Top Hat

Watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance, we are momentarily transported to the realm of heaven. Top Hat is no cinematic masterpiece, but it delivers a sense of enjoyment that many masterpieces don’t even come close to. The musical numbers and choreography, hysterically funny supporting cast (Edward Everett Horton for president) and Irving Berlin’s elegant score are a pure delight, untainted by artistic loftiness and delivered with respect for an audience in need of quality entertainment. In this fourth (out of ten) film featuring the Fred and Ginger duo, Astaire actually plays himself, a man caught up in a classic comedy of errors and in love with Rogers. Romance blossoms and the relationship culminates in a rousing dance to Cheek to Cheek, the iconic feather-light number. Top Hat is a soothing, joyful ride.

Patrycja Mucha

Mark Sandrich (1900–1945) was an American director primarily known today for the five Astaire and Rogers musicals he directed for RKO in the ’30s. Apart from them his best-known film is probably Holiday Inn (1942). He died prematurely of a heart attack at the age of 44, most likely because of overwork: between the years 1932 and 1944 he directed no fewer than twenty feature films.