Top Hat

RKO Radio Pictures | Release Date: September 6, 1935

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

93	METASCORE Universal acclaim based on 16 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

100

Roger Ebert

At a point when many dancers would be gasping for breath, Astaire and Rogers are smiling easily, heedlessly. To watch them is to see hard work elevated to effortless joy: The work of two dancers who know they can do no better than this, and that no one else can do as well. Read full review

100

Marjorie Baumgarten

Hands down, this is the best Astaire-Rogers musical ever. Nothing more needs to be said. Read full review

100

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

The fourth pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and the first with a screenplay written specifically for them, Top Hat is the quintessential Astaire-Rogers musical, complete with a silly plot, romance, dapper outfits, art deco sets, and plenty of wonderful songs and dance numbers. Read full review

100

Steve Simels

Top Hat is tops with two of the duo’s most sublime numbers (The Piccolino, Cheek to Cheek), plus Fred’s rat-a-tat solo, a funnier-than-you-remember script (Erik Rhodes’ English-mangling designer exclaiming: ”Never again will I allow women to wear my dresses!”), and the hummable Irving Berlin score. Read full review

100

Michael Wilmington

In Top Hat's all-time showstopper, to Berlin's "Cheek to Cheek," light-footed Fred and feathery Ginger dance us right into paradise. [23 Aug 2005, p.C3]

100

EmpireWilliam Thomas

If you want only one Astaire-Rogers musical, Top Hat is obligatory for Astaire at his most debonair with Irving Berlin's title number and Cheek to Cheek in this screwball confused identities plot. Read full review

100

Dan Callahan

Every musical number works, and the mistaken-identity plot is pleasant enough, even if there’s too much emphatic dithering from the supporting players toward the end. Read full review

100

The GuardianPeter Bradshaw

Top Hat reflects a transatlantic kind of universe, the Brit dimension absorbed into American waspy class, and sweetened with some mannered comedy; this was a Hollywood that loved PG Wodehouse. Read full review

Andre Sennwald

When Top Hat is letting Mr. Astaire perform his incomparable magic or teaming him with the increasingly dexterous Miss Rogers it is providing the most urbane fun that you will find anywhere on the screen. Read full review

The Observer (UK)Philip French

In one of the best-looking, wittiest, most melodious and stylishly romantic musicals ever made, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance and feud from London to a dazzling art deco Venice. [09 Oct 2011, p.51]

Don Druker

This 1935 musical finds Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers at the top of their form. Read full review

Josh Larsen

It never really mattered what loopy plot was devised to get Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers together in their musicals – once they started dancing in each other’s arms, all contrivances fall to the wayside and you clearly see they were made for each other. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

This one can't miss and the reasons are three - Fred Astaire, Irving Berlin's 11 songs and sufficient comedy between numbers to hold the film together. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

The third Astaire-Rogers movie (not counting Flying Down to Rio) and one of the best, with a superlative Irving Berlin score, and equally superlative Hermes Pan routines which spark a distinct sexual electricity between the pair. Read full review

Mark Chalon Smith

In between the semi-funny slippings and slidings of the plot are a handful of memorable dance routines, reaching an apex with the well-known "Cheek to Cheek" sequence near the movie's end. Rogers is no Astaire, but she keeps up smartly enough, even in those tall heels. [21 Jul 1994, p.18]

Nathan Rabin

The dialogue is witty and piquant, and the supporting players droll, but the labored farce of madcap marital misunderstandings are as flatfooted as the dance numbers are memorably airy. Read full review