Do you remember the first time you saw two truly great collaborators work together? For me, it was the first time I ever saw Top Hat playing at the local one-screen cinema.
Starring Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, it’s one the original romantic comedies, right up there with It Happened One Night and other classics of the screwball genre. Like most films from the Great Depression, the storyline is full of lighthearted flair, not to mention retro aesthetics that would make the “Time Warp Wives” jealous.
In this case, however, I wasn’t drawn in by the meet-cute storyline—it was Rogers and Astaire dancing with abandon that had me entranced. These days, I barely remember the story; what I remember instead is Fred Astaire singing “Cheek to Cheek.”
A few years later (around the advent of Netflix) I started hunting down some other hits from their long-time collaboration. Though Top Hat remains a favorite, these days, I don’t think anything can touch Swing Time for incredible dancing.
Like this young couple celebrating their marriage with a jazzy turn around the ballroom, Rogers and Astaire always knew how to make a good dance routine pop! Even though part of the plot of the movie involves Fred Astaire pretending he can’t dance, you can tell from this remarkable vintage performance that these two were always meant to dance together.
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