Too much of everything

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Fred and Ginger dance – that pretty much sums it up. The plot, the standard 'mistaken identity' shtick, allows the stars to meet cute and the supporting team to provide comic relief but is really just an excuse to string together a number of great musical numbers, including the iconic "Dancing cheek to cheek" (feathers and all). Edward Everett Horton is great as Astaire's buddy and mistaken alter-ego (I can't hear his voice without thinking about "Fractured Fairy Tales"), as is Helen Broderick, who plays his flippant wife. This is a film full of tuxedos and gowns, spontaneous yet fully orchestrated singing, extravagant sets, improbable situations, silly but endearing double takes, and Astaire's classic mix of graceful, athletic dancing. "Top Hat" is all romantic fantasy with not a hint of intruding reality and as such, it's perfect way to pass a couple of hours.

. . . turning Hitler's Nuremberg Rallies into an international hit movie (TRIUMPH OF THE WILL), but like the Dodgers' Jackie Robinson, Leni had to first step on the shoulders of Giants to get to where she got. Only, in Leni's case, it was more like she was treading on gnomes, following in the footsteps of America's Tap-Dancing Terrorist Fred Astaire, who was never scarier than in 1935's TOP HAT. Viewers will pick up a threatening vibe from Freddy Kruger's Role Model early on, as he throws a fright into the fragile and half-asleep crowd of octogenarians packed into a Thackeray Reading Room. Next he attacks Ginger Rogers, stomping so hard on the ceiling of her hotel room that falling tiles wake her up at 3 AM; it's lucky that she isn't blinded! Upping the ante of his mayhem, Freddy pantomimes a literal 21-gun salute to close out TOP HAT's title song, "shooting" nearly two dozen chorus boys with his dancing cane between 44:30 and 45:10. He even "guns down" an audience member for an encore. If Today's Cleveland cops run across someone behaving like Freddy in his TOP HAT heyday, their rules of engagement probably will let them leave a thoroughly deceased hoofer on the ground in the park.

Still very watchable. Fred Astaire is Fred Astaire even if he comes as too aware of his star status throughout the film. Ginger is an excellent actress but unfortunately her dancing steps are mostly criminally hidden by too long dresses. The dancing does not take over the whole film and has a measure of spontaneity in it, making it more natural. The sets are laughably prewar, rooms without ceilings - the bridal suite for example - but taken in stride. The characters are likable and the script is witty. Unfortunately the soundtrack quality is terrible by today's standards and while good enough to understand the dialog, renders the music to scratchy gramophone days. Nostalgic yes but cramps the style somewhat.

It is always a pleasure to watch Fred Astairs at his best.Someone once compared the Martini cocktail as Fred Astair in a glass.. so I fixed myself one to match this movie, the first zips were great but it all turned flat soon afterward.The first scene is very promising as we recognize an energetic Fred Astair in a ¨silence¨ gentlemen room in London, those first 5 minutes were worth the ambiance of a Fred Astair/Martini fansuddenly we're taken to the hotel scene and the first impressive tap dancing and the fantastic 30's sounds flow over, one more zip to my drink is welcome...until we're flashed by this ¨3 stooges¨ plot of mis-identification and hide and seek over different rooms. completely disappointed till the point of putting the rest of the Dry Gin back in the bottle till I get another Fred Astair movie...The sets are ridiculousy repetitive, all handed in same boring-to-eye colour and over crafted Greek style, no matter it was London or Venice, you can tell the same manifacture...the hide and seek in between the misencounters were silly repetitive in the gaps of the few great dancing scenes.Dancing Scene: great techniques and beautiful music arrangements, but would have worked more on separate film cuts for cinema pre-view entertainment, not a movie.Madge and Horace weird relationship is worthless to mention as props as any of the Greek decorations in the flat decorated rooms, almost annoyng.it is sad to acknowledge that this is just a pre-fab plot less long sketch to promote Fred Astaris and Ginger Rogers theatrical talents. not a real movie.