Unrated, 1 hr. 37 min. Directed By:
Mark Sandrich. Release Date:
Sep 6, 1935. DVD Release
Date: Aug 16, 2005.
As you can probably tell by my Futurama
buddies on the poster attached to this, Top
Hat didn’t really work for me, and for a lot of reasons. I had a hard time liking Astaire’s Jerry
Travers, although he wasn’t alone, since I don’t think there was a single male
character in this movie that I would have liked to have gone out of the town
with. There were a few I wouldn’t have
pissed on if they were on fire.
Actually, Rogers’ Dale Tremont was the only major character I liked even
a little, and I thought she was… a little dumb.
Maybe gullible is a better word.
No matter what you call it, it wasn’t an attractive look. I had problems with the garish art deco
backdrops that appeared everywhere, and for no apparent reason. I would have thought London wouldn’t have
looked so much like 1930s glam Hollywood, but maybe I just don’t know all that
much about how different places are well, different. Yeah, that might be it (PS: this is sarcasm
and lots of it). I actually thought
there was too much singing and dancing, too, but I can attribute that to my
continuing illness thanks to a sinus infection, and a certain readiness for
bed. I’m also still trying to determine
who decided that Astaire should have visibly more makeup than his female
co-star.
But let’s get to how this DID work
for me, because you’ll notice the dichotomy between what I thought about the
movie and how enjoyable it was for me. I
thought the dancing between Astaire and Rogers was pretty great, and I have to
admit I had more than a few chuckles watching feathers fly off her dress during
the “Cheek to Cheek” dance. I’d have
been sneezing my head off in Astaire’s place and cursing the spirits of the 20
ostriches that must have given their lives to make that dress that made Rogers
look a little bit like an Afghan hound. The
dialogue is razor sharp and funny, focused mostly on the lead couple and Eric
Blore’s Bates character.
I realized that I’d heard most of
the music before, and that I didn’t think it was terrible, although I would
have been happier with one or two less song and dance routines. A little is okay, too much ends up like A
Chorus Line, and not in the good
way. I won’t ever say that these two don’t
have talent, and I’d be up for seeing a different one of their films when I’m
feeling a bit better, although I have to admit that I like the idea of a world
with so few problems that a song and a dance seems to fix everything. I’d actually import that if I could.
But, the whole thing felt a bit
dull. There wasn’t enough conflict in the
story to really keep my interest throughout, and I got tired of wondering when
Astaire would appear on SNL’s “Old French Whore” skit as a guest. There’s a little too much of Broadway in this
movie, and I might have liked it better if it had been a stage
performance.
