[The film""s story was based on a real-life crime in March of 1927 perpetrated by married Queens, NY housewife Ruth (Brown) Snyder and her lover, a 32 year-old corset salesman Judd Gray.Will Turner freed Jack from jail to help him rescue his "bonny lass" Elizabeth from theBlack Pearl,by commandeering theHMS Interceptor(after tricking the Navy by switching ships).Devastated by his recent personal setbacks, Peter lost his web-producing and wall-climbing powers and decided to make a personal choice (while having a vision of his final conversation with Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson)): "I want a life of my own.The film reflected the dire effects of the Great Depression on the common man in its story of a WWI veteran who faced unemployment, was unjustly convicted of a petty robbery, and then twice served and escaped from a southern chain gang as a hunted fugitive during he 1920s.Top Hatbecame RKO""s greatest box-office hit of the 30s (the moneymaker brought in over $3 million).By its second week (in September 1935), it had broken attendance records at New York""s Radio City Music Hall by taking in $245,000, and by its third week, it had accumulated $350,000 in ticket sales.