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Finian's Rainbow (film)
Encyclopedia
Finian's Rainbow is a 1968 American musical film directed by Francis Ford Coppola
that stars Fred Astaire
and Petula Clark
. The screenplay
by E. Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy
is based on their 1947 stage musical of the same name
.
with a pot of gold secreted in a carpetbag, plus his daughter Sharon in tow. His destination is Rainbow Valley in the mythical state of Missitucky, where he plans to bury his treasure in the mistaken belief that, given its close proximity to Fort Knox
, it will multiply.
Hot on his heels is the leprechaun
Og, desperate to recover his stolen crock before he turns human. Among those involved in the ensuing shenanigans are Woody Mahoney, a ne'er-do-well dreamer who woos Sharon; his mute sister Susan, who expresses herself in dance
; Woody's good friend and business partner Howard, an African American
botanist
determined to grow mentholated tobacco
, and bombastic Senator Billboard Rawkins, who wears his bigotry
as if it were a badge of honor.
Complications arise when Rawkins, believing there is gold in Rainbow Valley, attempts to seize the land from the people who live there and makes some racial slurs while doing so. Sharon furiously wishes he'd turn black himself—and, because she is in close proximity to the magical pot of gold, which is capable of granting three wishes, Rawkins does exactly that. Sharon is accused of witchcraft
and sentenced to be burned at the stake unless she can make him white again.
To save his daughter, Finian tries to find the pot of gold, unaware Susan has discovered it and hidden it under a bridge. Rawkins eventually meets Og, who quickly realizes what caused the Senator's change in race. Seeing that the change of skin color did nothing to alter his hateful racism
, Og casts a spell to make Rawkins more open-minded.
Sharon and Woody gather in the barn to be married, but the Sheriff, his deputies and the local District Attorney barricade the doors and promise to burn the building down if Rawkins isn't white by sunrise. Og meets with Susan on the bridge under which the gold is hidden and, after passionately kissing her, wishes she could talk. When she begins to speak, Og realizes they're standing above the gold.
For a brief moment he considers using the final wish to retain his leprechaun status and return to the fairy world. Instead he decides he would rather remain human with Susan and wishes for Rawkins to be white once more. Thanks to the now-empty crock helping to put out an accidental fire that was about to consume the barn, Howard's mentholated tobacco experiments become successful, ensuring financial success for all the poor people of Rainbow Valley, both white and black. Sharon and Woody are wed, and bid a fond farewell to Finian, who leaves Rainbow Valley in search of his own rainbow.
had optioned the film rights to the stage musical nearly two decades earlier, and they were on the verge of expiring. With Camelot
having proven to be more costly than anticipated, and its commercial success still undetermined since it had not been released yet, Jack Warner
was having second thoughts about another musical project, but when he saw Petula Clark
perform on her opening night at the Coconut Grove in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles
, he knew he had found the ideal Sharon. He decided to forge ahead and hoped for the best, despite his misgivings about having nearly-novice "hippie" director Francis Ford Coppola at its helm. Although Clark had made many films in the 1940s and 1950s in her native Great Britain, this would be her first starring role in ten years, and her first film appearance since rising to international fame with "Downtown
" four years earlier.
It was known that Dick Van Dyke was considered to play the role of Finian, back in 1965, however, financial problems caused the filming to be postponed, and Van Dyke dropped out of consideration. (Source: "The Films of Fred Astaire")
Fred Astaire
, whose last movie musical had been Silk Stockings
eleven years earlier, and who had concentrated on his TV specials in the interim, was persuaded at the age of sixty-nine to return to the screen to portray the title character. Given his status as a screen legend
and to accommodate his talents, the role was given a musical presence it had not had on stage, and he was given top rather than the original third billing. Dressed in a ratty old cardigan sweater instead of white tie and tails and a battered felt hat in place of a topper, Finian is a far cry from the persona Astaire projected as Ginger Rogers
' suave dance partner in their many movie musicals.
While a construction crew transformed more than nine acres of backlot into Rainbow Valley, complete with a narrow gauge railway, schoolhouse, general store, post office, houses, and barns, Coppola spent five weeks rehearsing the cast, and before principal photography began, a complete performance of the film was presented to an audience on a studio soundstage. In the liner notes
she wrote for the 2004 Rhino Records limited, numbered edition CD
release of the soundtrack
, Clark recalls that old-Hollywood Astaire was befuddled by Coppola's contemporary methods of film-making and balked at dancing in "a real field with cow dung and rabbit holes." Although he finally acquiesced to filming a sequence in the Napa Valley near Coppola's home, the bulk of the movie was shot on studio soundstages and the backlot, leaving the finished film with jarring contrasts between reality
and make-believe.
Clark was nervous about her first Hollywood movie and particularly concerned about dancing with old pro Astaire. He later confessed he was just as worried about singing with her. The film was partially choreographed by Astaire's long-time friend and collaborator Hermes Pan
, who was fired by Coppola during filming. Finian's Rainbow proved to be Astaire's last major movie musical, although he went on to dance with Gene Kelly
during the linking sections of That's Entertainment, Part 2.
Clark recalls that Coppola's approach was at odds with the subject matter. "Francis . . . wanted to make it more real. The problem with Finian's Rainbow is that it's sort of like a fairy tale . . . so trying to make sense of it was a very delicate thing." Coppola opted to fall somewhere in the middle, with mixed results. Updating the story line was limited to changing Woody from a labor organizer to the manager of a sharecroppers' cooperative
, making college-student Howard a research botanist, and a few minor changes to the lyrics in the Burton Lane
-E. Y. Harburg score, such as changing a reference to Carmen Miranda
to Zsa Zsa Gabor
. Other than that, the plot remains firmly entrenched in the pre-Civil Rights
era.
Because preview audiences found the film overly long, the musical number "Necessity" was deleted prior to its release, although the song remains on the soundtrack album. It can also be heard as background music, when Senator Rawkins first shows up in Rainbow Valley in his attempt to buy Finian out.
complete with intermission, at a time when the popularity of movie musicals was on the wane, the film was dismissed as inconsequential by many critics, who found Astaire's obviously frail and aged appearance shocking and Steele's manic performance annoying. In the New York Times, Renata Adler
described it as a "cheesy, joyless thing" and added, "there is something awfully depressing about seeing Finian's Rainbow . . . with Fred Astaire looking ancient, far beyond his years, collapsed and red-eyed . . . it is not just that the musical is dated . . . it is that it has been done listlessly and even tastelessly."
Roger Ebert
of the Chicago Sun-Times
, on the other hand, thought it was "the best of the recent roadshow musicals . . . Since The Sound of Music
, musicals have been . . . long, expensive, weighed down with unnecessary production values and filled with pretension . . . Finian's Rainbow is an exception . . . it knows exactly where it's going, and is getting there as quickly and with as much fun as possible . . . it is the best-directed musical since West Side Story
. It is also enchanting, and that's a word I don't get to use much . . . it is so good, I suspect, because Astaire was willing to play it as the screenplay demands . . . he . . . created this warm old man . . . and played him wrinkles and all. Astaire is pushing 70, after all, and no effort was made to make him look younger with common tricks of lighting, makeup and photography. That would have been unnecessary: He has a natural youthfulness. I particularly want to make this point because of the cruel remarks on Astaire's appearance in the New York Times review by Renata Adler. She is mistaken."
Time Out London calls it an "underrated musical . . . the best of the latter-day musicals in the tradition of Minnelli
and MGM."
Highly praised by all was Clark, whom Ebert described as "a surprise. I knew she could sing, but I didn't expect much more. She is a fresh addition to the movies: a handsome profile, a bright personality, and a singing voice as unique in its own way as Streisand
's." In the Chicago Reader, David Kehr opined she "had every right to a distinguished career in musicals." John Mahoney of The Hollywood Reporter
said she "invites no comparisons, bringing to her interpretation of Sharon her own distinctive freshness and form of delivery." In the New York Daily News, Wanda Hale cited her "winsome charm which comes through despite a somewhat reactive role." Joseph Morgenstern of Newsweek
said she "looks lovely" and "sings beautifully, with an occasional startling reference to the phrasing and timbre of Ella Logan
's original performance." Variety
observed, "Miss Clark gives a good performance and she sings the beautiful songs like a nightingale." Clearly, in the United States at least, Clark was known only as a singer, although she had appeared as an actor in British films since she was a child.
Tommy Steele got plenty of negative reviews, calling his performance of OG as "Overacting", compared to the controlled charm found in the David Wayne in the Broadway version of the musical. Steele's screaming and slapstick performance were considered by many critics to be overdone.
Petula Clark was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy but lost to Barbra Streisand
in Funny Girl
; Fred Astaire was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy but lost to Ron Moody
in Oliver!; and Barbara Hancock was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture but lost to Ruth Gordon
in Rosemary's Baby
.
Ray Heindorf
was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Score – Adaptation or Treatment but lost to Johnny Green
for Oliver! M.A. Merrick and Dan Wallin were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound but lost to Jim Groom for Oliver!
E.Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy were nominated for Best Written American Musical by the Writers Guild of America
.
The film was released on DVD
on March 15, 2005. Presented in anamorphic widescreen
format, it captures all of Astaire's footwork, most of which was unseen in the original release. It has audio tracks in English and French, with both the dialogue and songs translated into the latter language. Proficient in French, Clark was the sole cast member to record the foreign version.
Bonus features include commentary by Francis Ford Coppola, who focuses mostly on the film's shortcomings, The World Premiere of Finian's Rainbow, and the original theatrical trailer.
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
that stars Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
and Petula Clark
Petula Clark
Petula Clark, CBE is an English singer, actress, and composer whose career has spanned seven decades.Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II...
. The screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
by E. Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy
Fred Saidy
Fred Saidy was an American playwright and screenwriter.Born in Los Angeles, California, Saidy began his writing career in 1943 with the screenplay for the Red Skelton comedy I Dood It. The following year, he scripted both the Lucille Ball-Dick Powell feature film Meet the People and the book for...
is based on their 1947 stage musical of the same name
Finian's Rainbow
Finian's Rainbow is a musical with a book by E.Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy, lyrics by Harburg, and music by Burton Lane. The 1947 Broadway production ran for 725 performances. Several revivals and a 1968 film version followed. A Broadway revival ran from October 8, 2009 until January 17, 2010...
.
Plot
A lovable rogue named Finian McLonergan absconds from his native IrelandIreland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
with a pot of gold secreted in a carpetbag, plus his daughter Sharon in tow. His destination is Rainbow Valley in the mythical state of Missitucky, where he plans to bury his treasure in the mistaken belief that, given its close proximity to Fort Knox
Fort Knox
Fort Knox is a United States Army post in Kentucky south of Louisville and north of Elizabethtown. The base covers parts of Bullitt, Hardin, and Meade counties. It currently holds the Army Human Resources Center of Excellence to include the Army Human Resources Command, United States Army Cadet...
, it will multiply.
Hot on his heels is the leprechaun
Leprechaun
A leprechaun is a type of fairy in Irish folklore, usually taking the form of an old man, clad in a red or green coat, who enjoys partaking in mischief. Like other fairy creatures, leprechauns have been linked to the Tuatha Dé Danann of Irish mythology...
Og, desperate to recover his stolen crock before he turns human. Among those involved in the ensuing shenanigans are Woody Mahoney, a ne'er-do-well dreamer who woos Sharon; his mute sister Susan, who expresses herself in dance
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
; Woody's good friend and business partner Howard, an African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
botanist
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
determined to grow mentholated tobacco
Menthol cigarette
A menthol cigarette is a cigarette flavored with the compound menthol, a substance which triggers the cold-sensitive nerves in the skin without actually providing a drop in temperature....
, and bombastic Senator Billboard Rawkins, who wears his bigotry
Bigotry
A bigot is a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices, especially one exhibiting intolerance, and animosity toward those of differing beliefs...
as if it were a badge of honor.
Complications arise when Rawkins, believing there is gold in Rainbow Valley, attempts to seize the land from the people who live there and makes some racial slurs while doing so. Sharon furiously wishes he'd turn black himself—and, because she is in close proximity to the magical pot of gold, which is capable of granting three wishes, Rawkins does exactly that. Sharon is accused of witchcraft
Witchcraft
Witchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...
and sentenced to be burned at the stake unless she can make him white again.
To save his daughter, Finian tries to find the pot of gold, unaware Susan has discovered it and hidden it under a bridge. Rawkins eventually meets Og, who quickly realizes what caused the Senator's change in race. Seeing that the change of skin color did nothing to alter his hateful racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
, Og casts a spell to make Rawkins more open-minded.
Sharon and Woody gather in the barn to be married, but the Sheriff, his deputies and the local District Attorney barricade the doors and promise to burn the building down if Rawkins isn't white by sunrise. Og meets with Susan on the bridge under which the gold is hidden and, after passionately kissing her, wishes she could talk. When she begins to speak, Og realizes they're standing above the gold.
For a brief moment he considers using the final wish to retain his leprechaun status and return to the fairy world. Instead he decides he would rather remain human with Susan and wishes for Rawkins to be white once more. Thanks to the now-empty crock helping to put out an accidental fire that was about to consume the barn, Howard's mentholated tobacco experiments become successful, ensuring financial success for all the poor people of Rainbow Valley, both white and black. Sharon and Woody are wed, and bid a fond farewell to Finian, who leaves Rainbow Valley in search of his own rainbow.
Production
Warner Bros.Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
had optioned the film rights to the stage musical nearly two decades earlier, and they were on the verge of expiring. With Camelot
Camelot (film)
Camelot is a 1967 film adaptation of the musical of the same name. Richard Harris stars as Arthur, Vanessa Redgrave as Guinevere, and Franco Nero as Lancelot. The film was directed by Joshua Logan.-Plot:...
having proven to be more costly than anticipated, and its commercial success still undetermined since it had not been released yet, Jack Warner
Jack Warner
Jack Leonard "J. L." Warner , born Jacob Warner in London, Ontario, was a Canadian American film executive who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California...
was having second thoughts about another musical project, but when he saw Petula Clark
Petula Clark
Petula Clark, CBE is an English singer, actress, and composer whose career has spanned seven decades.Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II...
perform on her opening night at the Coconut Grove in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, he knew he had found the ideal Sharon. He decided to forge ahead and hoped for the best, despite his misgivings about having nearly-novice "hippie" director Francis Ford Coppola at its helm. Although Clark had made many films in the 1940s and 1950s in her native Great Britain, this would be her first starring role in ten years, and her first film appearance since rising to international fame with "Downtown
Downtown (Petula Clark song)
"Downtown" is a pop song composed by Tony Hatch which, as recorded by Petula Clark, became an international hit – No. 1 in the US and No. 2 in the UK – at the end of 1964.-Original recording:...
" four years earlier.
It was known that Dick Van Dyke was considered to play the role of Finian, back in 1965, however, financial problems caused the filming to be postponed, and Van Dyke dropped out of consideration. (Source: "The Films of Fred Astaire")
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
, whose last movie musical had been Silk Stockings
Silk Stockings (film)
Silk Stockings is a 1957 MGM musical film remake of Ninotchka. It was directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starred Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse...
eleven years earlier, and who had concentrated on his TV specials in the interim, was persuaded at the age of sixty-nine to return to the screen to portray the title character. Given his status as a screen legend
Legend
A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...
and to accommodate his talents, the role was given a musical presence it had not had on stage, and he was given top rather than the original third billing. Dressed in a ratty old cardigan sweater instead of white tie and tails and a battered felt hat in place of a topper, Finian is a far cry from the persona Astaire projected as Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....
' suave dance partner in their many movie musicals.
While a construction crew transformed more than nine acres of backlot into Rainbow Valley, complete with a narrow gauge railway, schoolhouse, general store, post office, houses, and barns, Coppola spent five weeks rehearsing the cast, and before principal photography began, a complete performance of the film was presented to an audience on a studio soundstage. In the liner notes
Liner notes
Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...
she wrote for the 2004 Rhino Records limited, numbered edition CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
release of the soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
, Clark recalls that old-Hollywood Astaire was befuddled by Coppola's contemporary methods of film-making and balked at dancing in "a real field with cow dung and rabbit holes." Although he finally acquiesced to filming a sequence in the Napa Valley near Coppola's home, the bulk of the movie was shot on studio soundstages and the backlot, leaving the finished film with jarring contrasts between reality
Reality
In philosophy, reality is the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or might be imagined. In a wider definition, reality includes everything that is and has been, whether or not it is observable or comprehensible...
and make-believe.
Clark was nervous about her first Hollywood movie and particularly concerned about dancing with old pro Astaire. He later confessed he was just as worried about singing with her. The film was partially choreographed by Astaire's long-time friend and collaborator Hermes Pan
Hermes Pan (choreographer)
Hermes Pan was an American dancer and choreographer, principally celebrated as Fred Astaire's choreographic collaborator on the famous 1930s movie musicals starring Astaire and Ginger Rogers.-Early life:...
, who was fired by Coppola during filming. Finian's Rainbow proved to be Astaire's last major movie musical, although he went on to dance with Gene Kelly
Gene Kelly
Eugene Curran "Gene" Kelly was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer...
during the linking sections of That's Entertainment, Part 2.
Clark recalls that Coppola's approach was at odds with the subject matter. "Francis . . . wanted to make it more real. The problem with Finian's Rainbow is that it's sort of like a fairy tale . . . so trying to make sense of it was a very delicate thing." Coppola opted to fall somewhere in the middle, with mixed results. Updating the story line was limited to changing Woody from a labor organizer to the manager of a sharecroppers' cooperative
Cooperative
A cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...
, making college-student Howard a research botanist, and a few minor changes to the lyrics in the Burton Lane
Burton Lane
Burton Lane was an American composer and lyricist. His most popular and successful work is the musical Finian's Rainbow, "the score for which Lane will always be most remembered."-Biography:...
-E. Y. Harburg score, such as changing a reference to Carmen Miranda
Carmen Miranda
Carmen Miranda, GCIH was a Portuguese-born Brazilian samba singer, Broadway actress and Hollywood film star popular in the 1940s and 1950s. She was, by some accounts, the highest-earning woman in the United States and noted for her signature fruit hat outfit she wore in the 1943 movie The Gang's...
to Zsa Zsa Gabor
Zsa Zsa Gabor
Zsa Zsa Gabor is a Hungarian-born American stage, film and television actress.She acted on stage in Vienna, Austria, in 1932, and was crowned Miss Hungary in 1936. She emigrated to the United States in 1941 and became a sought-after actress with "European flair and style", with a personality that...
. Other than that, the plot remains firmly entrenched in the pre-Civil Rights
African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)
The African-American Civil Rights Movement refers to the movements in the United States aimed at outlawing racial discrimination against African Americans and restoring voting rights to them. This article covers the phase of the movement between 1955 and 1968, particularly in the South...
era.
Because preview audiences found the film overly long, the musical number "Necessity" was deleted prior to its release, although the song remains on the soundtrack album. It can also be heard as background music, when Senator Rawkins first shows up in Rainbow Valley in his attempt to buy Finian out.
Cast
- Fred AstaireFred AstaireFred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
..... Finian McLonergan - Petula ClarkPetula ClarkPetula Clark, CBE is an English singer, actress, and composer whose career has spanned seven decades.Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II...
..... Sharon McLonergan - Tommy SteeleTommy SteeleTommy Steele OBE , is an English entertainer. Steele is widely regarded as Britain's first teen idol and rock and roll star.-Singer:...
..... Og - Don FrancksDon FrancksDonald Harvey Francks or Iron Buffalo is a Canadian actor, vocalist and jazz musician.- Life and work :Francks was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is a drummer, poet, native nations champion, motorcyclist, author and peace activist...
..... Woody Mahoney - Keenan WynnKeenan WynnKeenan Wynn was an American character actor. His bristling mustache and expressive face were his stock in trade, and though he rarely had a lead role, he got prominent billing in most of his film and TV parts....
..... Senator Rawkins - Al Freeman, Jr.Al Freeman, Jr.Al Freeman, Jr., M.Ed. is an African-American actor and director....
..... Howard - Barbara Hancock ..... Susan the Silent
- Ronald Colby .... Buzz Collins
- Dolph SweetDolph SweetDolph Sweet was an American actor, credited with nearly 60 television and film roles as well as several roles in stage productions before his death from cancer in 1985.-Biography:...
....Sheriff - Wright King .... District Attorney
- Louil Silas .... Henry
Musical sequences
- Overture
- Look to the Rainbow
- This Time of the Year
- How Are Things in Glocca Morra?How Are Things in Glocca Morra?"How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" is a popular song about a fictional village in Ireland.The music was composed by Burton Lane and the lyrics written by E. Y. Harburg. The song was published in 1946 and introduced in the 1947 musical Finian's Rainbow. There is no actual Glocca Morra in Ireland...
- Look to the Rainbow (Reprise)
- Old Devil MoonOld Devil Moon"Old Devil Moon" is a popular song composed by Burton Lane, with lyrics by E.Y. Harburg for the 1947 musical Finian's Rainbow.-Notable recordings:*Rosemary Clooney - Out Of This World , At Long Last...
- Something Sort of Grandish
- If This Isn't LoveIf This Isn't LoveFor the song by Jennifer Hudson, see If This Isn't Love For the song by The Saturdays, see If This Is Love"If This Isn't Love" is a popular song....
- (That) Great Come-and-Get-It-Day
- Entr'acte
- When the Idle Poor Become the Idle Rich
- Rain Dance Ballet
- The Begat
- When I'm Not Near the Girl I Love
- How Are Things in Glocca Morra? (Reprise)
- Exit Music
Critical reception
Released in major cities as a roadshow presentationRoadshow theatrical release
A roadshow theatrical release was a term in the American motion picture industry for a practice in which a film opened in a limited number of theaters in large cities like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Dallas, and San Francisco for a specific period of time before the...
complete with intermission, at a time when the popularity of movie musicals was on the wane, the film was dismissed as inconsequential by many critics, who found Astaire's obviously frail and aged appearance shocking and Steele's manic performance annoying. In the New York Times, Renata Adler
Renata Adler
Renata Adler is an American author, journalist and film critic.-Background and education:Adler was born in Milan, Italy, and grew up in Danbury, Connecticut. After gaining a B.A. in philosophy and German from Bryn Mawr, Adler studied for an M.A. in Comparative Literature at Harvard under I. A...
described it as a "cheesy, joyless thing" and added, "there is something awfully depressing about seeing Finian's Rainbow . . . with Fred Astaire looking ancient, far beyond his years, collapsed and red-eyed . . . it is not just that the musical is dated . . . it is that it has been done listlessly and even tastelessly."
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
, on the other hand, thought it was "the best of the recent roadshow musicals . . . Since The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music (film)
Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music is a 1965 American musical film directed by Robert Wise and starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. The film is based on the Broadway musical The Sound of Music, with songs written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, and with the musical...
, musicals have been . . . long, expensive, weighed down with unnecessary production values and filled with pretension . . . Finian's Rainbow is an exception . . . it knows exactly where it's going, and is getting there as quickly and with as much fun as possible . . . it is the best-directed musical since West Side Story
West Side Story (film)
West Side Story is a 1961 musical film directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. The film is an adaptation of the 1957 Broadway musical of the same name, which in turn was adapted from William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. It stars Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno,...
. It is also enchanting, and that's a word I don't get to use much . . . it is so good, I suspect, because Astaire was willing to play it as the screenplay demands . . . he . . . created this warm old man . . . and played him wrinkles and all. Astaire is pushing 70, after all, and no effort was made to make him look younger with common tricks of lighting, makeup and photography. That would have been unnecessary: He has a natural youthfulness. I particularly want to make this point because of the cruel remarks on Astaire's appearance in the New York Times review by Renata Adler. She is mistaken."
Time Out London calls it an "underrated musical . . . the best of the latter-day musicals in the tradition of Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli was an American stage director and film director, famous for directing such classic movie musicals as Meet Me in St. Louis, The Band Wagon, and An American in Paris. In addition to having directed some of the most famous and well-remembered musicals of his time, Minnelli made...
and MGM."
Highly praised by all was Clark, whom Ebert described as "a surprise. I knew she could sing, but I didn't expect much more. She is a fresh addition to the movies: a handsome profile, a bright personality, and a singing voice as unique in its own way as Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
's." In the Chicago Reader, David Kehr opined she "had every right to a distinguished career in musicals." John Mahoney of The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
said she "invites no comparisons, bringing to her interpretation of Sharon her own distinctive freshness and form of delivery." In the New York Daily News, Wanda Hale cited her "winsome charm which comes through despite a somewhat reactive role." Joseph Morgenstern of Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
said she "looks lovely" and "sings beautifully, with an occasional startling reference to the phrasing and timbre of Ella Logan
Ella Logan
Ella Logan was a Scottish-born actress and singer, who appeared on Broadway, recorded and had a nightclub career in the United States and internationally.-Early years:...
's original performance." Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
observed, "Miss Clark gives a good performance and she sings the beautiful songs like a nightingale." Clearly, in the United States at least, Clark was known only as a singer, although she had appeared as an actor in British films since she was a child.
Tommy Steele got plenty of negative reviews, calling his performance of OG as "Overacting", compared to the controlled charm found in the David Wayne in the Broadway version of the musical. Steele's screaming and slapstick performance were considered by many critics to be overdone.
Awards and nominations
The film was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy but lost to Oliver!Oliver! (film)
Oliver! is a 1968 British musical film directed by Carol Reed. The film is based on the stage musical Oliver!, with book, music and lyrics written by Lionel Bart. The screenplay was written by Vernon Harris....
Petula Clark was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy but lost to Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
in Funny Girl
Funny Girl (film)
Funny Girl is a 1968 romantic musical film directed by William Wyler. The screenplay by Isobel Lennart was adapted from her book for the stage musical of the same title...
; Fred Astaire was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy but lost to Ron Moody
Ron Moody
Ron Moody is an English actor.- Personal life :Moody was born in Tottenham, North London, England, the son of Kate and Bernard Moodnick, a studio executive. His father was of Russian Jewish descent and his mother was a Lithuanian Jew. He is a cousin of director Laurence Moody and actress Clare...
in Oliver!; and Barbara Hancock was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture but lost to Ruth Gordon
Ruth Gordon
Ruth Gordon Jones , better known as Ruth Gordon, was an American actress and writer. She was perhaps best known for her film roles such as Minnie Castevet, Rosemary's overly solicitous neighbor in Rosemary's Baby, as the eccentric Maude in Harold and Maude and as the mother of Orville Boggs in the...
in Rosemary's Baby
Rosemary's Baby (film)
Rosemary's Baby is a 1968 American horror film written and directed by Roman Polanski, based on the bestselling 1967 novel Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin...
.
Ray Heindorf
Ray Heindorf
Ray Heindorf was an American songwriter, composer, conductor, and arranger.-Early life:Born in Haverstraw, New York, Heindorf worked as a pianist in a movie house in Mechanicville in his early teens. In 1928, he moved to New York City, where he worked as a musical arranger before heading to...
was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Score – Adaptation or Treatment but lost to Johnny Green
Johnny Green
Johnny Green was an American songwriter, composer, musical arranger, and conductor. He was given the nickname "Beulah" by colleague Conrad Salinger. His most famous song was one of his earliest, "Body and Soul"...
for Oliver! M.A. Merrick and Dan Wallin were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound but lost to Jim Groom for Oliver!
E.Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy were nominated for Best Written American Musical by the Writers Guild of America
Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America is a generic term referring to the joint efforts of two different US labor unions:* The Writers Guild of America, East , representing TV and film writers East of the Mississippi....
.
DVD release
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
on March 15, 2005. Presented in anamorphic widescreen
Anamorphic widescreen
Anamorphic widescreen, when applied to DVD manufacture, is a video process that horizontally squeezes a widescreen image so that it can be stored in a standard 4:3 aspect ratio DVD image frame. Compatible playback equipment can then re-expand the horizontal dimension to show the original widescreen...
format, it captures all of Astaire's footwork, most of which was unseen in the original release. It has audio tracks in English and French, with both the dialogue and songs translated into the latter language. Proficient in French, Clark was the sole cast member to record the foreign version.
Bonus features include commentary by Francis Ford Coppola, who focuses mostly on the film's shortcomings, The World Premiere of Finian's Rainbow, and the original theatrical trailer.