Top Hat is a 1935 American musical comedy film, in which Fred Astaire plays an American tap dancer named Jerry Travers, who arrives in London to star in a show produced by Horace Hardwick (Edward Everett Horton). He meets and attempts to impress Dale Tremont (Ginger Rogers) to win her affection. The film also features Eric Blore as Hardwick's valet Bates, Erik Rhodes as Alberto Beddini, a fashion designer and rival for Dale's affections, and Helen Broderick as Hardwick's long-suffering wife Madge.
The film was directed by Mark Sandrich, and was written by Allan Scott and Dwight Taylor, with songs by Irving Berlin. "Top Hat, White Tie and Tails" and "Cheek to Cheek" have become American song classics. It has been nostalgically referred to—particularly its "Cheek to Cheek" segment—in cinema, including films as diverse as The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), The Green Mile (1999), and The Boss Baby (2017).
Astaire and Rogers made nine films together at RKO Pictures; the others include The Gay Divorcee (1934), Roberta (1935), Follow the Fleet (1936), Swing Time (1936), Shall We Dance (1937), and Carefree (1938). Top Hat was the most successful picture of Astaire and Rogers' partnership (and Astaire's second most successful picture after Easter Parade), achieving second place in worldwide box-office receipts for 1935.Mueller (1986), pp. 76–87. While some dance critics maintain that Swing Time contained a finer set of dances,Croce (1972), pp. 54–79. Top Hat remains, to this day, the partnership's best-known work.Hyam (2007)
Top Hat was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in its second year, 1990, as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film has also been recognized by the American Film Institute on various lists commemorating the best of American cinema; the film appeared on their list of the twenty five greatest film musicals at number 15, and "Cheek to Cheek" appeared on their list of the one hundred greatest songs of American cinema, also at number 15.
Plot American dancer Jerry Travers comes to London to star in a show produced by the bumbling Horace Hardwick. While practicing a tap dance routine in his hotel bedroom, he awakens Dale Tremont on the floor below. She storms upstairs to complain, whereupon Jerry falls hopelessly in love with her and proceeds to pursue her all over London.
Dale mistakes Jerry for Horace, who is married to her friend Madge. Following the success of Jerry's opening night in London, Jerry follows Dale to Venice, where she is visiting Madge and modelling/promoting the gowns created by Alberto Beddini, a dandified Italian fashion designer with a penchant for malapropisms.
Jerry proposes to Dale, who, while still believing that Jerry is Horace, is disgusted that her friend's husband could behave in such a manner and agrees instead to marry Alberto. Fortunately, Bates, Horace's meddling English valet, disguises himself as a priest and conducts the ceremony; Horace had sent Bates to keep tabs on Dale.
On a trip in a gondola, Jerry manages to convince Dale and they return to the hotel where the previous confusion is rapidly cleared up. The reconciled couple dance off into the Venetian sunset, to the tune of "The Piccolino".Adapted from Billman (1997)
Cast Fred Astaire as Jerry Travers Ginger Rogers as Dale Tremont Edward Everett Horton as Horace Hardwick Erik Rhodes as Alberto Beddini Helen Broderick as Madge Hardwick Eric Blore as Bates Lucille Ball as Flower Clerk (uncredited)
Production
Top Hat began filming on April 1, 1935, and cost $620,000 to make. Shooting ended in June and the first public previews were held in July. These led to cuts of approximately ten minutes, mainly in the last portion of the film: the carnival sequence and the gondola parade which had been filmed to show off the huge set were heavily cut. A further four minutes were cutCut scenes included one where Blore poses as a gondolier and insults an Italian policeman—this scene is restored in some prints. cf. Croce (1972), p. 78. before its premiere at the Radio City Music Hall, where it broke all records, went on to gross $3 million on its initial release, and became RKO's most profitable film of the 1930s.Billman (1997), pp. 88–90. After Mutiny on the Bounty, it made more money than any other film released in 1935.
Script development Dwight Taylor was the principal screenwriter in this, the first screenplay written specially for Astaire and Rogers. Astaire reacted negatively to the first drafts, complaining that "it is patterned too closely after The Gay Divorcee", and "I am cast as ... a sort of objectionable young man without charm or sympathy or humour". Allan Scott, for whom this movie served as his first major project, and who would go on to serve on six of the Astaire-Rogers pictures, was hired by Sandrich to do the rewrites and never actually worked with Taylor, with Sandrich acting as script editor and advisor throughout. Allegedly Ben Holmes, Ralph Spence, and Károly Nóti were further contributors to the script. The story itself was later said to have been inspired by two sources: ''Scandal in Budapest'' by Sándor Faragó, and ''A Girl Who Dares'' by Aladar LaszloIt.
The Hays Office insisted on only minor changes, including probably the most quoted line of dialogue from the film: Beddini's motto "For the women the kiss, for the men the sword", which originally ran "For the men the sword, for the women the whip".reviewing the film in England, author Graham Greene was pleased to find the film "quite earnestly bawdy" and took satisfaction in how this had escaped the British censor. cf Mueller (1986), p. 80. Of his role in the creation of Top Hat, Taylor recalled that with Sandrich and Berlin he shared "a kind of childlike excitement. The whole style of the picture can be summed up in the word inconsequentiality. When I left RKO a year later, Mark said to me, 'You will never again see so much of yourself on the screen.'"The claims that Top Hat was adapted by Karl Noti from A Scandal in Budapest by Aladar Laszlo and Alexander Farago have been examined and dismissed by Arlene Croce, cf. Croce (1972), p. 70; however, they are supported by Turner Classic Movies, cf. "Top Hat: Screenplay info" TCM.com, and by Evans (2011), p. 6. On the film's release, the script was panned by many critics, who alleged it was merely a rewrite of The Gay Divorcee.
Musical score and orchestration This was composer Irving Berlin's first complete film score since 1930 and he negotiated a unique contract, retaining the copyrights to the score with a guarantee of ten percent of the profits if the film earned in excess of $1,250,000. Eight songs from the original score were discarded as they were not considered to advance the film's plot. One of these, "Get Thee Behind Me, Satan", was also used in Follow the Fleet (1936). All five songs eventually selected became major hits and, in the September 28, 1935 broadcast of Your Hit Parade, all five featured in the top fifteen songs selected for that week.
Astaire recalled how this success helped restore Berlin's flagging self-confidence. Astaire had never met Berlin before this film, although he had danced on stage to some of his tunes as early as 1915. There ensued a lifelong friendship with Berlin contributing to more Astaire films (six in total) than any other composer. Of his experience with Astaire in Top Hat Berlin wrote: "He's a real inspiration for a writer. I'd never have written Top Hat without him. He makes you feel so secure."
As Berlin could not read or write music and could only pick out tunes on a specially designed piano that transposed keys automatically, he required an assistant to make up his piano parts. Hal Borne—Astaire's rehearsal pianist—performed this role in Top Hat and recalled working nights with him in the Beverly Wilshire Hotel: "Berlin went 'Heaven...' and I went dah dah dee 'I'm in Heaven' (dah-dah-dee). He said, 'I love it, put it down.'" These parts were subsequently orchestrated by a team comprising Edward Powell, Maurice de Packh, Gene Rose, Eddie Sharp, and Arthur Knowlton who worked under the overall supervision of Max Steiner.
Berlin broke a number of the conventions of American songwriting in this film, especially in the songs "Top Hat, White Tie and Tails" and "Cheek to Cheek". According to Rogers, the film became the talk of Hollywood as a result of its score.
Set design In an Astaire-Rogers picture, the Big White Set—as these Art Deco-inspired creations were known—took up the largest share of the film's production costs, and Top Hat was no exception. A winding canal—spanned by two staircase bridges at one end and a flat bridge on the other—was built across two adjoining sound stages. Astaire and Rogers dance across this flat bridge in "Cheek to Cheek". Around the bend from this bridge was located the main piazza, a giant stage coated in red bakelite that was the location for "The Piccolino". This fantasy representationCroce (1972), p. 56: "Venice as a celestial powder room". of the Lido of Venice was on three levels comprising dance floors, restaurants and terraces, all decorated in candy-cane colors, with the canal waters dyed black. The vast Venetian interiors were similarly inauthentic, reflecting instead the latest Hollywood tastes.Descriptions adapted from Croce (1972), p. 76.
Carroll Clark, who worked under the general supervision of Van Nest Polglase, was the unit art director on all but one of the Astaire-Rogers films. He managed the team of designers responsible for the scenery and furnishings of Top Hat.
Wardrobe: The "feathers" incident Although Bernard Newman was nominally in charge of dressing the stars, Rogers was keenly interested in dress design and make-up.Rogers' preoccupation lost on the Variety critic who wrote: "she is again badly dressed, while her facial make-up and various coiffeurs give her a hard appearance", cf. Billman (1997), p. 90. Croce (1972), p. 66, disagrees. For the "Cheek to Cheek" routine, she was determined to use her own creation: "I was determined to wear this dress, come hell or high water. And why not? It moved beautifully. Obviously, no one in the cast or crew was willing to take sides, particularly not my side. This was all right with me. I'd had to stand alone before. At least my mother was there to support me in the confrontation with the entire front office, plus Fred Astaire and Mark Sandrich."
Due to the enormous labor involved in sewing each ostrich feather to the dress, Astaire—who normally approved his partner's gowns and suggested modifications if necessary during rehearsals—saw the dress for the first time on the day of the shoot,Astaire had approved the costume sketch. cf. Billman (1997), p. 89. and was horrified at the way it shed clouds of feathers at every twist and turn, recalling later: "It was like a chicken attacked by a coyote, I never saw so many feathers in my life."David Niven attended the shoot in the company of Astaire's wife, Phyllis, who suffered from a speech impediment. He recalled her verdict: "She looks like a wooster", cf. Billman (1997), p. 89. According to choreographer Hermes Pan, Astaire lost his temper and yelled at Rogers, who promptly burst into tears, whereupon her mother, Lela, "came charging at him like a mother rhinoceros protecting her young." An additional night's work by seamstresses resolved much of the problem; however, careful examination of the dance on film reveals feathers floating around Astaire and Rogers and lying on the dance floor. Later, Astaire and Pan presented Rogers with a gold feather for her charm bracelet, and serenaded her with a ditty parodying Berlin's tune:
Thereafter, Astaire nicknamed Rogers "Feathers"—also a title of one of the chapters in his autobiography—and parodied his experience in a song and dance routine with Judy Garland in Easter Parade (1948).