| Collector's Corner October 2005
 Top HatStarring: Fred Astaire, Ginger
Rogers, Edward Everett Horton, Eric Blore, Erik Rhodes, Helen Broderick
Directed by: Mark Sandrich
Theatrical release: 1935
DVD release: 2005
Video: Fullscreen
Sound: Dolby Digital mono
Released by: Warner Home Video
In the four-plus years I’ve been writing
"Collector’s Corner," I’ve avoided writing a review of any film
starring Fred Astaire. It’s not that I don’t appreciate him -- I think he is the
coolest white man who ever lived, if for no other reason than all he did to bring jazz and
the Great American Songbook to the masses. And I love several of his films. I count the
seduction scenes in Silk Stockings, Shall We Dance, and Top Hat as
some of the greatest love scenes in film.
No, the reason I’ve left Astaire out of my collection
of great films is that he is one of those geniuses who’s a hard sell. He always has
been. This is the man whose first screen test was famously written off with the comments
"Can’t act. Can’t sing. Balding. Can dance a little."
Well, they were right about one thing. He was balding.
Evidence that that screen tester was a complete cretin
comes fast and furious in Top Hat, one of the magical collaborations of Astaire and
Ginger Rogers. During the Great Depression, over a span of nine films, the two raised the
spirits of millions of Americans with their comic mix of debonair dancing and cheeky
gibes.
Of the many great joys of their movies, perhaps the
greatest is that they appealed to people of all ages. Young boys loved the goofy, almost
Stan Laurel-like rubbery facial contortions and double-takes that made Astaire so funny.
Young girls, especially those taking dance lessons, saw the glittery gowns and grown-up
partying as fairytale versions of their own futures. And both understood the constant
deflation of the puffed-up rich boy Edward Everett Horton by his efficiently acerbic
butler, played with pompous folly by Eric Blore.
Then there were those aspects that appealed to adults.
Women liked the gorgeous fashions, the lavish lifestyles, and the fantasy that, when the
right music came on, a man would take them in his arms and, as Fred did with Ginger, turn
a sassy sexpot into the most graceful person alive.
And men, then and now, found themselves melted by the
erotic charms of Ginger Rogers. She was capable of throwing the seductive pose, such as
the wilting drop at 1:07:02 into Top Hat, during "Cheek to Cheek." Or of
pulling off the most difficult job in acting, that of looking fascinated while someone
sings to you -- as Rogers does, entirely in close-up, while Astaire croons
"Isn’t This a Lovely Day (To Be Caught in the Rain)?" By the end of an
Astaire-Rogers film, Rogers has invariably convinced the audience that Fred was the
sexiest man in film -- quite an accomplishment, when you take a look at the man.
As if its fashionable dancing weren’t enough to bring
the adults running, Top Hat also offers a saucy story, a classic farce with people
running in and out of each other’s bedrooms, mistaken identities, and thinly veiled
references to pre-, post-, and extramarital sex. Helen Broderick, who gets all the best
lines, is a joy to watch in every scene as she drops innuendoes while dripping sly
invective.
To top it all off, there’s the score. Five musical
numbers, and all went to the Top Ten in 1935. No film in modern times has produced such a
feat. Saturday Night Fever had the hits, but the film’s stars didn’t sing
them. After that, Grease comes closest, with three. (Before I get any irate
letters, the Beatles’ A
Hard Day’s Night also had three hits, but only the title song cracked the Top
Ten.) And isn’t it a lovely thing that each song fits seamlessly with the dialogue,
so that the actors (mostly Astaire) can glide right from a thought to a song? Thank
tunesmith Irving Berlin, who, after Top Hat, became Astaire’s lifelong best
friend.
It’s funny that Astaire, so well known as a dancer,
was one of the most beloved singers in all of film. He was never a great vocalist; his
rather delicate tenor lacked forcefulness. Nevertheless, composers -- Irving Berlin, Cole
Porter, Jerome Kern, the Gershwins -- stood in line to get Astaire to sing their songs.
They loved the fact that he stuck to their words and melodies, enunciated clearly, and
lent their songs a sense of truth amid the most fantasy-like structures imaginable. For a
perfect example, watch chapter nine, as Astaire effortlessly glides from dialogue to song
in "Isn’t This a Lovely Day?"
Top Hat was the fourth of the ten Astaire-Rogers
films, and most would argue that it’s their best. I think it’s neck-and-neck
with Top Hat, Follow the Fleet, Swing Time, and Shall We
Dance, all of which are timeless treats.
So what a nice indulgence to find all four in one boxed
set. The Astaire and Rogers Collection, Volume 1 has a street price of about $42
for five DVDs that would cost almost $90 purchased separately. The set’s fifth film
is the much inferior The Barkleys of Broadway, which pushed the two stars back
together in 1949, against both of their wishes, ten years after Ginger had left for
greener pastures. It was a mistake on everyone’s part, but still a
better-than-average musical. But if $42 is too much, you can find Top Hat for about
$18.
The Top Hat DVD includes a nice, clean copy of the
film. Sadly, Warner Home Video hasn’t performed the miraculous transformation here
that they did with Citizen Kane or The Adventures of Robin Hood, but at least someone has
taken the time to make sure the film was cleaned before it was mastered. There’s a
nice commentary track by Astaire’s daughter and Larry Billman, author of Film
Choreographers and Dance Directors. A better-than-usual featurette includes interviews
with choreographer Hermes Pan, and there’s a Bob Hope short titled Watch the
Birdie.
But the main reason to buy this DVD or the boxed set is to
marvel at Fred and Ginger. Time has been kind to the duo. How many film pairings garner
that kind of name recognition? Bogie and Bacall. Tracy and Hepburn. Nick and Nora -- er,
Powell and Loy. That’s about it.
The Oscar voters of 1935 were impressed enough to give Top
Hat four nominations, for Best Picture, Best Interior Decoration, Best Song
("Cheek to Cheek"), and Best Dance Direction (Hermes Pan). That last nomination
deserves a special note. Pan and Astaire always worked out the choreography together, with
Pan doing Rogers’ dances and Astaire his own; Pan would then teach Rogers her steps.
For some reason, Astaire always let Pan take all the credit.
When the votes were tabulated, Top Hat had won no
awards. Best Picture went to Mutiny on the Bounty, a great film stirringly acted
and brilliantly photographed. To say it was better than Top Hat is like saying
apples are better than cake; but someone has to win.
Astaire had the last laugh. When the American Film
Institute picked the 50 Greatest American Screen Legends, he ended up number five in the
male category, two places ahead of Bounty’s Clark Gable.
Ginger Rogers also made the list, ranking 14 on the female
side. She took a career route completely different from Fred’s. After what both
thought would be their last film together (1939’s The Story of Vernon and Irene
Castle), she wanted to spread her acting wings and achieve some recognition for her
dramatic abilities. Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman was her ticket, a
1940 melodrama about class divisions that has aged poorly but that won her an Oscar. She
kept going until 1965 (Harlow), though her last good film was Monkey Business,
in 1952. She died in 1995 at the age of 83.
Astaire went on to dance brilliantly with a gaggle of
Hollywood beauties: Rita Hayworth, Eleanor Powell, Judy Garland, Jane Powell, Audrey
Hepburn, and, most notably, Cyd Charisse. He continued to dance with style and grace until
he was 58. Then he switched, successfully, to dramatic roles. His last two hits were in
1974 and 1976, with That’s Entertainment and That’s Entertainment Part
II. The first year the Kennedy Center Awards were given, 1978, Fred was the only actor
on the list. In 1981, the American Film Institute chose Fred to be their ninth Life
Achievement Award winner. He died in 1987 at the age of 88. I remember seeing Baryshnikov
weep.
Katharine Hepburn said of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers,
"He gives her class and she gives him sex." Together, they gave us magic.
...Wes Marshall
wesm@hometheatersound.com |
