Top Hat

Front Cover
John Wiley & Sons, Aug 2, 2011 - Performing Arts - 144 pages
Top Hat is the first volume to spotlight this classic Hollywood film, probing the musical genre, notions of romance and subjectivity, as well as the contested relations between the sexes.
  • Offers a detailed analysis of one of Hollywood's greatest musicals, including a comprehensive survey of the film's production, promotion and reception, all measured against the background of 1930s socio-political contexts in the USA
  • Explores the musical genre and questions of (gendered) national identity, romance, subjectivity and the notion of the couple
  • Written in a clear, accessible style, Top Hat probes text and context carefully to appeal to the student and teacher of the musical and of Hollywood film history, as well as the film-loving general reader
 

Contents

The Making of Top Hat
6
Outlaw Stylist of the Dance
19
Confirming and Defying Convention
26
The Bumpy
35
The Numbers
43
Querying National and Sexual Identity
85
A Perfectly Swell Romance
101
Index
114
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2011)

Peter William Evans is a Professor of Film Studies, in the Department of Film Studies at Queen Mary University of London. His publications range from classical Hollywood (books on the musical, romantic comedy and the Biblical epic, and articles on film noir, the western and Hitchcock), British cinema (a book on Carol Reed) and Spanish cinema (books on Buñuel, Almodovar and Bigas Luna).