On Top: Inside the Success of 'Top Hat' (2005 Video) User Reviews

Nearly seamless stitching together of 14 interviewees

[charlytully · 8/10 · 8 May 2009]

The on-screen visuals for this 18-minute making-of are divided nearly evenly between clips from the feature TOP HAT, the 14 talking heads themselves (including three from archival footage), plus pan-and-scan of production stills and other relevant photos. Also on the 2005 DVD are two seemingly-unrelated shorts (Bob Hope's 18-minute sketch "Watch the Birdie" and Leodora Congdon's Warner Brothers Merrie Melodies 'toon, "Page 'Miss Glory'" (plus a brief theatrical trailer for TOP HAT, which hilariously features ONLY "Picolino," the LEAST remembered of the five Irving Berlin #1 pop hits which make up the feature's score, including "Cheek to Cheek"). Leonard Maltin points out how TOP HAT's silliness was designed to "lift your spirits--make you feel better about life; about yourself" during the Great Depression, not unlike how a movie such as GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST might function in the hard times of today.

A very nice little film about a terrific film!

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 20 June 2011]

This is one of the special features included on the DVD for "Top Hat"--one of the best musicals in Hollywood history. And, it's a 'making of' film that examines the film and reason for its success. To do this, it uses stills, film footage and quite a few interviews (with the likes of Fred Astaire's daughter as well as Leonard Maltin). Considering that the original film was made 70 years earlier, it's a very good short film--but you really can't help but wish a film like this had been made decades before--when the principles in the film were still alive and able to contribute. But, considering the difficulties of doing an examination of this older film, it worked well and really made me appreciate the artistry of "Top Hat". Well worth seeing.

Talk about beating an expired steed . . .

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 13 February 2017]

. . . the 11 living (as of 2005) Talking Heads lecturing us here NEVER acknowledge, let alone try to explain, exactly WHY the RKO film studio's Re-release theatrical trailer for TOP HAT featured ONLY one song from that entire flick during its 62-second running time: "Dance the Piccolino." This throw-away space-filling tune was tossed into the last five minutes of TOP HAT to pad it out to the desired cumulative duration. When it came time to Re-release TOP HAT, RKO already knew that "Cheek to Cheek" had been nominated for a "Best Song" Oscar (only to lose out to "Swing Time" from the original Charles Laughton version of MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY). "No Strings" and "Isn't It a Lovely Day (to be caught in the rain)?"--as well as TOP HAT's title song--also had danced circles around "Piccolino" on the Top 40 Charts. Since the Re-release trailer is on Turner's 2005 DVD menu for TOP HAT right below this Featurette, it's not as if this preview is some obscure, arcane artifact unavailable to these 11 "experts" who supposedly know their field in more depth than the casual DVD user. What's equally inexplicable is how the penny-pinching clowns at RKO could talk Ginger Rogers into defecting from her singing-in-pig-Latin gig under her mentor Busby Berkeley in favor of the Homely Stumblefoot (aka, "Fred Astaire"). Also, how did RKO bamboozle America into thinking that a Racist "Bojangles" (in Blackface, yet!) imitator was preferable to Mr. Berkeley's whirling white pianos and neon violins? (Oh Yeah, this was the same rigged system that made MGM's pack of trumps--GONE WITH THE WIND--the most lucrative lie of all time, adjusted for inflation.)

Isn't It A Lovely Day To Be Caught in the Rain?

[Sylviastel · 10/10 · 13 June 2019]

Fred Astaire was probably at his best with his top hat, white tie and tails in this film. The special feature goes behind the scenes with interviews from Fred's daughter, Leonard Maltin, scholars and Braodway dancers. They marveled at Fred and Ginger's dance moves like dancing on air.