Finian's Rainbow (film)

Finian's Rainbow is a 1968 American movie musical directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The screenplay by E.Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy is based on their 1947 stage musical of the same name.

Synopsis

The plot, a combination of whimsical fantasy and political satire, revolves around roguish Irishman Finian McLonergan, who absconds from his native land with a pot of gold secreted in a carpetbag with 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; Howard, determined to grow mentholated tobacco; and bombastic Senator Billboard Rawkins, who wears his bigotry on his shirt sleeves as if it were a badge of honor.

Production notes

Warner Bros. had optioned the film rights some 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 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 a film in 10 years, and her first film appearance since rising to international fame with "Downtown" four years earlier.

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.

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 back lot, 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 was 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.

Preview audiences found the film overly long, and the musical number "Necessity" was deleted prior to its release, although it remained on the soundtrack album.

Principal cast

• Fred Astaire ..... Finian McLonergan
• Petula Clark ..... Sharon McLonergan
• Tommy Steele ..... Og
• Don Francks ..... Woody Mahoney
• Keenan Wynn ..... Senator Hawkins
• Al Freeman, Jr. ..... Howard
• Barbara Hancock ..... Susan the Silent

Principal production credits

• Producer ..... Joseph Landon
• Musical Supervision ..... Ken Darby
• Conductor ..... Ray Heindorf
• Cinematography ..... Philip H. Lathrop
• Art Direction ..... Hilyard M. Brown
• Costume Design ..... Dorothy Jeakins

Musical sequences

• Prelude/Look to the Rainbow
• This Time of the Year
• How Are Things in Glocca Morra?
• Look to the Rainbow (Reprise)
• Old Devil Moon
• Something Sort of Grandish
• If This Isn't Love
• (That) Great Come-and-Get-It-Day
• 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)

Critical reception

Released in major cities as a roadshow presentation 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." She was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, Comedy or Musical, with nominations going to Astaire, Hancock, and the film itself, as well.

It was Oscar-nominated for Best Score of a Musical Picture and Best Sound. Harburg and Saidy were nominated for Best Written American Musical by the Writers Guild of America.

DVD release

The film was released in DVD format on March 15, 2005. It includes a full-length track of audio commentary by Coppola, who focuses mostly on the film's shortcomings, and a French soundtrack, with both the dialogue and songs translated. Proficient in the language, Clark was the sole cast member to record the foreign version. Presented in anamorphic widescreen format, the DVD captures all of Astaire's footwork, most of which was missing in the original release.

Technical Details

• 2:35:1 Aspect Ratio - Anamorphic
• Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound in the English version
• Stereo Sound in the French version
• Spanish subtitles in the English version

Special Features

• Watch Finian's Rainbow with Francis Ford Coppola (Introduction & Commentary by Coppola)
• Featurette: The World Premiere of Finian's Rainbow
• Theatrical Trailer

References

External links

• DVD review
• Movie stills
• Two hour 1968 radio interview with Fred Astaire featuring extensive discussion of Finian's Rainbow