Jennifer Phelan

Top Hat is one of my favorite movies. I love that Ginger gets to wear pants and low heeled shoes. I always see Fred and Ginger as being equals. Sometimes one of them gets the best of the other, but it always ends up well. They both have terrific personalities that shine.

Even though I did not understand all of the conversation in French, it was still obvious what was being discussed. I thought the director did a good job with handling the gun shots. The noises were slightly disturbing, but not so much that it changed the tone of the humorous scene.

In the first clip, Jeanette has the upper hand. Nelson is paddling the canoe and sings to impress the girl. In the second clip, the tables have turned. Nelson shows up happily with a girl on each arm while Jeanette is failing to entertain the room. Jeanette can't seem to turn off that operatic voice (which, frankly, is irritating to me). I have seen one movie of Jeanette without Nelson, but not the other way around. Jeanette was about 40 years old and was supposed to be the mother of some young adult girls. She was beautiful and talented. I am frustrated by the MacDonald/Eddy movies. Something seems to be off. They are both charming, fun and could sing, but there is never any of the spark you see with other couples in movies. I don't know if the film code has anything to do with this because I have seen other movies from the same era that don't annoy me the same way.

Ziegfeld's sole focus seems to be on beating his competition. Money seems to be no object. Ziegfeld gives the doorman a large tip after tricking him into revealing the rival's destination, and somehow is able to have an enormous amount of expensive orchids delivered to Anna Held's dressing room within an hour or two. When Anna flashes her mirror into the faces of the audience members, Ziegfeld is the only one who maintains intent eye contact. He is not swayed by Anna. Jack Billings laughs until he sees this. It was stated that this was a pre-code movie, but I would not have guessed that myself. The dress covers a lot of ground, but it shows cleavage and is form fitting. Also, when Anna lets go of the mirror, it hangs right over the...and that reminds me - where the heck is Myrna Loy?!