Royal Wedding

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source: Royal Wedding

All I need to see is Astaire dancing to make anything better. The leading lady was a little annoying, and her voice that was dubbed in for singing was totally different than her own. There is no way to beat the great dancing scenes. Even though Astaire is now dancing with vacuum cleaners.

You think Churchhill's daughter got her start in the biz without popsy's influence? This was not one of Astaire's better films, but nevertheless was fun to watch. I loved the dancing of Jane Powell, but found her voice on the shrill side. Nice outdoor areas used in the filming added much to the picture. As usual, Peter Lawford was a big waste...how'd this guy ever get into movies?

So, basically everybody around the globe knows- and has seen the famous dancing sequence with Fred Astaire dancing on the walls and ceilings. But how many people actually know that, that sequence is from this movie? I'm surprised that a movie with such a famous sequence isn't better known. In essence "Royal Wedding" is your typical MGM musical, with still a couple of extra pluses, that makes this movie distinct itself from the average, formulaic movie musical, from the same time period. Obviously the famous sequence with Fred Astaire dancing on the ceiling is one of them but to me it also was the humor. Musicals really aren't best known for the well placed and original humor but this movie does a great job at providing a couple of genuine good and original laughs. The story is kept simple and formulaic and above all also of course very predictable. The movie doesn't offer an awful lot of surprises but yet the story serves its purpose and that fits the genre just right. There are a couple of great and likable characters in this movie, that help to make the movie an extra joy to watch. Fred Astaire of course steals the show with his acting and dancing but also Jane Powell as his sister was great. Not too happy about the casting of Sarah Churchill (Winston Churchill's daughter). No offense but she just isn't beautiful enough (she has got her daddy's looks, I'm afraid) for her part and also perhaps a tad too old. It just doesn't fit the genre. The musical numbers are all well executed, mainly those by Fred Astaire. The sequences were however a bit too 'stagey' for my taste, although I should admit that the musical genre has just never been my favorite movie genre. All in all an enjoyable to watch typical MGM musical, with a couple of more offerings in it than its fellow genre movies. 7/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

"Royal Wedding" is a great movie for anyone who loves those big MGM musicals of the 40's and 50's and the dancing of Fred Astaire. Of course, the big numbers in this film include Astaire dancing with a hat rack, which only goes to prove he could make any dance partner look good, as well as the famous number where Astaire dances on the walls and ceilings of his London hotel room. The trick here, well known by now, was that the room was actually set up to rotate. What is wondrous about this scene is that Astaire never seems to have any trouble keeping his balance as this rotation is going on. He just looks like someone who is so much in love he is just jumping with joy from floor to wall to ceiling and back. Less mentioned is the number where he dances with Jane Powell on board ship in choppy waters as furnishings roll about, but it is also a charming piece of choreography. The plot is fairly simple. Astaire and Powell play a brother and sister song and dance team, Tom and Ellen Bowen, both of whom claim to be against any long-term romantic entanglement. They are invited to perform in London during the period preceding the wedding of then Princess Elizabeth to Prince Philip. While in England they both fall in love, leading to a happy ending for both but breaking up the partnership in the process. It's rather interesting that art loosely imitated life in this case, since Fred Astaire's long-running dance partnership with his sister Adele was ended when she got married to a member of the English nobility in 1932. It's also strange that this film was actually made four years after the royal wedding took place. By that time the royal couple already had two children. As for good supporting performances, Keenan Wynn is quite funny playing twin brothers who are theatrical agents on opposite sides of "the pond". They can't understand each other during their telephone conversations because, although both are speaking English, they are using the familiar expressions of their respective countries. From a technical standpoint, this film may either be in rather rough shape or completely restored if you see it, since it spent a long time in the public domain before Warner Brothers restored it in 2007. If you have the restored copy, I highly recommend it.

Musicals sort of blend into a blur, especially those built around Fred Astair. All the stories are disposable, and you remember them more or less by who his partner was. This one is different. I does stick to the mature template of how the dances fit in: half the dances are part of a show within a show. The other half spring from the story in that fantastic manner we accept as a matter of narrative convention. The dances, though, some of them are pretty darn memorable. To appreciate this, you need to understand the challenge of filming dance. We have the "old" convention in spots here: the camera is in some sort of theater seat and watches a performance on a stage, sometimes a literal stage. There's nothing cinematic about it: you could see the same thing is a live performance. The challenge is in what to do that works with the dance and at the same time leverages cinema, presumably to engage us. The production team here did some rather amazing things with space. I don't know who to credit, but there's some genius here. The idea is by steps bonding the dance to notions of artificial space, the actual containing space. It starts with a simple device: Fred dancing with a hat rack. Its a strange thing, halfway between being a partner and an interaction with the world. Then on a ship, he and Jane dance on a floor that shifts. The notion of an unstable gravity is a pretty amazing notion because Fred's effects all depend on his relationship to the ground and what's on it. The floor shifts and he accommodates, amid moving pulls, rolling oranges and shifting furniture. Then the most memorable dance sequence shifts this on its head, mastering gravity: he dances in a room starting on the floor. Then dances on the walls and ceiling. The effect is accomplished by having the room imperceptibly rotate and the camera with it. But its an extraordinary achievement the way he plays with it. It isn't as wild as Gene Kelly playing with and in the rain because it is more precise and intellectual. But it is a real thrill. You need to see it. Later, in the stage show, there's an acknowledgment of all this, a production number about place, with a map of a place that turns transparent to reveal the place itself. +++++++ There's a strange background here, the actual royal wedding of the period. The tone of that was supposed to be so obvious and strong that merely being immersed in it would overcome hesitations to wed. Its so flat today it shocks, especially the actual footage of the rather ridiculous pomp. (The woman playing Fred's paramour is Winston Churchill's daughter, an odd combination of mannish face, red hair, terrific legs, a studied grace and little charm. The man playing the beau of Fred's sister was one of Hollywood's most promiscuous empty souls — he married a Kennedy.) Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

Fred Astaire's gravity-be-damned four-wall dance solo was imbued with choreographic wonder and sprinkled judiciously with humor. He did it all because of a woman!!! Tom Bowen is a male dancer who is pure male but the most important woman in his life is not the one who had him defying gravity. It is his sister, Ellen: his equal on the terpsichorean turf. Their Runyonesque number was pitch perfect with lyrical precision provided by Alan Jay Lerner, who obviously spent quality time (physically or spiritually) with Damon Runyon. For the script and acting per se–with Keenan Wynn as a stupendous "double agent" –A Royal Wedding is worth the price of admission. Fred Astaire and Jane Powell give award-winning performances but their dancing puts this film on the top shelf of cinematic history. The hat-rack dance, the turbulent ship dance and–of course–the ceiling dance owe a debt to Ernie Kovacs, the man who dovetailed comedy, art, and special effects before George Lucas was born. Too bad "Kovackian" is such a cumbersome word. A personal aside: I was once invited to Alan Jay Lerner's Park Avenue home. The invitation came from the furniture company whose products Mrs. Lerner had ordered. AJ wasn't home. So be it.

It's hard to pick one of Fred Astaire's movies as a favorite or as his best! But of course Royal Wedding has to hit the top of the classics simply for the famous "dance on the ceiling". Jane Powell plays his sister and does a very nice job, considering she and Fred never practiced any dance routines together before shooting the film! A must-see for Astaire fans, and if you're not a fan, watch this film and you will be!

Jane Powell (as Ellen Bowen) was a surprisingly adept partner for Fred Astaire for those of us who know her best as a brilliant soprano songstress. She kept up with him, step for step. She's probably best known for her fabulous voice as showcased in SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS, but she brought in the wonderful tune, "Too Late Now," here in ROYAL WEDDING. Astaire was his typical debonair self, and his role is reminiscent of that in THREE LITTLE WORDS. The plot of ROYAL WEDDING is easy to follow and serves as a great backdrop for Astaire and Powell and their respective musical talents. And yes, Sarah Churchill is Winston's daughter. Worth seeing more than once.