Finian's Rainbow
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Movie Reviews of Finian's Rainbow
Movie Review: Entertaining But Could Use Some Trimming
Summary: 4 Stars
"Finian's Rainbow" (1968) is one of the few films I saw three times in the theater, and since repeat viewings are normally not my thing it must have made some connection or maybe I just enjoyed watching Barbara Hancock dance. Despite this I agree with most of the critical comments about portions of the film.
Unfortunately it was assembled as a 145 minute "roadshow" musical; these were overlong spectaculars which depended less on the charm of the performers (think 1930's) than on pre-sold event marketing (unnecessary, pretentious, overscale, and distracting production values; souvenir programs; etc.). Right around the time of its release these mega-productions were leading many of the studios to financial ruin. Warner Brothers took a hit from this one; box office was bad but fortunately Coppola worked cheap and had cranked this out on the back-lot with a relatively modest budget.
Trim about 30 minutes from the film and you would have a much better production. There is a lot of stuff here that is supposed to be fun and just doesn't make it. Fortunately there are some real gems sandwiched throughout the film.
Think bi-racial "Lil Abner" (1959) with a touch of "The Wizard of Oz" (1939). The Oz connection comes from lyricist E. Y. Harburg, the guy who gave us "If I Were the King of the Forest". There are enough such silly songs to make up for toughing out the musical clunker moments. Tommy Steele absolutely shines doing this material (insert Bert Lahr here) .
Nothing wrong with the performances of Fred Astaire or Petula Clark either. And its not just his dancing and her singing, they both achieve excellent characterizations. Astaire at 70 does not look much different facially than Astaire at 30. But this time instead of a physically unlikely love interest he plays a warm old man still chasing a dream, and it's a much better fit. Clark does an excellent Debbie Reynolds and more than holds her own through the production.
Unfortunately there is little good to say about the casting of Don Francks as Petula's love interest and Hancock's older brother. Most likely Coppola felt that the film needed a relatively hip looking guy in place of a Gordon MacRae type. But Francks comes off as more of an oily hotshot; the kind of guy who would proposition your 14 year-old sister.
The plot has Finian and his daughter coming to Kentucky to bury a crock of gold he has stolen from a leprechaun back in Ireland. Finian believes that he can produce some kind of synergy by getting the gold within close range of Ft. Knox. They end up in a racially mixed Dogpatch named Rainbow Valley, where blacks and whites work side-by-side as tobacco sharecroppers. There is considerable intrigue involving the local racist political hacks, a new stain of mentholated tobacco being developed by a George Washington Carver type (nicely played by Al Freeman Jr.), back taxes on the sharecropping collective, romance, and a leprechaun who is slowly becoming human.
Barbara Hancock, a young but quite accomplished ballet dancer, is fetching as "Susan the Silent" (who dances instead of talking). Coppola adds a lot of nice lyrical moments by showcasing her dancing. It is said that Astaire resented her being cast instead of an older dancer he recommended. They are not paired in any number, a failure conspicuous by its absence.
The widescreen DVD looks great and the Coppola commentary is surprisingly interesting.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
Movie Review: Follow the rainbow
Summary: 4 Stars
Roguish Irishman Finian McLonergan (Fred Astaire) arrives in Rainbow Valley near Fort Knox with his daughter Sharon (Petula Clark) to test out his theory of economics - that if he plants a crock of gold stolen from the leprechauns, it will grow. Unfortunately for his plans, a Leprechaun (Tommy Steele) has followed him to retrieve the gold, a racist senator wants to buy the land he has buried it in and his daughter is accused of witchcraft when an ill-advised wish comes true...
Unlike many of the roadshow musicals of the Sixties, Finian's Rainbow doesn't feel overlong or overblown - despite being shot in 70mm, it keeps the scale small and retains much of the charm of the original show in the process. The direction is energetic and fluid, with some beautiful camerawork and the odd experimental touches - Woody's arrival features similar racing tracking shots to the ones Coppola used in Bram Stoker's Dracula - but the style never takes over. This is certainly considerably lighter on its feet than Coppola's very maudlin One From the Heart and much more involving. There's a sense of fun to Finian's Rainbow that doesn't come over in any of his later films, making it surprisingly enjoyable and hard to dislike.
The score - How Are Things in Glockamora?, That Old Devil Moon, Something Sort of Grandish and Follow the Rainbow - is better than you remember, boasting some very surreal lyrics, and the script is often genuinely witty and always good natured. The racial satire is surprisingly deftly handled considering the similarities to the rather heavy-handed The Watermelon Man: at one point Al Freeman Jr is taught how to shuffle like a black man when employed by the senator (Wynn), who is later turned into a black himself and rejected by his cronies.
Of the cast, bad Oirish accents notwithstanding, only Don Francks fails to engage. A colourless leading man with the look of a badly drawn Gene Kelly crossed with Frederic Forrest, he has a strong voice but ultimately lacks the charisma to carry off the romantic lead - and for someone whose great money-making scheme is to grow mentholated tobacco thus condemning a large number of the inhabitants of Rainbow Valley to lung cancer to appeal in this day-and-age, he needs all the charisma he can get.
Hermes Pan's choreography is adequate to the occasion but not particularly inspired, especially with Astaire's solos. He is not always helped by Coppola's direction, which often breaks the action into different settings, making it hard to maintain continuity in a routine. At other times, he shoots the dancers from the waist up, taking too long to pull back for a full body shot to show the whole body at work. However, Something Sort of Grandish, imaginatively and amusingly shot around a washing line, is beautifully handled, and his use of the Scope frame for The Girl I'm Near is flawless.
The picture quality is clear and crisp, and the [Overture, Intermission and Exit Music have all been retained. Alongside an introduction and commentary by Coppola and the theatrical trailer there's also a half-hour TV broadcast of the film's premiere but not, curiously enough, the short film about the making of the feature that was shot by Coppola's then-protégé, one George Lucas.
Movie Review: I Love "Finian's Rainbow"
Summary: 4 Stars
Movies are to us Americans what opera was to the Italians or what the great nineteenth-century novels were to the English: the most dynamic expression of our culture. Like other art forms, movies have expressed, interpreted, and shaped our values, our interests, and our beliefs.
The movie "Finain's Rainbow" was made in the late 1960s, and is based on a moderately successful but long-forgetten stage musical of the late 1940s. Francis Ford Coppola's brilliant direction brought this tale up to date in a way that resonated with audiences in 1970. The original play was rather daring in its time, combining a direct attack on racism with a lighthearted populist-style socialism. By 1970, when the movie hit the big screen across America, racism was no longer respectable, and the attack on it no longer controversial. Most of the socialist theme in the original was expunged from the movie, and what was left was treated very lightly.
What remains is a delightful(for my taste) fantasy about an Irishman (Fred Astair) who comes to America with his daughter (Petula Clark) in search of a place to bury a pot of gold he has stolen from a Leprechaun in the old country. Fred Astair's character is not quite a con man, and yet not quite of this earth, either. Petula Clark is radient, and Tommy Steele as the leprechaun is a delight. "The Mclonergan theory of economics" as only Fred Astair can tell it is one of the best scenes in any movie, in my opinion.
The anti-racist element in the movie is almost a subplot until the final few minutes, when all the story lines are brought together. Finian finds himself in a sharecropper community in Kentucky, in which a fantasy version of full racial integration is practised. Those of us who saw this movie in 1970 knew very well that no such community really existed; but it encouraged us to ask ourselves, "why not? Can't we do better as a nation?" For me, that was an uplifting message.
The one thing that modern audiences will not relate to is the sharecropper community's goal of achieving prosperity by growing better tobacco. All I can really say in defense of that part of the story is this: I hope audiences today can see the tobacco experiment in the movie as a holdover from an earlier time, and as a metaphor for better community improvement.
Give "Finian's Rainbow" a try. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
Movie Review: Francis Ford Coppala's first musical
Summary: 4 Stars
Coppala was right out of college when he was asked to do "Finian's Rainbow". It had been a big hit on Broadway in the 40's but predated the civil rights movement. Coppala had the task of updating it for 1968.
Fred Astaire is 69 in the title role and this was his last role dancing and singing. This was the first times since the beginning of Astaire's career that he didn't have control over the direction of his musical numbers. Coppala was an inexperienced director and fired Hermes Pan, Fred's chorographer. He admits that it was his fault that Fred's big number in the film didn't come out the way should.
Petula Clark is wonderful as Astaire's daughter. Tommy Steele who was also in "The Happiest Millionare" and "Half a Sixpence" plays a part typical of his personality.
There is very little chemistry between Petula Clark and her love interest, Dan Franck.
PLOT: Finian(Astaire) is an Irishman that steals a pot of gold from Og (Tommy Steele). He heads toRainbow Valley, which is right next to Fort Knox, Kentucky, where he thinks burying the gold will multiply his riches. He meets some people, Woody and Silent Sue, and gives them money to save their land from the bigot senator (Keenan Wynn). In return he wants part of their land to secretly bury the gold. Og follows Finian to get his gold back. He is turning into a mortal because he has lost his pot of gold. Meanwhile, Finian's daughter(Petula Clark) is falling in love with a local, Woody (Dan Franck).
Nicely restored with great special features. Includes a commentary with Coopala that actually has a mini documentry before it. Featurette is the world premere with interviews with the stars.
Movie Review: It ain't Godfather III
Summary: 4 Stars
Having recently seen a broadway revival of Finian's Rainbow (not so good), I have a new appreciation for the film. For a small-budget film adaptation, you could do a lot worse. Astaire is uncharacteristically subtle but nonetheless lends a lot more depth to the character of Finian, originally an Irish caricature with no depth. He was as good an actor as he was a dancer, and his comic timing is flawless. Even in his sixties, the man is a machine.
Coppola's version continues to have a bad reputation, one I assume will probably last forever. Why? Read on:
1) - Negative portrayal of the deep south. The heroes live in a disgusting shantytown, while the evil Senator Rawkins resides in a hellish, antiquated mansion surrounded by dense jungle. I half expected Marlon Brando to wander out with a shaved head. Obviously, Rawkins' estate is meant to exaggerate his backwards thinking, but it comes off as a bit much.
2) - Fred Astaire doesn't dance. Well....who cares? You're missing the point.
3) - The movie is "Marxist". In reality, though, the plot has little to do with politics and more about making fun of hillbilly bigots.
However, none of these reasons merit overlooking the excellent musical score. Each song is beautiful and memorable - which is more than you can say for a lot of musical comedies. The entire cast is great, even the irritating Tommy Steele, whose over-caffeinated mugging is well-suited for a Leprechaun, though not so good in other roles. The movie ended up chopping away a few songs, most notably "Necessity", which actually benefits it, in the long run.