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Bank Holiday entertainments
May. 25th, 2020 06:09 pmEven in normal circumstances, we tend not to schedule excursions for bank holidays: anywhere we might want to go will be busier than usual, we can take our days off whenever suits us. If there's anything I think of as a traditional bank holiday entertainment, it's a classic movie on the television. The television hasn't always agreed with me about this, but today the BBC obligingly screened Top Hat, and I was more than happy to watch it.
No need to dwell on its gay subtext (other than: Subtext? nothing sub about it!): Edward Everett Horton in his traditional rôle as Astaire's best friend, with Helen Broderick as his absentee wife and Eric Blore as his very present valet (a pure Jeeves and Wooster relationship) tells you all you need to know. I had no recollection of the balancing presence of Erik Rhodes as Alberto Beddini, the designer who employs Ginger Rogers as his model, so damaging her reputation in a way that has no impact whatsoever on the plot. "For the woman the kiss, for the man the sword!" he declares (more than once).
He clings to his 'comedy Italian' persona through all challenges, including the Italian-speaking staff of an Italian hotel. Speaking of which: this is a film about Americans in Europe. Ginger Rogers amuses herself in London by going riding and getting caught in - well, not just the rain but a spectacular thunderstorm. I worried about the horses left to face the lightning while she and Astaire were bonding in the (metal) bandstand. There is much discussion about the forthcoming trip to Italy (does the script ever specify that the destination is Venice, or does that have to wait for the lyrics of The Piccolino?); but when we see a number from the stage show in which Astaire is appearing in London, the backdrop is the Eiffel Tower. This, incidentally, is a classic example of we are going to pretend that the song-and-dance number makes sense within the story by inserting it in a stage show whose story is not revealed in enough detail for you to know any better. All the more arbitrary, then, that this is the titular Top Hat, White Tie and Tails. The emotional centre of the film is Cheek to cheek (there's a reason why this is the sequence animated for Yellow Submarine): once that's over, we know how the two characters feel about each other, and that everything will work out. The rest of the film is just tidying up, and the sheer fun of The Piccolino.
And then I arrived blinking into the rose garden, where Dominic Cummings was giving his press conference. But that's another post.
No need to dwell on its gay subtext (other than: Subtext? nothing sub about it!): Edward Everett Horton in his traditional rôle as Astaire's best friend, with Helen Broderick as his absentee wife and Eric Blore as his very present valet (a pure Jeeves and Wooster relationship) tells you all you need to know. I had no recollection of the balancing presence of Erik Rhodes as Alberto Beddini, the designer who employs Ginger Rogers as his model, so damaging her reputation in a way that has no impact whatsoever on the plot. "For the woman the kiss, for the man the sword!" he declares (more than once).
He clings to his 'comedy Italian' persona through all challenges, including the Italian-speaking staff of an Italian hotel. Speaking of which: this is a film about Americans in Europe. Ginger Rogers amuses herself in London by going riding and getting caught in - well, not just the rain but a spectacular thunderstorm. I worried about the horses left to face the lightning while she and Astaire were bonding in the (metal) bandstand. There is much discussion about the forthcoming trip to Italy (does the script ever specify that the destination is Venice, or does that have to wait for the lyrics of The Piccolino?); but when we see a number from the stage show in which Astaire is appearing in London, the backdrop is the Eiffel Tower. This, incidentally, is a classic example of we are going to pretend that the song-and-dance number makes sense within the story by inserting it in a stage show whose story is not revealed in enough detail for you to know any better. All the more arbitrary, then, that this is the titular Top Hat, White Tie and Tails. The emotional centre of the film is Cheek to cheek (there's a reason why this is the sequence animated for Yellow Submarine): once that's over, we know how the two characters feel about each other, and that everything will work out. The rest of the film is just tidying up, and the sheer fun of The Piccolino.
And then I arrived blinking into the rose garden, where Dominic Cummings was giving his press conference. But that's another post.
