Sun 9/22 @ 3:30PM
The beloved 1935 film Top Hat is perhaps the quintessential Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers film, with a smitten Astaire pursuing a playing-hard-to-get Rogers, who mistakes him for her friend’s husband, and when he proposes to her, takes the drastic step of marrying someone else — or does she?
It features tunes by Irving Berlin that have become timeless classics — “Cheek to Cheek,” “Isn’t This a Lovely Day (to be caught in the rain?,” “No Strings” — and memorable dance sequences including Astaire’s signature “Top Hat, White Tie and Tails,” “Cheek to Cheek” with Rogers in her famous shedding feather gown, and the culminating extravagant production number “The Piccolino.”
It was RKO’s most profitable film of the 1930s, when people were undoubtedly looking immerse themselves in glamorous, romantic froth to forget their worries in the depths of the Depression.
The film will have a one-time screenings in 35mm at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque. It will be introduces by Cinematheque director John Ewing and Bill Rudman, artistic director of The Musical Theatre Project, who will both lead a post-film discussion.
Tickets are $15; Cinematheque & TMTP members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under are $10. No passes are accepted for this film.
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106
Cleveland, OH 44106