"Top Hat" which is now playing, its fourth week at Keith's Memorial, shows maestro Fred Astaire once again flinging his hoofs about with wild and graceful abandon. Unlike "Roberts," "Top Hat" is not a fashion parade, but concerns itself with a typical Fred Astaire pursult of a coy and suspicious Ginger Rogers, in the style of the "Gay Divorces."

Fred Astaire plays the part of a misunderstood and much abused bachelor whom the decorative Ginger Rogers mistakes for the husband of a friend. However the plot, such as it is, is unimportant, except as it provides opportunity for clever farcical dialogue and terpsichorean wooing by Fred Astaire.

"Top Hat," which captures the spirit of an intimate comedy, is a welcome relief from the colossal, and stupendously boring, dance spectacles. When Frod Astaire and Ginger Rogers are not delighting the eye by their dancing, Eric Blore and Everett Horton as butler and master tickle the risibilities with fast-paced dialogue. Helen Broderick, of "Band Wagon" fame, completes the triumvirate of finished comedians. The only bone the reviewer has to pick with the director concerning the whole production is that Helen Broderick was given such a relatively minor role.

This new comedy is light and gay, largely due to directorial skill and the presence of Fred Astaire's amazing feet. Irving Berlin's music is full of rhythm and melody. Although the "Piecolino" is not a real successor to the "continental," as the blurbs assert, several tunes, notably "Dancing Cheek to Cheek," and "Top Hat," will be favorites for a long time.