Top Hat

Top Hat (1935)

Timing: 1:41 (101 min)

7.292/10
279

7.335/10
2153

7.7/10
22000

All about film

Video 1

Photo 22

Actors and characters

Release date

1935-08-29

Country

United States

Production

RKO Radio Pictures

Genre

Comedy, Music, Romance

Budget

$609 000

Revenue

$1 782 000

Website

Director

Mark Sandrich

Actors

Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton, Erik Rhodes, Eric Blore, Helen Broderick, Lucille Ball, Gino Corrado, Leonard Mudie, Dennis O'Keefe
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Pandro S. Berman

Operator

David Abel

Composer

Artist

Carroll Clark

Audition

Editing

William Hamilton
All team (24)

• To perform the number in which Fred Astaire (1899-1987) supposedly attacks the other dancers using a cane as a weapon, the props department prepared 13 canes. During filming, Astaire, who always strived for perfection in everything, constantly broke canes out of frustration with his own mistakes, to the point where the film crew began to fear they hadn't prepared enough. Fortunately, the scene was filmed to Astaire's complete satisfaction on the very last cane.
• The way Eric Rhodes depicted the Italian Alberto Beddini so offended the Italian government – specifically dictator Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) – that the film was banned in Italy. The same fate befell the comedic melodrama "The Gay Divorcee" (Marco Sandrich, 1900-1945) in 1934.
• To perform one of the dances, Ginger Rogers (1911-1995) planned to wear a luxurious blue dress with ostrich feathers. Mark Sandrich and Fred Astaire immediately understood that the dress would not work. She was offered other options (including a dress from the previous year's film “The Gay Divorcee”), but the actress flared up and left the set, returning only when the director approved the dress with ostrich feathers. There was no time for rehearsals, and Rogers put on the dress for the first time right before filming. As Sandrich and Astaire had predicted, the feathers immediately began to fall off. Later, as a sign of reconciliation, Astaire gave Rogers a gold pendant in the shape of a bird's feather. The episode with the falling feathers was later recreated in Charles Walters’ “Easter Parade” (1948), where Astaire danced with an awkward partner played by Judy Garland (1922-1969).
• Before becoming a director, Mark Sandrich studied engineering. Before filming, he would draw a diagram of each scene and always knew exactly where to place the cameras and actors.