Editing Top Hat (section)

===Set design===
In an Astaire-Rogers picture, the Big White Set—as these [[Art Deco]]-inspired creations were known—took up the largest share of the film's production costs, and ''Top Hat'' was no exception. A winding canal—spanned by two staircase bridges at one end and a flat bridge on the other—was built across two adjoining sound stages. Astaire and Rogers dance across this flat bridge in "Cheek to Cheek". Around the bend from this bridge was located the main piazza, a giant stage coated in red bakelite that was the location for "The Piccolino". This fantasy representation<ref>Croce (1972), p.56: "Venice as a celestial powder room"</ref> of the [[Lido di Venezia|Lido]] of [[Venice]] was on three levels comprising dance floors, restaurants and terraces, all decorated in candy-cane colors, with the canal waters dyed black. The vast Venetian interiors were similarly inauthentic, reflecting instead the latest Hollywood tastes.<ref>Descriptions adapted from Croce (1972), p.76</ref>

Carroll Clark, who worked under the general supervision of Van Nest Polglase, was the unit art director on all but one of the Astaire-Rogers films. He managed the team of designers responsible for the scenery and furnishings of ''Top Hat''.