Top Hat

The titular sartorial accessory isn’t just to be found in the evening wardrobe of Horace Hardwick (Horton), a musical producer by trade, but also promptly becomes the trigger for the first moment of comic relief between Hardwick and his butler (another regular sidekick in the form of Eric Blore: “We are Bates!”). Hardwick’s famous friend Jerry Travers (Fred Astaire) is also decked out in a top hat and has come to London from America to enthrall West End audiences with his dancing skills. But the show soon fades into the background when Travers falls in love with Hardwick’s neighbor (Ginger Rogers), who he manages to keep awake at night, albeit without (at least at first) winning her heart. When a short trip to Venice is planned, this farce of love and confusion only gains in tempo. In a confectioner’s studio-set version of the lagoon city, Rogers and Astaire navigate their way through song and dance numbers (music by Irving Berlin, choreography by Hermes Pan and Astaire) while Horton puts his foot in it again and again – delightful!