Movies

Top Hat centers on a typical mistaken-identity plot, with wealthy Dale Tremont (Ginger Rogers), on holiday in London and Venice, assuming that American entertainer Jerry Travers (Fred Astaire) is the husband of her friend Madge (Helen Broderick), who's actually the wife of Jerry's business manager Horace Hardwick (Edward Everett Horton).

Complicating matters is Dale's jealous suitor Beddini (Erik Rhodes), whose motto is "For the woman the kiss - for the man the sword." Beddini is disposed of by some last-minute chicanery on the part of Jerry's faithful valet Bates (Eric Blore), paving the way for the happy ending everyone knew was coming from the opening scene.

Special Notes: Top Hat was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Top Hat was the most successful picture of Astaire and Rogers' partnership (and Astaire's second most successful picture after Easter Parade), achieving second place in worldwide box-office receipts for 1935. While some dance critics maintain that Swing Time contained a finer set of dances, Top Hat remains, to this day, the partnership's best-known work.