Top Hat - 1935

Early drafts of the script called for Irving Berlin songs "Wild About You", "Get Thee Behind Me, Satan" (to be sung by Ginger Rogers) and "You're the Cause", but they were not used in the final version.

Character Alberto Beddini's motto was originally, "For the men the sword, for the women the whip." The script was changed to "For the women the kiss, for the men the sword" after the censors objected.

For contrast to the "Big White Set" of the Lido, the water in the canals was dyed black.

During "Cheek to Cheek", Ginger Rogers' gown shed its feathers, exasperating Fred Astaire and causing delays in order to sew the feathers down. Rogers earned the nickname "Feathers" from Astaire as a result.

For the "Cheek to Cheek" number, Ginger Rogers wanted to wear an elaborate blue dress heavily decked out with ostrich feathers. When director Mark Sandrich and Fred Astaire saw the dress, they knew it would be impractical for the dance. Sandrich suggested that Rogers wear the white gown she had worn performing "Night and Day" in The Gay Divorcee (1934). Rogers walked off the set, finally returning when Sandrich agreed to let her wear the offending blue dress. As there was no time for rehearsals, Ginger Rogers wore the blue feathered dress for the first time during filming, and as Astaire and Sandrich had feared, feathers started coming off the dress. Astaire later claimed it was like "a chicken being attacked by a coyote". In the final film, some stray feathers can be seen drifting off it. To patch up the rift between them, Astaire presented Rogers with a locket of a gold feather. This was the origin of Rogers' nickname "Feathers". The shedding feathers episode was recreated to hilarious results in a scene from Easter Parade (1948) in which Fred Astaire danced with a clumsy, comical dancer played by Judy Garland.

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance together five times in this film. They would dance that many times together in only this film.

The end portion film was trimmed down after a preview audience complained of the length. Small parts by Donald Meek and Florence Roberts were cut. One of the last scenes to go, in which Eric Blore insults a policeman, is still present in some prints (including the RKO Collection videotape version from Turner Home Entertainment).

A 78-minute version of the film was released by RKO in 1953. Cuts to the dance numbers were severe. Prints are still in circulation.

The two-minute dance of "The Piccolino" was filmed in one take.

Earned $3 million at the box office (a huge amount at the time), the only other film in 1935 to outgross it being Mutiny on the Bounty (1935).

One of the productions that rescued RKO from bankruptcy (the other being King Kong (1933).)

Fred Astaire didn't care for the big finale production number "The Piccolino" so he handed singing duties on it over to Ginger Rogers.

The titles appear over a top hat. Vincente Minnelli would borrow this device for the titles of The Band Wagon (1953).

The first time Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers had a screenplay written specifically for them.

Erik Rhodes' Italian characterization so offended the Italian government - and dictator Benito Mussolini in particular - that the film was banned in Italy. The same fate befell The Gay Divorcee (1934) the year before.

Mark Sandrich, who directed five of the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musicals, was a physicist before he got into filmmaking, and would devise blueprints for every scene, so he would know exactly where to put the cameras and the actors.

In one scene at the Lido, Madge orders a drink called a "horse's neck". It is traditionally served with a spiral of lemon (or orange) peel hanging over the edge of the glass, suggesting the curve of a horse's neck. It calls for 2 oz of bourbon or brandy, 4 oz of ginger ale, and a dash of bitters, over ice.

The Venice canal set was so large it required two adjoining sound stages at RKO's Gower studio. The entire length was over 300 feet. Up to that time it was the largest set ever built on the RKO lot.

After Fred Astaire met Irving Berlin while filming Top Hat (1935) they became lifelong friends.

The fourth (of ten) dancing partnership of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

Cast of Top Hat

Fred Astaire as Jerry Travers
Ginger Rogers as Dale Tremont
Edward Everett Horton as Horace Hardwick
Erik Rhodes as Alberto Beddini
Helen Broderick as Madge Harwick
Eric Blore as Bates
Notable bit parts:
Astaire's personal valet George (last name unknown) as Valet to Jerry Travers
Lucille Ball as Flower Shop Clerk
Tom Ricketts as Thackeray Club Waiter

March Of The Wooden Soldiers - 1934 (aka - Babes In Toyland)

The six minutes formerly missing from the film have been restored on some prints and can be seen in the version shown on cable channel AMC. They include the song "Go To Sleep," a beautifully photographed sequence in the underground caves.

The filming turned into a symphony of cast injuries. Stan Laurel fell off a platform and tore ligaments in his right leg. Henry Brandon was injured in a bar fight at the Brass Rail. Assistant director Gordon Douglas slid 15 feet from the top of the Old Woman's Shoe and tore ligaments in his left leg. Kewpie Morgan's part as Old King Cole called for him to laugh continuously - after two days, he ruptured muscles in his stomach. Oliver Hardy entered St. Vincent's Hospital to have his tonsils removed the day after filming wrapped, and Hal Roach developed appendicitis.

Debut of Henry Brandon.

An extra named John Wood sued Stan Laurel and his stunt double, Ham Kinsey, claiming back injuries after Laurel and Kinsey threw him in the ducking pond on the set. The lawsuit specified $40,500 in damages, but was settled out-of-court.

The "actor" in the "Mickey Mouse" costume was a capuchin monkey!

Look carefully at the back wall in the Three Little Pigs' house, and you'll be able to spot framed photographs of "Mother" and "Father" - a plate of sausages and a football, respectively.

This Hal Roach comedy starred Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy and had a costumed mouse which looked strangely like Mickey Mouse, a Walt Disney character. The 1961 Disney remake (Babes in Toyland (1961)) featured two comedians obviously impersonating Laurel and Hardy.

Cast of March of the Wooden Soldiers (Babes in Toyland)

Stan Laurel as Stannie Dum
Oliver Hardy as Ollie Dee
Charlotte Henry as Little Bo-Peep
Felix Knight as Tom-Tom Piper
Henry Brandon as Silas Barnaby
Florence Roberts as Mother Widow Peep
Virginia Karns as Mother Goose
Marie Wilson as Mary Quite Contrary
Johnny Downs as Little Boy Blue

Treasure Island - 1934

Treasure Island is a 1934 movie adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous 1883 novel Treasure Island. Jim Hawkins (Jackie Cooper) discovers a treasure map and travels on a sailing ship to a remote island, but pirates led by Long John Silver (Wallace Beery) threaten to take away the honest seafarers’ riches and lives.

Cast of Treasure Island

Wallace Beery as Long John Silver
Jackie Cooper as Jim Hawkins
Lionel Barrymore as Captain Billy 'Bill' Bones
Otto Kruger as Dr. Livesey
Lewis Stone as Captain Alexander Smollett
Nigel Bruce as Squire Trelawney
Charles 'Chic' Sale as Benjamin 'Ben' Gunn
William V. Mong as Blind Pew
Charles McNaughton as Black Dog, pirate
Dorothy Peterson as Mrs. Hawkins
Douglass Dumbrille as 'Ugly' Israel Hands, pirate
Edmund Breese as Anderson, pirate
Olin Howland as Dick, pirate
Charles Irwin as Abraham Gray, carpenter's mate
Edward Pawley as William O'Brien, pirate

Cleopatra - 1934

In 1934 the Hays code had just taken effect, so DeMille got away with using more risque imagery than he would be able to in his later productions. He opens the film with a naked, strategically lit slavegirl holding up incense burners as the title appears on screen.

The film is also memorable for the sumptuous art deco look of its sets (by Hans Dreier) and costumes (by Travis Banton), the atmospheric music by Rudolph Kopp, and for DeMille's legendary set piece of Cleopatra's seduction of Antony, which takes place on Cleopatra's barge.

The film won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography (Victor Milner), and was nominated Best Picture, Best Assistant Director (Cullen Tate), Best Film Editing (Anne Bauchens), and Best Sound, Recording (Franklin Hansen).

It has been released for home viewing several times, most recently as a 75th anniversary DVD edition in 2009 by Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

Miscellaneous: During the romantic barge scene, where Antony first makes love to Cleopatra, as the camera pulls further back, we see slaves in the galley pulling at the oars. When the barge is shown from the outside, no oars are visible, and the barge seems to be traveling under its own power.

Revealing mistakes: As you look at Pothinos' chariot as it comes at you the horse in the right side is a good hand shorter than the horse on the left.

In 48 BC, Cleopatra, facing palace revolt in her kingdom of Egypt, welcomes the arrival of Julius Caesar as a way of solidifying her power under Rome. When Caesar, whom she has led astray, is killed, she transfers her affections to Marc Antony and dazzles him on a barge full of DeMillean splendor. But the trick may not work a third time...

Trivia Snippet:
"Daily Variety reported that the film was badly panned by Italian critics, one of whom called it a "travesty and a burlesque," when shown in Rome. It also was met with "catcalls and derisive laughter" from the audience."

Trivia Snippet:
"One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by MCA ever since."

Taglines for Cleopatra (1934)

History's most seductive woman! The screen's mightiest spectacle!

The love affair that shook the world!

Set In A Spectacle of Thrilling Magnificence!

Cast of Cleopatra

Claudette Colbert as Cleopatra
Warren William as Julius Caesar
Henry Wilcoxon as Marc Antony
Joseph Schildkraut as King Herod
Ian Keith as Octavian
Gertrude Michael as Calpurnia
C. Aubrey Smith as Enobarbus
Irving Pichel as Apollodorus
Arthur Hohl as Brutus
Edwin Maxwell as Casca
Ian Maclaren as Cassius
Eleanor Phelps as Charmion
Leonard Mudie as Pothinos
Grace Durkin as Iras
Ferdinand Gottschalk as Glabrio (scenes deleted)

The Gay Divorcee - 1934

Advertisements for the film touted Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers as "The King and Queen of the Carioca" in reference to their previous film, Flying Down to Rio (1933).

Helen Broderick was asked to play the role of Hortense but was unavailable.

The bugle call at the beginning of the "Don't Let It Bother You" dance was developed from clowning during rehearsals, and became an in-joke in future Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers films.

The original musical on which this movie was based was called "The Gay Divorce", but because of objections from the censor, the title of the film was changed to "The Gay Divorcee" (one 'e' added).

This is the only film in which Fred Astaire plays a role that he originated in the Broadway stage production, which opened on Nov. 29, 1932 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre and ran for 248 performances. Although Astaire had appeared in both the 1927 Broadway musical play and later the film Funny Face (1957), the stories were entirely different, using many of the same songs.

Although "Night and Day" is the only song retained from the show "Gay Divorce" (on which the movie is based), the plotline remained basically the same on stage and film.

This was the first film to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song, "The Continental".

Oscar statuettes were won by Con Conrad (music) and Herb Magidson (lyrics) as 1934 was the first year when an Oscar for this category was introduced.

Erik Rhodes, who plays Tonetti, repeats his stage role from the Broadway musical "Gay Divorce", on which this is based.

The musical number "The Continental" lasts 17 1/2 minutes, the longest number ever in a musical until Gene Kelly's 18 1/2-minute ballet at the end of An American in Paris (1951) 17 years later.

The jumpsuit that Betty Grable wears in the "Let's Knock Knees" dance number was a garment previously worn by Dolores del Rio in Flying Down to Rio (1933).

The second (of ten) dancing partnership of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

Cast of The Gay Divorcee

Fred Astaire as Guy Holden
Ginger Rogers as Mimi Glossop/Mrs. Green
Alice Brady as Aunt Hortense
Edward Everett Horton as Egbert Fitzgerald
Erik Rhodes as Rodolfo Tonetti
Eric Blore as Waiter
Betty Grable as Guest
Lillian Miles as Singer, Continental Number
Charles Coleman as Guy's Valet
William Austin as Cyril Glossop

Twentieth Century - 1934

"Twentieth Century" was adapted from a Broadway play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur.

It opened Dec. 29, 1932 at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York and ran for 152 performances.

The play "Twentieth Century" was adapted from an unproduced play "Napoleon of Broadway" by Charles Bruce Millholland, based on Millholland's experiences working for legendary eccentric theater producer David Belasco.

When asked by John Barrymore why he should play the role of Oscar, Howard Hawks replied, "It's the story of the biggest ham on earth and you're the biggest ham I know." Barrymore accepted at once.

John Barrymore once said that the role of Oscar was "a role that comes once in a lifetime" and even deemed this his favorite of all the movies he appeared in.

After filming had ended, John Barrymore gave Carole Lombard an autographed photo inscribed, "To the finest actress I have worked with, bar none."

Howard Hawks was concerned when Carole Lombard could not perform the kicking scene very well. Hawks took her out for a walk and recalls, "I asked her how much money she was getting for this picture. She told me and I said, 'What would you say if I told you you'd earned your whole salary this morning and didn't have to act anymore?' And she was stunned. So I said, 'Now forget about the scene. What would you do if someone said such and such to you?' And she said, 'I'd kick him in the balls.' And I said, 'Well, he (John Barrymore) said something like that - why don't you kick him?' She said, 'Are you kidding?' And I said, 'No.'" Hawks ended the conversation with, "Now we're going back in and make this scene and you kick, and you do any damn thing that comes into your mind that's natural, and quit acting. If you don't quit, I'm going to fire you this afternoon." Hawks' white lies did the trick, and the scene was filmed. In addition, Hawks claimed that after that, Lombard never began another movie without sending him a telegram that read, "I'm gonna start kicking him."

This was later adapted as a Broadway musical "On the Twentieth Century", which opened at the St. James Theatre in New York on Feb. 19, 1978 and ran for 449 performances. In the opening night cast were Imogene Coca, Madeline Kahn, John Cullum and Kevin Kline.

In the original 1932 Broadway play were Etienne Girardot (who re-creates his role for this film), Granville Bates, William Frawley, Joseph Crehan and Dennie Moore. A 1950 revival of the play starred Gloria Swanson. A 2004 revival starred Alec Baldwin and Anne Heche. The first Broadway production opened on December 29, 1932 at the Broadhurst Theater and ran for 152 performances.

Versions presently in distribution, as shown on Turner Classic Movies, bear the updated Columbia logo and title credits from the 1938 re-release.

O'Malley jokes that Jaffe is now calling himself Hemingway and has shot himself, a grim precursor of the writer's death.

Cast of Twentieth Century

John Barrymore as Oscar "O.J." Jaffe
Carole Lombard as Lily Garland, aka Mildred Plotka
Walter Connolly as Oliver Webb
Roscoe Karns as Owen O'Malley
Ralph Forbes as George Smith
Charles Lane as Max Jacobs
Etienne Girardot as Mathew J. Clark
Dale Fuller as Sadie, Lily's maid
Edgar Kennedy as Oscar McGonigle
Herman Bing as Beard #1
Lee Kohlmar as Beard #2
James P. Burtis as Train conductor
Fred "Snowflake" Toones as Train porter

The Thin Man - 1934

Louis B. Mayer, head of MGM, originally was against the idea of Myrna Loy being cast in this picture but director W.S. Van Dyke wanted to use the stars of the movie Manhattan Melodrama (1934), William Powell and Myrna Loy. Mayer said that Powell was OK for the part since he had already played detectives in other films. Loy eventually got the part and made new image for herself.

Lux Radio Theatre version starring Myrna Loy, William Powell, Porter Hall aired June 8, 1936.

Film was shot only in about two weeks. Was originally said to be a "B" picture. First of six in The Thin Man series.

The title does not refer to Nick Charles (William Powell), but to the murder victim (Edward Ellis). Audiences and critics alike kept referring to Nick Charles as "the Thin Man", so subsequent films kept the name.

The Thin Man (1934) author Dashiell Hammett drew on his experiences as a union-busting Pinkerton detective in Butte, Montana, in creating his detective characters. Meanwhile, "The Thin Man" star Myrna Loy was born near and raised in Helena, Montana.

While the "Thin Man" in the movie refers to character Clyde Wynant, in the opening credits of the film the cover of the novel "The Thin Man" is shown. On the dust jacket of the book we see a thin man who's not just a model for the photo but who is also author Dashiell Hammett.

In the original novel, Jorgensen was Rosewater. For some reason, this was later changed or filmed and cut to get the movie the Hays seal.

Given three weeks to shoot the film, W.S. van Dyke managed it all in 12 days for the paltry budget of $231,000. The film surprised everyone by becoming a major box office hit, ranking in $1.4 million.

Skippy, who played Asta the dog, bit Myrna Loy during filming.

Reportedly, Dashiell Hammett based Nick and Nora's banter upon his rocky on-again, off-again relationship with playwright Lillian Hellman.

In The Thin Man (1934) while serving guests at a Christmas Party, and in My Man Godfrey(1936) when he comes home "intoxicated" William Powell sings the same line to a song, "For tomorrow may bring sorrow, so tonight let us be gay"

While William Powell, Myrna Loy, Minna Gombell, Porter Hall, and William Henry recreated their roles in the June 8, 1936 Lux Radio Theater broadcast, Thomas Jackson was promoted from an uncredited bit as a reporter to the major supporting role of Lt. Guild. Even though Cecil B. DeMille had begun his 9 year run as Lux Theater host on June 1, only one week before, he was missing from this broadcast. Taking his place was The Thin Man (1934)'s director W.S. Van Dyke. Legendary silent star Theda Bara made an appearance and reminisced with him about silent film acting and the research she had to do to play Cleopatra in 1917. The washed-up Bara, who hadn't made a film in years, talked about making a comeback in films and seemed to be challenging the Norma Desmond character from Sunset Blvd. (1950). One wonders if either Billy Wilder or Charles Brackett was listening that night. Bara's unusual appearance suggests that Van Dyke was doing it as a favor to Charles Brabin, Bara's husband, who was a director colleague of his at MGM and whose career was ostensibly over too.

Maureen O'Sullivan appears intoxicated in her entrance to the dinner party at the end of the movie. She falls against the door frame prior to entering the room and her speech is slurred and stilted. In subsequent scenes at the dinner itself she is fine.

The second of fourteen films pairing William Powell and Myrna Loy.

American Film Institute Catalog of Feature Films 1931-40 erroneously identifies Huey White as playing the role of 'Face' Tefler, but it's actually Jack Irwin.

Cast of The Thin Man

William Powell as Nick Charles
Myrna Loy as Nora Charles
Skippy as Asta
Maureen O'Sullivan as Dorothy Wynant
Nat Pendleton as Lt. John Guild
Minna Gombell as Mimi Wynant Jorgenson
Porter Hall as Herbert MacCaulay
Henry Wadsworth as Tommy
William Henry as Gilbert Wynant
Harold Huber as Arthur Nunheim
Cesar Romero as Chris Jorgenson
Natalie Moorhead as Julia Wolf
Edward Ellis as Clyde Wynant
Edward Brophy as Joe Morelli