Top Hat |
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Top Hat Cast |
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On-Screen Couples |
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Fred Astaire
(as Jerry Travers)
with Ginger Rogers
(as Dale Tremont)
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Movie Highlights |
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Other InformationAwardsNational Film Registry National Film Preservation Board, USA [1990] Best Picture Academy Awards [1936] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Best Music, Orginal Song Academy Awards [1936] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Best Dance Direction Academy Awards [1936] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Best Art Direction Academy Awards [1936] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Plot SummaryOne of the best of the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musicals, Top Hat centers on a typical mistaken-identity plot, with wealthy Dale Tremont (Rogers), on holiday in London and Venice, assuming that American entertainer Jerry Travers (Astaire) is the hu... TaglineSee them dance the sensational Piccolino! They`re Dancing Cheek-To-Cheek Again! DiscographySinglesThe Piccolino Cheek to Cheek Top Hat, White Tie and Tails Isn`t This a Lovely Day (to Be Caught in the Rain)? No Strings (I`m Fancy Free) |
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Full Cast and Crew |
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Actor CreditsNon Actor Credits |
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Trivia |
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Trivia and QuotesQuotes Dale Tremont: I still feel a little guilty, being here with you while Alberto is out looking for us.
Jerry Travers: Come on! Let`s eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we have to face him. Jerry Travers: Are you afraid of thunder?
Dale Tremont: Oh, no. It`s just the noise.
Jerry Travers: You know what thunder is, don`t you?
Dale Tremont: Of course. It`s something about the air.
Jerry Travers: No, no. When a clumsy cloud from here meets a fluffy little cloud from there, he billows towards her. She scurries away and he scuds right up to her. She cries a little and there you have you showers. He comforts her. They spark. That`s the lightning. They kiss. Thunder. Jerry Travers: [realising why Dale has been behaving so peculiarly] She`s been mistaking me for you this whole time.
Madge Hardwick: Well, no wonder she said he was interesting.
Horace Hardwick: Yes, no wonder... I resent that! Alberto Beddini: I promised my dresses that I would take them to Venice and that you would be in them! Dale Tremont: I hate men! I hate you! I hate all men! Alberto Beddini: Never again will I allow WOMEN to wear my dresses! Madge Hardwick: My dear, when you`re as old as I am, you take your men as you find them - if you can find them. Horace Hardwick: You mean to sit there and tell me that that girl slapped your face in front of all those people for nothing?
Jerry Travers: Well, what would you have done? Sold tickets? Dale Tremont: Madge, have you any objections if I scare your husband so that he`ll never look at another woman?
Madge Hardwick: Dale, no husband is ever too scared to look. [He is reading a telegram]
Alberto Beddini: `Come ahead. stop. Stop being a sap. stop. You can even bring Alberto. stop. My husband is stopping at your hotel. stop. when do you start. stop.` I cannot understand who wrote this.
Dale Tremont: Sounds like Gertrude Stein. Jerry Travers: In dealing with a girl or horse, one just lets nature take its course. Jerry Travers: All is fair in love and war, and this is revolution! [talking about the horse]
Dale Treemont: Who was his dam?
Jerry Travers: What?
Dale Treemont: I said, who was his dam?
Jerry Travers: I don`t know miss, he didn`t give a... Dale Tremont: I dropped up from the room below where I`ve been trying to get some sleep!
Jerry Travers: Oh, I`m sorry! I didn`t realize I was disturbing you. You see, every once in a while I suddenly find myself... dancing.
Dale Tremont: Oh, I suppose it`s some kind of an affliction. Jerry Travers: I think I feel an attack coming on. There`s only one thing that can stop me.
Dale Tremont: Why, you must tell me what it is!
Jerry Travers: My nurses always put their arms around me. Dale Tremont: How could I have ever fallen in love with a man like you!
[Dale slaps Jerry, then storms off]
Jerry Travers: She loves me. Dale Tremont: What is this strange power you have over horses?
Jerry Travers: [thinks] Horsepower?Trivia In one scene at the Lido, Madge orders a drink called a "horse`s neck". It is traditionally served with a spiral of lemon (or orange) peel hanging over the edge of the glass, suggesting the curve of a horse`s neck. It calls for 2 oz of bourbon or brandy, 4 oz of ginger ale, and a dash of bitters, over ice. Mark Sandrich, who directed five of the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musicals, was a physicist before he got into filmmaking, and would devise blueprints for every scene, so he would know exactly where to put the cameras and the actors. Erik Rhodes` Italian characterization so offended the Italian government - and dictator Benito Mussolini in particular - that the film was banned in Italy. The same fate befell The Gay Divorcee (1934) the year before. The first time Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers had a screenplay written specifically for them. The titles appear over a top hat. Vincente Minnelli would borrow this device for the titles of The Band Wagon (1953). Fred Astaire didn`t care for the big finale production number "The Piccolino" so he handed singing duties on it over to Ginger Rogers. One of the productions that rescued RKO from bankruptcy (the other being King Kong (1933).) Earned $3 million at the box office (a huge amount at the time), the only other film in 1935 to outgross it being Mutiny on the Bounty (1935). The two-minute dance of "The Piccolino" was filmed in one take. A 78-minute version of the film was released by RKO in 1953. Cuts to the dance numbers were severe. Prints are still in circulation.
The end portion film was trimmed down after a preview audience complained of the length. Small parts by Donald Meek and Florence Roberts were cut. One of the last scenes to go, in which Eric Blore insults a policeman, is still present in some prints (including the RKO Collection videotape version from Turner Home Entertainment). Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance together five times in this film. They would dance that many times together in only this film. For the "Cheek to Cheek" number, Ginger Rogers wanted to wear an elaborate blue dress heavily decked out with ostrich feathers. When director Mark Sandrich and Fred Astaire saw the dress, they knew it would be impractical for the dance. Sandrich suggested that Rogers wear the white gown she had worn performing "Night and Day" in The Gay Divorcee (1934). Rogers walked off the set, finally returning when Sandrich agreed to let her wear the offending blue dress. As there was no time for rehearsals, Ginger Rogers wore the blue feathered dress for the first time during filming, and as Astaire and Sandrich had feared, feathers started coming off the dress. Astaire later claimed it was like "a chicken being attacked by a coyote". In the final film, some stray feathers can be seen drifting off it. To patch up the rift between them, Astaire presented Rogers with a locket of a gold feather. This was the origin of Rogers` nickname "Feathers". The shedding feathers episode was recreated to hilarious results in a scene from Easter Parade (1948) in which Fred Astaire danced with a clumsy, comical dancer played by Judy Garland. During "Cheek to Cheek", Ginger Rogers` gown shed its feathers, exasperating Fred Astaire and causing delays in order to sew the feathers down. Rogers earned the nickname "Feathers" from Astaire as a result. For contrast to the "Big White Set" of the Lido, the water in the canals was dyed black. Beddini`s motto was originally, "For the men the sword, for the women the whip." The script was changed to "For the women the kiss, for the men the sword" after the censors objected. Early drafts of the script called for Irving Berlin songs "Wild About You", "Get Thee Behind Me, Satan" (to be sung by Ginger Rogers) and "You`re the Cause", but they were not used in the final version. | ||
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