Directed by:
Mark SandrichCinematography:
David AbelCast:
Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton, Erik Rhodes, Eric Blore, Helen Broderick, Dennis O'Keefe, Lucille Ball, Ben Holmes, Frank Mills (more)VOD (2)
Plots(1)
While staying in a London hotel with his English theatrical backer, Horace Hardwick, American musical revue star Jerry Travers wakes up Dale Tremont, Horace's downstairs neighbor, with his compulsive tap dancing. Upon seeing the furious Dale, Jerry falls instantly in love and, in spite of her snubbing, daily sends flowers to her room. Then, while posing as a hansom cab driver, Jerry delivers Dale to her riding lesson in the park and romances her in a pavilion during a rain storm. Dale's loving bliss is shattered, however, when she incorrectly deduces that Jerry, whose name she has never heard, is actually the husband of her matchmaking friend, Madge Hardwick. In spite of her desire to return to America, Dale is convinced by Alberto Beddini, her adoring, ambitious Italian dressmaker, to accept Madge's invitation to join her in Italy. Before leaving, Dale encounters Jerry in the hotel and slaps him without explanation. Worried that the slap will cause a scandal, the hotel management admonishes a confused Horace, who in turn blames the incident on Bates, his quarrelsome valet. After Horace orders Bates to follow Dale, he receives a telegram from Madge saying that Dale is on her way to the Lido in Venice. Overjoyed, Jerry rushes through his London revue and flies to Venice with Horace, unaware that Dale has confessed to Madge in their hotel room that her husband has made illicit advances toward her. In Italy, Jerry continues to be baffled by Dale's emotional vacilations, while Horace is equally baffled by Alberto's threats of bodily violence. At the hotel nightclub, Dale dances with Jerry at the urging of Madge, who is unaware that Dale has mistaken Jerry, the man that she is trying to get Dale to marry, for Horace. When Jerry then proposes to Dale, she slaps him again, while Madge, who had taken Dale's initial revelations about Horace with good humor, punches her husband in the eye. Depressed and heartsick, Dale succumbs to the affections of Alberto and accepts his marriage proposal. The next day, Jerry learns that Dale has married and, by tap dancing as he did in London, connives to see her alone. Although Dale finally learns Jerry's true identity while cruising with him in a gondola, the revenge-hungry Alberto pursues the couple across the canals. Eventually Bates reveals that, while following Dale and Alberto, he had impersonated a clergyman and performed their marriage ceremony. Legally single, Dale now accepts Jerry's proposal and, back in the nightclub, dances happily with him across the floor. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
Fred Astaire
USA
Best movies:
The Green Mile (1999) - a.f.
The Towering Inferno (1974)
Billy Elliot (2000) - a.f.
Ginger Rogers
USA
Best movies:
The Green Mile (1999) - a.f.
Producers' Showcase (1954) (series)
The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)
Edward Everett Horton
USA
Best movies:
The Name of the Game (1968) (series)
Holiday (1938)
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
Erik Rhodes
USA
Best movies:
Top Hat (1935)
The Gay Divorcee (1934)
Eric Blore
UK
Best movies:
Shall We Dance? (1937)
Top Hat (1935)
The Gay Divorcee (1934)
Helen Broderick
USA
Best movies:
Top Hat (1935)
Swing Time (1936)
Dennis O'Keefe
USA
Best movies:
Producers' Showcase (1954) (series)
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
Fury (1936)
Lucille Ball
USA
Best movies:
Trumbo (2015) - a.f.
Top Hat (1935)
Stage Door (1937)
Ben Holmes
USA
Best movies:
Top Hat (1935)
Frank Mills
USA
Best movies:
The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima (1952)
Limelight (1952)
Fury (1936)
Gino Corrado
Italy
Best movies:
The Great Dictator (1940)
Fury (1936)
Sunrise (1927)
Edgar Norton
UK
Best movies:
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
The Man Who Laughs (1928)
Top Hat (1935)
Jay Eaton
USA
Best movies:
Love Crazy (1941)
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
Rhapsody in Blue (1945)
Tom Ricketts
UK
Best movies:
After the Thin Man (1936)
The Invisible Man (1933)
The Power and the Glory (1933)
Roy Brent
USA
Best movies:
King Kong (1933)
Top Hat (1935)
The Pride of the Yankees (1942)
Nick Thompson
USA
Best movies:
Scarface (1932)
Top Hat (1935)
City Streets (1931)
Leonard Mudie
UK
Best movies:
Limelight (1952)
Waterloo Bridge (1940)
The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939)