Gotta love a movie that caps out at just over an hour. No nonsense, just plot.
Fun, fast adventure story that gets extra kick from Leslie Banks' performance as Count Zaroff, a grandly sinister Continental European villain up there with Lugosi's Dracula and Mikkelson's Hannibal Lecter. (I had to look up why he was familiar and son of a gun! He was in the original Man Who Knew Too Much in a very different role.) Bonus half star for Banks.…
Second Astaire/Rogers movie I've seen, after Swing Time, and it's an interesting contrast. Swing Time has at least two dance numbers better than any in Top Hat — "Pick Yourself Up" and "Never Gonna Dance." But Top Hat is stronger as a narrative. This is a straight-up screwball farce, frequently funny both because of dialogue and performance.
(Also I'll take Edward Everett Horton over Victor Moore any time.)
Astaire's character gels more here, as well — he's as charming as he thinks he is, which is not always the case in Swing Time.
Looking forward to catching The Gay Divorcee ...
As suspected I bumped this up on rewatch. Too much doesn’t quite work for me to wholly embrace it, but the bullet removal scene, and McAdams’ and Plemons’ performances, are indeed high points.
Basically, really really clever but more clever than funny. YMMV.
(Interesting that the sanitization for inflight presentation was more notable in this than in Infinity War.)
