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No. 93: Top Hat

Depression-era escapism

by
Jody Rosen
December 05, 2011

1935, dir. Mark Sandrich. The ultimate Depression-era escapist fantasy, set to Irving Berlin’s greatest film score? Cocktails in highballs, evening clothes, swank hotel suites? Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, twirling through a gleaming Deco set to the strains of “Cheek to Cheek”? Heaven—We’re in heaven.

Jody Rosen is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine.