Top Hat

Top Hat is probably my favorite Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers collaboration. I watch it as a double billing with The Gay Divorcee and, while the latter is a perfectly enjoyable movie, the former did most of the same tricks but better.

The comparisons are hard to avoid in so many ways, but chief among them is in the casting. To wit, they are identical. The movies not only share the famous two leads, but also the same supporting actors as well. However, I do feel that Top Hat better utilizes that cast. Edward Everett Horton plays Fred Astaire’s business partner in both films, but seems happier here as the husband with the wandering eye who, importantly, is never called upon to dance. Helen Broderick is more fun, more believable, and honestly less grating, as the forgiving wife rather than the marriage-obsessed serial bride. Even Erik Rhodes, whose role in The Gay Divorcee as the flamboyant hired paramour is brief but brilliant, is given a much bigger part where he can be equally ridiculous and funny.

Both films are also farces. As I mention in my review of The Gay Divorcee, this is one of my favorite comedy subgenres and that film delivers a solid rendition of the form. Top Hat is, in my opinion, strictly better. They both deal in mistaken identities, mixed up understandings, and miscommunications. However, Top Hat is just that bit cleverer in its construction. Frequently in farces there is the annoying quirk that if the characters just slow down and actually talk to each other, the plot would just resolve itself with minimal fuss. In Top Hat, everyone is talking to each other but through the flexibility of language, both halves of a conversation are taking away different meanings. Not only does this make for dialogue scenes that are hilariously funny, but it creates a cohesive momentum to the comedy as well.

It is a common trope in Astaire and Rogers movies for the former to find himself enamored with the latter and must work to get her to open up to the idea of a relationship. In The Gay Divorcee, this can almost feel like stalker-ish behavior if you view it with maximum cynicism. In Top Hat, perhaps with the benefit of more time to refine the craft and hone the narrative device, there is still a pursuing relationship, but one that is much softer. Astaire’s attempts at seducing Rogers are less creepy and more puppy-dog silliness. She is also much more interested in him from the beginning and only gets standoff-ish when she thinks he has wronged her, as part of the mistaken identity plot.

Both films are great dance movies. Again, Top Hat is just that little bit better. Top Hat, like every Astaire and Rogers picture I’ve seen, uses dance to move the story along and the conversation of dance as a key component to the development of the central couple’s romantic feelings. Similar to Swing Time, there is also a plethora of dance styles on display: tap, soft shoe, ballroom, and dance hall, with a mixture of solo numbers, pairings, and big production numbers. Like in The Gay Divorcee, the big production number is one of the weaker offerings of the movie, but unlike in that film, the one in Top Hat is mercifully shorter and does a better job of featuring the dynamite talents of its central performers.

While there are fewer enduring classics in the music here than in Swing Time, there are perhaps an equal number to The Gay Divorcee. For example, I would argue that “Cheek to Cheek” has proven to have greater legs than “Night and Day,” but attempting to balance the offerings of Irving Berlin against Cole Porter feels a bit like comparing an Audi to a BMW… they are both high quality and cut from similar stock.

My one gripe with the story is in its ending. Without giving too much away, everything builds up to this great crescendo… but then it goes a little too far and the only way to reign in the overstep is a bit of a copout. It has an element of absurdity to it, almost like the ending of a Gilbert and Sullivan opera, which makes it slightly more forgivable but I think the piece would have been nearly flawless if the ending was more grounded and plausible in its structure.

Top Hat is a phenomenal movie. In my opinion, the best of the Astaire and Rogers collaborations, at least of the one’s I’ve seen. It has dancing near or at the level of Swing Time with a story that hangs together better, to boot. It has the razor sharp farce of The Gay Divorcee, but with a higher level of polish to its construction. Anyone who is a fan of dance, movie musicals, farces, or classic/golden age Hollywood should really give this film a try if they haven’t seen it before.

Would Recommend: If you’ve always wanted to see why people rave about Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies.

Would Not Recommend: If you just can’t see the appeal of musicals, no matter how good.