Top Hat - videos, teasers and stills from filming

All videos, teasers and footage from the filming of the film "Top Hat"

Top Hat (1935)

Timing: 1:41 (101 min)

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All about film

Video 1

Photo 22

Actors and characters

'Top Hat' | Critics' Picks | The New York Times

English

3:60

What's left behind the scenes

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.

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