Top Hat (1935)

 

 Academy Awards, USA 1936

Nominee Oscar	Best Picture
	Best Art Direction Carroll Clark Van Nest Polglase
	Best Dance Direction Hermes Pan For "Piccolino" and "Top Hat".
	Best Music, Original Song Irving Berlin For the song "Cheek to Cheek".

RKO Radio Pictures
Directed by Mark Sandrich
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Warner Bros.)

Fred Astaire is a dancer (what else) in London to star in the new show of his friend Edward Everett Horton. His late night tap dancing in the hotel wakes up downstairs neighbor Ginger Rogers. He falls in love with her at first sight and follows her around London to no avail. He meets her again in Venice and she finally admits she loves him too. However, she mistakenly believes he is married to her friend, who unwittingly encourages the romance. The thoroughly confused Ginger instead marries her Italian costume designer. Fred eventually sets it all straight, luckily for everyone the marriage was fake, and they sail off in a fake Hollywood Gondola into the fake Venice sunset. Barely tolerable Astaire/Rogers vehicle at least has some funny moments involving the mistaken identity, but otherwise fails to meet its greatly exaggerated reputation.