Top Hat (DVD)

Synopsis

Perhaps the best remembered of the ten Astaire/Rogers musicals, "Top Hat" has it all: Art Deco elegance, a wonderfully addled storyline, loopy support from skilled farceurs and the incomparable chemistry of the two leads cheek-to-cheeking to Irving Berlin's finest film score. It's a wake-up call for romance when Fred's exuberant No Strings dance in his hotel suite disturbs the sleeping beauty (Ginger) in the room below. They meet cute, Fred decides he'd like a few strings (preferably a tied knot) after all and love beckons - until Ginger mistakenly gets the idea that Fred is a married playboy. But mistakes can be wonderfully, wackily resolved. Among the highlights: Fred mows down the chorus line in his signature Top Hat, White Tie and Tails, the shimmeringly dreamy 'Isn't It a Lovely Day (to Be Caught in the Rain)' and the rhapsodically tender 'Cheek to Cheek'. Nominated for 4 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Top Hat is top-drawer entertainment magic.