:  White tie, top hat and tails.  Great dancing, but sort of weird.  You’ll see.  From the time my kids were little boys, no matter how I might have felt about guns, those boys liked to pretend that anything was a gun.

As the crazy plot continues, the action moves to Venice, Italy.  The sets are still fantasy Art Deco with highly polished floors, but now have canals running through them.  People wear very fancy clothes and it has a dreamlike quality. 

Enjoy the comedic plot development before we get to one of the greatest dance sequences in motion picture history.  

And here we are!  The song is called “Cheek to Cheek” and refers to the way you might put your faces together when dancing as partners.  None of this two-arm wrap-around bear hug with your faces buried into the shoulder and neck of the person you are dancing with, barely shuffling your feet.  No sir.  Dancing is done in formal ballroom position and the partners are free to talk and smile with one another.  If things warm up, you might press your face gently against the face of your partner, cheek-to-cheek.  It’s quite lovely, as reflected in the opening lyrics of “Heaven.  I’m in heaven….”  They touch faces a couple of times.  Watch for it.

Jerry (FA) sings this delightful song in his reedy tenor voice and it sounds so nice.  It’s easy and soothing.  It’s not embarrassing.  In grand opera, and in many musicals, couples sing love songs at each other’s close faces at blasting volumes, right up the other’s nose.  It’s ridiculous.  Not here.  Not now.  Jerry (Fred) sings like he might actually be whispering his thoughts to Dale (Ginger).  It’s perfect.

The dress.  This dress.  Ginger Rogers herself designed this alluring dress that is adorned with ostrich feathers.  It is like a cloud.  It’s so pretty!  It’s big and fluffy, yet she manages to look elegant and NOT look like Big Bird.  When you watch this dance twice, or three times, or four, watch for flying feathers.  Mr. Astaire did not appreciate the flying feathers in his face, on his clothes, slippery on the floor.  But forever enshrined on the silver screen, it’s breathtaking.  Thank you Ginger for this dress!

Actually, thank you Ginger for this whole iconic scene.  Fred sings for the first 2 minutes (and gives us yet another hit that has become a standard), with Ginger acting silently (and beautifully).  Then they start dancing.  Between her acting, her artistry, her athleticism and her confidence, Ginger just OWNS this.  

This dance.  Oh golly!  The back-bends.  It’s as if you could take every single frame of this dance film footage and have perfect still images.  You could fill an entire museum with just these frames and everyone would come away happy.  But Jerry and Dale aren’t happy, they are melancholy and in love, and that is part of the choreographic brilliance.  Feathers and feelings. 

It could all end right there, but the story would be unresolved.  As the plot continues, they land on a dance called The Piccolino.  It’s like The Continental and The Carioca – a big cinematic deal.  During The Great Depression people wanted the escape.  They let you know that it’s not really Italian, but written by a guy in Brooklyn.  It’s fun and beautiful and filled with a cast of thousands.  Ginger’s dress is a bit more 1930s than some of the other elegant gowns.  No one these days would wear something with those perky cuffy short sleeves unless they were Elizabeth Banks in The Hunger Games.

I think the Fred and Ginger singing holds up well for the 21^st century because his voice is rather simple and her voice isn’t too high.  Neither of them has a huge vibrato.  Both of them are completely understandable, every word.  It’s story. 

Ginger sings The Piccolino to Fred.  Ginger Rogers might have invented the “air guitar” in this scene.  Check out the hokey dance troupe at the beginning!  It is clear that 1930s Hollywood was NOT full of Freds and Gingers, but clever costumes do some of the work for these sometimes-awkward dancers.  Ginger saves it with darlingness. 

Top Hat storyline farce ends happily, as expected.  This time, they let you know that they are serious about their future relationship by putting her in a fur coat and him in a top hat.  This means business.

My favorite moment:  That moment in The Piccolino where they end-up clinking glasses.  How many glasses did they break in rehearsal?