September 10, 2000  

TOP HAT U.S., 1935. Black & White. Not Rated. 101 Minutes. Directed by Mark Sandrich.  Starring Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton.

The first film of The Cinema, Inc.'s 35th season is Top Hat, the fourth and (many critics say) finest pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. In the first screenplay written specifically to showcase their talents, Astaire and Rogers trip the light fantastic in London and Venice. Fred Astaire stars as an American dancer opening a new show in London, Edward Everett Horton plays his recently married agent, and Ginger Rogers portrays the beautiful downstairs neighbor at the hotel whom Astaire awakens while practicing some numbers from his new show. Of course, they fall in love. Then, mistakenly thinking that Astaire is the philandering husband of her newly married friend, Helen Broderick (who is actually married to Horton), Rogers bolts for Venice, with her hilarious caricature of an Italian dress designer (Erik Rhodes) in tow.

Leonard Maltin, who gives Top Hat four stars (his highest rating), quips: "What can we say? Merely a knock-out of a musical with Astaire and Rogers at their brightest doing 'Cheek to Cheek,' 'Isn't This a Lovely Day to Be Caught in the Rain,' 'Top Hat, White Tie, and Tails,' and the epic 'Piccolino,' and other Irving Berlin songs, as the duo goes through typical mistaken-identity plot. Wonderful support from rest of cast; that's Lucille Ball as the flower shop clerk." Named to the Library of Congress' National Film Registry in 1990, Top Hat earned four Academy Award nominations-for best picture, best dance direction for "Piccolino" and "Top Hat" (Hermes Pan), best song for "Cheek to Cheek" (Irving Berlin), and best art direction (Carroll Clark and Van Nest Polglase).