Mr. Top Hat and Tails

An Introduction to the Films of Fred Astaire

In a recent auction, Fred Astaire's top hat from the movie Top Hat (1935) sold for $5,500.00.  One can only imagine how much his white tie and tails might have fetched.  What makes this iconic stovepipe so valuable?  What about this dancer of stage and screen has appealled to audiences so strongly that the name "Astaire" has itself become an icon?  During Astaire's lifetime (1899-1987), his name was used in song lyrics by Cole Porter ("You're the Top") and Eric Maschwitz ("A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square"), and even today all one has to do is mention "Astaire and Rogers" or "Fred and Ginger" to evoke images of effortlessly beautiful dancing, elegant attire, and, above all, class.  This guide aims to introduce you to the wonderful films of Fred Astaire so that you too can discover what made Mr. Top Hat and Tails great.

Astaire at RKO

After watching Fred Astaire's first screen test, a Hollywood studio executive famously remarked, "Can't act.  Can't sing.  Slightly bald.  Can dance a little."  Could dance a little was right.  Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Frederick Austerlitz, Jr., the son of an Austrian immigrant, had been dancing since he was five years old.  He and his older sister Adele were a highly successful dancing act in vaudeville, on Broadway, and on the London stage.  In 1932, Adele married nobleman Lord Cavendish, son of the Duke of Devonshire, and moved to Ireland, where she lived in her husband's castle.  With the act broken up, Fred had a few solo successes on the stage but decided to try his luck in Hollywood, where he was signed by RKO.

Astaire's first picture for RKO was Flying Down to Rio (1933), in which he was cast in a supporting role alongside an actress whom Fred had met on Broadway and who had attracted attention that year with her breakthrough performance in the film 42nd Street.  She was Ginger Rogers, and she and Fred are the reason Flying Down to Rio is still remembered.  Their scenes stole the movie.  Katharine Hepburn is attributed with commenting that Astaire gave Rogers class and she gave him sex appeal.  When they appear together onscreen, Fred and Ginger seem the most elegant couple imaginable, and the somewhat odd-looking Astaire is charming, clever, and even bordering on handsome with Rogers.  After Flying Down to Rio, studio executives were eager to team these two again.

Fred and Ginger's first starring roles together came in 1934's The Gay Divorcee.  Originally titled The Gay Divorce after the stage show in which Fred Astaire also played the starring role, the film's title had to be changed when the conservative censors objected that divorce ought not to be portrayed as a happy occurence.  Also featuring Edward Everett Horton, Erik Rhodes, and Eric Blore, the film follows Rogers' attempt to force her husband to divorce her.  Astaire plays a dancer and friend of her lawyer.  There are mistaken identities, deception, romance, lots of laughs, and an extensive, extravagant dancing sequence introduing "The Continental," the first song to win the Academy Award.

The following year saw two more successful Astaire-Rogers vehicles, Roberta and, more importantly, Top Hat.  The latter film reunited much of the cast of The Gay Divorcee and has a similar plot.  Astaire plays a dancer whose tapping annoys Rogers, who is trying to sleep in the hotel room below.  There is the expected confrontation, attraction, and confusion as to who is who, because Ginger mistakenly believes Fred to be Edward Everett Horton's character.  Excellent dancing and music, including Astaire's performance of Irving Berlin's "Top Hat, White Tie and Tails," make Top Hat the quintessential Astaire-and-Rogers picture.  There's enjoyable, high-quality entertainment from start to finish.

In 1936, Fred and Ginger followed up this top-rate performance with Follow the Fleet.  Fred plays--you guessed it--a dancer, who left his partner Ginger when he joined the Navy.  When he and shipmate Randolph Scott are on leave, romance is in the stars for Astaire and Rogers and Scott and Harriet Hilliard, but the sailors' duty threatens to ruin everything for the two couples.  This is a fine musical, among Fred and Ginger's best, with memorable song-and-dance numbers.  Lucille Ball has a supporting role.

After making Swing Time (1936) and Shall We Dance (1937) with Rogers, Astaire was teamed with quite different partners, George Burns and Gracie Allen, in A Damsel in Distress (1937).  Fred plays a dancer who happens to meet a noblewoman (Joan Fontaine) looking for a husband.  The family servants bet on who will win her hand, and a boy chooses "Mr. X" as his candidate.  Astaire becomes Mr. X, and it's a battle against tradition, a cheating butler, and Gracie's illogical logic to determine who ends up with whom.  The best scene in the film is Astaire, Burns, and Allen dancing and playing in a fun-house-like environment with rotating walkways, cascading slides, and distorting mirrors.

Fred and Ginger Go Their Separate Ways

Carefree (1938) and The Story of Verne and Irene Castle (1939) were the final two RKO pictures to star Astaire and Rogers.  With the tremendously successful partnership dissolved, Fred was next paired with Eleanor Powell in M-G-M's Broadway Melody of 1940.  Then he made Second Chorus (1940), in which he plays a trumpet-playing band leader who vies for Paulette Goddard's heart and a spot in Artie Shaw's band (Shaw portrays himself).  It's an entertaining musical that lacks the electricity of Fred's performances with Ginger.  Astaire was usually best when he had another great dancer alongside him.  That role would be filled by Rita Hayworth, when Fred made two pictures with her at Columbia, You'll Never Get Rich (1941) and You Were Never Lovelier (1942).

It was around this same time that Astaire found another new onscreen partner, but not a dancer and not a woman.  Paramount teamed Astaire with immensely popular crooner Bing Crosby for 1942's Holiday Inn, a film about a singer (Crosby) who leaves showbusiness to open a country inn which only opens on holidays.  For each holiday, Irving Berlin wrote an appropriate song, introducing "White Christmas" and covering everything from Thanksgiving to Lincoln's birthday.  Fred plays Bing's dancer friend.  Both men love the same woman (Marjorie Reynolds), who performs at Holiday Inn.  Fred is amazing in his drunken dance and his Fourth-of-July firecracker dance, which took take after take for Astaire to execute to his satisfaction--he was widely known for being a perfectionist when it came to his dancing.

While shooting this film, Astaire met a young dancer who had recently made the transition from Broadway to Hollywood.  With no role for the actor at present, M-G-M suggested he visit the Paramount lot and get acquainted with the as-yet unmatched master of cinematic dancing.  Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly first shook hands on the set of Holiday Inn.  Their careers would intersect several times in the future, and Kelly would prove to be the only male dancer capable of rivaling Astaire's achievements.

After making Yolanda and the Thief (1945), a middling musical which thrives on Technicolor and is highlighted by an artistic and whimsical ballet, Astaire made his only onscreen appearance with Gene Kelly (prior to the That's Entertainment documentaries) in Ziegfeld Follies (1946).  In "The Babbit and the Bromide" sequence, Fred and Gene play two friends who meet several times throughout their lives, each meeting separated by many years and ending in heaven.  Kelly deferred to Astaire, dancing in Fred's style, and whenever he was asked which of his many dance partners was his favorite, Kelly and Astaire each answered the other.

When Fred was cast in Blue Skies (1946) again with Bing Crosby, Astaire announced that this would be his final film before retiring.  To pay him tribute, Paramount went all out, throwing in about twenty Irving Berlin songs, elaborate song-and-dance numbers, and showcasing Astaire with a top-hat-and-tails-style rendition of "Puttin' on the Ritz," in which Fred's rhythmic use of a cane is particularly enjoyable.  As in Holiday Inn, Fred and Bing both fall for the same girl (Joan Caulfield).  The story is told in flashback as Fred recalls their romances in a radio broadcast.  With the film completed, Fred hung up his dance shoes and prepared to move on to his other endeavors, including a string of Fred Astaire Dance Studios.  Retirement would not last long, though.

Gene Kelly on the Phone

Over at M-G-M, Gene Kelly and Judy Garland were rehearsing for another Irving Berlin movie musical, Easter Parade (1948).  It's the story of a dance team which splits up.  Determined to prove he can teach anybody to dance as well as his former partner, Kelly recruits Garland, who literally doesn't know her right foot from her left.  After some romantic competition from Peter Lawford, who sings the charming "Fella with the Umbrella," Kelly and Garland succeed in dancing and love, celebrating by strolling down Fifth Avenue in the Easter Parade.  All was well and good until Kelly injured his ankle before shooting began.  No one at M-G-M was talented enough to replace him in the starring role.  After all, who could dance as well as Gene Kelly?

Realizing exactly who could dance as well or better than him, Gene got on the phone and called the retired Astaire.  After considerable cajoling from Kelly and the studio, Fred agreed to replace the injured Kelly and star in the film.  The opening number Astaire performs in the toy store echoes Kelly's style, but the performance is pure Fred.  He and Garland make a good pair, especially as bums in tattered top hats and tails during the "A Couple of Swells" number, and the movie is very entertaining.

A New Career at M-G-M

Fred stayed on at M-G-M, next appearing in his tenth and final film with Ginger Rogers, The Barkleys of Broadway (1949).  The two of them play the Barkleys, an argumentative married couple who perform together in Broadway musical comedies.  When a French playwright convinces Rogers she could be a great dramatic actress in his play, she leaves Astaire.  However, as Fred learns by spying on her rehearsals, she flounders as a serious actress and is in desperate need of guidance.  Astaire pretends to be the French playwright and begins calling her with acting advice.  His suggestions work, and she greatly improves, but is there any hope she'll discover the truth and their romance can resume?  Oscar Levant is his usual self as the Barkleys' friend, and Astaire and Rogers are great together again, though their RKO films remain superior.

In Three Little Words (1950), Astaire costars with Red Skelton as songwriters Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, who penned the title song and many other delightful Tin Pan Alley tunes which populate the film.  Fred has several funny scenes involving his character's penchant for magic tricks.

One of the differences between Astaire's earlier work, particularly at RKO, and his performances at M-G-M is his increased use of gimmicks.  In the years separating these two parts of his career, technology was developed which enabled him to employ special effects in his dance routines.  For example, in the "Shoes with Wings On" number from The Barkleys of Broadway, Fred performs with several pairs of shoes which magically dance on their own through trick photography.  Stunts like this would have been unheard of in, say, Follow the Fleet.  M-G-M was a giant, by far more wealthy than RKO and thus in a position to have higher budgets.  These funds were put to great use by M-G-M's musical unit, run by producer Arthur Freed.  (The Freed Unit created many of the most memorable movie musicals of all time, including An American in Paris, Singin' in the Rain, Meet Me in St. Louis, and Easter Parade, among many, many others.)

For Royal Wedding (1951), Fred Astaire employed one such gimmick with results that left the world wondering how he managed to pull off a miracle.  In this movie, which is loosely based around the life of Adele and Fred and her royal marriage, Astaire dances across a room, then up the wall, then across the ceiling and onto the other wall.  Completely defying gravity, Fred lets his emotions carry him upside down and back again.  Audiences were baffled.  For years afterward, Fred would get stopped on the street and asked about this amazing performance, which was executed by rotating the entire room and camera at the same rate.  It's a dance which must be seen to be believed, even though you still won't believe it when watching.

The Band Wagon (1953) combined many of the best talents in the Freed Unit.  Directed by Vincente Minelli, written by Comden and Green, and starring, Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Oscar Levant, Nanette Fabray, and Jack Buchanan, this movie is about the production of a Broadway show which in the hands of an enthusiastic though misguided director radically changes from a light musical comedy envisioned by the writers to a dark musical version of Faust and back again, starring a classically trained ballet dancer and a popular hoofer who are convinced they can't get along.  It's the backstage musical at its best, featuring great music, dancing, and humor.  The song "That's Entertainment" came from this film.  In the 1970s, that title went to a series of documentaries about M-G-M's great musicals, of which The Band Wagon is certainly one of the most enjoyable.

During this second half of his Hollywood career, Astaire made a few more musicals at M-G-M.  In Daddy Long Legs (1955), he plays a wealthy business mogul who becomes interested in a teenage French orphan (Leslie Caron) and sponsors her college education, winding up in a romantic relationship with her.  Astaire's age difference from Caron really shows though doesn't prevent this film from being charming.

Silk Stockings (1957) is an updated musical remake of Ninotchka with Cyd Charisse as a tight-laced Russian agent assigned to bring back the Russian composer who movie producer Astaire has signed for his next picture.  The number "Stereophonic Sound," written by Cole Porter, is excellent; the song comments on the prevalent use of cinematic effects, such as "glorious Technicolor, breathtaking Cinemascope, and stereophonic sound," to attract audiences to the movie theater.

Astaire's career slowed after Silk Stockings, a period during which the studio system itself declined and ultimately faded.  He did have success again in 1974, with the release of the first That's Entertainment documentary, a very enjoyable film which recounts notable moments in M-G-M musicals and is hosted by the stars, including Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Liza Minelli (for her parents Judy Garland and Vincente Minelli), Bing Crosby, Debbie Reynolds, and Mickey Rooney.  Astaire's performance in the disaster epic The Towering Inferno (1974) earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

Purchasing Fred Astaire's Films

All ten of Fred's musicals with Ginger Rogers are available on DVD in two five-film collections.  Click on the link to Search eBay for the Astaire and Rogers Collections.

Ziegfeld Follies, Three Little Words, and three other M-G-M musicals are available on DVD in a collection called Classic Musicals from the Dream Factory.  All are worth seeing and owning.  Click on the link to Search eBay for Classic Musicals from the Dream Factory.

Fred's two films with Bing Crosby are each available on two-film Crosby DVDs.  Click on the links to Search eBay for Holiday Inn and Blue Skies.

Also be sure to check out the 4-DVD That's Entertainment boxed set.  Click on the link to Search eBay for That's Entertainment.

To search eBay for the other Fred Astaire films mentioned in this guide, click on the following links:  A Damsel in Distress, Broadway Melody of 1940, Second Chorus, You'll Never Get Rich, You Were Never Lovelier, Yolanda and the Thief, Easter Parade, Royal Wedding, The Band Wagon, Daddy Long Legs, Silk Stockings, The Towering Inferno.

Thanks for reading my guide!