The Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Blogathon – Finian’s Rainbow (1968)

This is the final of three posts dedicated to the The Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Blogathon being held over at In The Good Old Days of Hollywood.

Tnx Crystal for letting me take part!

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“Of course it’s legal! I don’t know where you immigrants get these radical, foreign ideas! ” – Senator Billboard Rawkins 

Number of Times Seen – 1 (17 Jul 2018)

Brief Synopsis – AS Irishman and his daughter move to the Deep South in America and help the townspeople deal with poverty and racism with assistance from a Leprechaun.

My Take on it – This is a film that I had never heard of before chooses to watch it for this blogathon.

It isn’t among the most famous of musicals that were adapted for the screen.

The songs are all ok, but none of them are as inspirational as one would hope from a film like this that tries to take on social issues.

Some of the ideas discussed here are not appropriate for today’s audience and what seemed like social activism or satire at the time that this was made now would seem quite racist.

Fred Astaire gets a chance to really show off hos fancy footwork in this film and those scenes alone make this film worth a look at least once.

The songs are choreographed quite well here and in general are sung well, but I didn’t find any of them memorable enough which is somewhat essential when dealing with sings in a musical.

Bottom Line – Has some good songs, but overall this musical doesn’t feel inspirational in any way. The social issues that this film brings up seem more appropriate for a bygone era because many situation now would seem racist instead of as social satire.  Astaire as always shows off his amazing dancing skills and that alone gives this film a reason to be viewed at least once. The songs are all choreographed and sung well, but none of them are very memorable as one would hope for.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Many, including Fred Astaire, blamed director Francis Ford Coppola for cutting off Astaire’s feet during filming of his dancing scenes, but it was Warners who decided, after the filming had been completed in 35mm, to convert the film to the wider 70mm and promote it as a “reserved-ticket roadshow attraction.” This was achieved by cropping off the tops and bottoms of the film frame, including some shots of Astaire’s footwork. (From IMDB)

Rating – BAFTA Worthy (5/10)

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