Saturday Night Cinema: Royal Wedding

Royal Wedding (1951), starring the incomparable Fred Astaire and Jane Powell. You know I couldn’t resist ….. after the royal snub of the Obamas 🙂 Way go, O. The dancing is spectacular.

Excerpt of The NY Times review (1951):

Playing a brother-sister dance team that goes to London at royal wedding-time, there to be occupied with romance quite as much as with their musical show, Mr. Astaire and Miss Powell are at their cutest in a ragtag-and-bar-rel-house affair called “How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Loved You When You Know I’ve Been a Liar All My Life.” In this one the couple shimmy-shammy and knock each other—and the audience—dead. Give Mr. Astaire a hunk of rhythm, a straw boater and a girl, and he’s your man.

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Or give him a novelty arrangement and a little space in which to move around and he can make old Terpsichore holler, no, matter how average the song. One “single” he does in a gymnasium, with a hatrack and dumbbells for props, bears the old Astaire trademark, and he likewise makes quite a rib-tickling thing out of dancing on walls and ceiling in another done with trick photography. The “I Left My Hat in Haiti” number, which is the big production blow-out of the film, dressed in hot Caribbean duds and scenery, is a let-down when it finally comes along.

While Miss Powell’s performing as a dancer is mainly that of a little girl stringing along, she turns out the vocals in nice fashion and lends considerable feminine charm. “Too Late Now” is a love song which she sings to Peter Lawford wistfully and “The Happiest Day of My Life” finds her pealing considerable joy to the world. We can’t say too much for her choice of fellows, but she does the best she can with what she has.

Keenan Wynn gets into the picture now and then in the roles of twins, a New York agent and his Anglicized brother, who mainly converse on the transatlantic telephone. The act, done with split-frame photography, is not quite as good as it sounds. As an English show-girl whom Mr. Astaire finds beguiling, Sarah Churchill presents an air of serene detachment, and Albert Sharpe is mildly comical as her pa—her pa, in this case, being a barkeep and not Britain’s ex-Prime Minister. The royal couple, not being under contract to M-G-M, do not appear in the film.

ROYAL WEDDING, story and screen play by Alan Jay Lerner; directed by Stanley Donen; produced by Arthur Freed for Metro-Goldwyn-Maye
Tom Bowen . . . . . Fred Astaire
Ellen Bowen . . . . . Jane Powell
Lord John Brindale . . . . . Peter Lawford
Anne Ashmond . . . . . Sarah Churchill
Irving and Edgar Klinger . . . . . Keenan Wynn
James Ashmond . . . . . Albert Sharpe
Sarah Ashmond . . . . . Viola Roache
Purser . . . . . Henri Letondal
Cabby . . . . . James Finlayson

Click link below to view the film:

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AuntieMadder

13 years ago

OFF TOPIC: This blog site has been increasingly slow in loading, sometimes even locking up part of the way into loading. It’s gotten to where it takes numerous attempts to open the blog and then numerous tries at each blog post before finally loading.
I don’t know if the problem is caused by this site or my computer. Most of the other sites I visit are loading at the same pace and rate of success that they’ve always loaded; one other (Gateway Pundit) is also loading slowly and sometimes locking up, but they’ve recently moved to a new host so it’s impossible for me to say if the problem is on their end or mine.
Am I alone in having problems loading these pages? Is the problem on me end? If so, are there any geeks here with suggestions on how to resolve the problem?

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grungyoldvan

13 years ago

It’s the site.. Pam needs to offload some stuff to a ‘Page 2’

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grungyoldvan

13 years ago

http://lejournaldemontreal.canoe.ca/journaldemontreal/actualites/regional/archives/2010/12/20101218-081400.html
Muslims harrass Montreal shoe shop for selling Israeli shoes
http://vladtepesblog.com/?p=28371
Buy-cott?

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Tom TB

13 years ago

Thanks Pamela; hadn’t seen this in years!

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sean

13 years ago

‘British ‘Muslims to hold anti-Christmas protest. EDL plan carol-singing counter demo: http://s1.zetaboards.com/EDL_The_Forum/topic/4006828/1/

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Peter

13 years ago

What a set of legs, and I don’t mean Fred’s.

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Peter

13 years ago

What a great set of legs, and I don’t mean Fred’s.

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