What I'm Watching: Top Hat

Image: IMDb.com

I've become a little obsessed lately with the movie Top Hat.  I got it from Netflix last week and over the course of three evenings I watched the movie twice along with all the special features. 

Top Hat has a basic movie musical plot: boy meets girl and falls in love at first sight.  Girl thinks he's a little too full of himself.  Boy pursues girl.  There is a case of mistaken identity and shenanigans ensue.  Boy gets girl in the end.  There is lots of singing and dancing along the way.

Top Hat was released in 1935 as a cheerful diversion for movie audiences during the Depression.  Seventy-seven years later, when modern life gets a little too crazy I want to dive into this movie and pull it in after me.

Who wouldn't want to live in a beautiful Art Deco apartment like this one?  Gorgeous clean lines, but not too modern and sparse... I love it.  Never mind that my apartment is like a lab for a creative mad scientist and tends to have things like teddy bears wearing do-rags lying around.  I like the idea of it even if I would mess up the execution.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a gentleman show up at my door dressed like this?  The gentlemen who come to my house generally show up in Timberland boots and drop clumps of mud on my floors.  Not that I'm mentioning any names.

The fashions for the women in this movie are nothing to sneeze at, either.

Well, this dress is the exception.  When Ginger first appeared in this, I wondered why a woman with such a lovely figure would want to look like Big Bird. Until I saw it move.  I stand corrected.

Of course, Ginger gets an amazing Art Deco apartment of her own.  I want that bed.  I need that bed.  I just know the quilted part is a lustrous silver satin.  Don't tell me it's anything different, Gentle Readers.  I hate it when we disagree.

More Art Deco gorgeousness.  I love everything about this picture: the elevator doors, Ginger's metallic dress with a sparkly jacket, and how cute and stylish Fred looks.  Who could resist falling in love with that guy?

In a film series noted for its Big White Sets, this is probably the ultimate -- an Art Deco version of Venice.  Isn't it beautiful?  I know Venice never looked like this.  I don't just want to live in the past, my friends.  I want to live in the fictional past. 

Images: GlamAmor.com  (A really cool vintage style blog.)

It's Delightful

As you know, my friends, I rarely watch a movie made after 1965.  I occasionally make an exception, which is how De-Lovely, a musical starring Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd, ended up at the top of my Netflix queue.  It's about the life and unusual partnership of Cole and Linda Porter.

Before you young folks hop on the comments and say "Who is Cole Porter?" and I have to lay on my chaise longue and sniff smelling salts, Cole Porter was a composer and songwriter who wrote musical scores for Broadway and Hollywood from the 1920s to the 1950s.  If you think you don't know any of his songs, watch the movie anyway -- I think you'll be surprised.

The film includes musical performances by Elvis Costello, Diana Krall, Natalie Cole, Sheryl Crow, and many more.  But for me, the showstopper was Alanis Morissette's rendition of "Let's Do It, Let's Fall In Love."

Set in Paris, Venice, and New York in the Jazz Age and Hollywood in its heyday, the De-Lovely is a feast for the eyes and the ears.  I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Anything Went

Last night I watched Anything Goes, starring Bing Crosby, Donald O'Connor, Mitzi Gaynor, and Jeanmaire.  There was a lot of talent on that screen, but the movie itself was just... meh. 

The costumes by Edith Head were gorgeous, though.  So that was something.

The musical numbers were mostly annoying.  The only thing that saved a few of them was the presence of Donald O'Connor.  I may not be the best judge, however.  I'm still harboring a resentment against Cole Porter for rhyming the words "nina" and "neurasthenia."