TOP HAT (Mark Sandrich, 1935): When I'm feeling in a singing! dancing! sort of mood, but still want to see something kind of macho, I like to pop in my favorite Fred Astaire flick, Top Hat. See, Astaire's as macho a guy actor as any Charles Bronson or Lee Marvin, only he gets the girl and saves the day by singing and dancing, and being witty and always keeping his cool and always being one step ahead of the other guy. He's sort of a graceful Bugs Bunny without the Brooklyn accent.

Granted, Astaire's skinny and bald and on the surface wouldn't seem like an ideal model for virility, but it doesn't hurt his case that the world he inhabits is a sort of alternative universe of the fey, where a theatre impresario argues with his effeminate butler over the proper scheduling of neckwear, and Astaire's chief rival for the affections of Ginger Rogers is a flamboyant Italian fashion designer given to pronouncements like "For the woman, the kiss! For the man, the sword!" I assume he's talking about dueling there, and not metaphorically. But who can be sure?

Astaire owns this world of tuxedos and fancy hotel rooms, and he won't abide by its rules. He gleefully disrupts the peace at a stodgy men's club, and refuses to be tamed by any woman, declaring that his personal philosophy is to be, as he sings in the tune "No Strings", "fancy-free, and free for anything fancy." That's a marvelous philosophy, and I've adapted it for my own.

The songs here are all by Irving Berlin, with plenty of familiar classics. Astaire initially seduces Ginger Rogers when they're both caught in a gazebo on a rainy day to the tune of "Isn't It a Lovely Day to Be Caught in the Rain". Ginger's wary about this persistent stranger, but what woman can resist a man who will sing and dance for her? None, it turns out, and particularly not Ginger.

Alas, complications ensue, and a case of mistaken identity has Ginger thinking that Astaire is a philanderer . . . Is it possible that these two won't get together? Meanwhile, Astaire performs in his big theatre piece in London to the raves of critics. In the one excerpt from the show that we see, "Top Hat, White Tie and Tails", he pantomimes machine gunning down about 20 of his fellow tuxedo-clad dancers. See, he owns this world. Don't mess with him.

And if you thought he wasn't going to end up with Ginger, well . . . One rendition of "Dancing Cheek to Cheek", and she's hooked for life. There are a few more issues that need resolving, but they're taken care of soon enough, and Fred and Ginger end up spending the rest of their lives together. Oh, happy day.

Top Hat is a quick and funny picture, and for anyone whose idea of masculinity isn't just how many terrorist hideouts a guy can blow up, but how witty, sophisticated and charming he is, and how he can use his smooth moves to get the women, then it's a particularly welcome relic from another era. You might be tempted to wear a tuxedo to work the next day. And you might find yourself dancing on the way.