I am a modernist all the way through. I believe everything is better than it ever has been, in just about every single way. Including music and with no exceptions… except two. Literature (which needn't bother us here) and motion pictures.
In the 1920s with the talkies, movies began to really grab and by the 1930s they were the greatest art form of all time. They peaked around 1935 – around 1939. 39 was the greatest year for movies of all time. And then it steadily decline to the abyss it is in today. "Top Hat", a simply perfect Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers vehicle from 1935, reaches such heights of charm and sophistication, any given moment is worth every Marvel comic movie combined.
A light as a feather musical comedy, hugely successful piece of fluff. But what fluff. The score is by Irving Berlin and both "White Tie And Tails" and "Cheek To Cheek" remain great American standards. Astaire plays Jerry who first annoys and then pleases Ginger Rogers. But, in a case of mistaken identity, believes he is married. 90 minutes and five dances later, they are ready to marry.
The movie is filmed on a Hollywood soundstage and the camera tracks from one set to another, large, glorious sets filmed in black and white. Astaire is easy going, handsome (I know, but he acts handsome) and a charmer. Just a pleasure to be in his company. Rogers is brittle but only so Astaire can thaw her. And in the movies greatest moment, they perform a pas de deux to Berlin's "Cheek to Cheek"
The "Cheek To Cheek" dance is faintly immoral, despite believing Astaire to be married, when his supposed wife approves of the liaison, she shrugs and says "If it is OK with her…" The dance is a sex scene a la 1935, from foreplay to coitus to post coitus. In the picture above, the second of two huge backbends, is pure sexual submission.
This is how adults dealt with adult themes. In "Top Hat" the theme is entirely adultery. It is an adult story but for a General Admission world: it takes a certain lack of innocence to see through the dancing metaphor (indeed even the tapdancing away from responsibility metaphor) to get the story just below the surface.
And it doesn't matter if you don't. Even at face value, it is a romantic daydream for a post Great Depression world. It is not only hard for us to believe in their world, it was difficult for their audience themselves. It is a vicarious romantic thrill.
Grade: A+