Finian (Fred Astaire) and his daughter (Petula Clark) arrive in the fictional Southern American state of Missitucky. There, Finian encounters several problems--including a leprechaun who wants his pot of gold back, a racist senator and the need to marry off his daughter. How all these are worked out are something for you to discover if you decide to see the film."Finian's Rainbow" was a very successful play back in 1947. However, because it directly addressed racial prejudice, studios passed on making a film out of it. Efforts to have the play 'cleaned up' to please a wider (in other words, more prejudiced) audience were in vain, as the playwright refused (justifiably) to sanitize the film. However, by 1968, its themes of racial harmony and bigotry were much more acceptable and timely--and so the film was finally made. In this sense, the film was very timely. HOWEVER, when it came to the music, by 1960s standards it was VERY corny. In particular, the songs sung by the leprechaun were amazingly bad--with some horrible lyrics. But, the bad lyrics weren't confined to his songs but occasionally popped up among other cast members (such as Clark who sang a line that went 'Zsa-Zsa Gabor-ah' and later when Astaire sung about 'dames'). Because of this, a bit of trimming would have greatly improved the film--making it far less dated and silly. Plus, the bad moments really detract from its central message of racial harmony--a laudable theme that occasionally got lose among the silliness. It also meant a few too many songs--a problem that can hurt any musical. Overall, this can truly be called a mixed bag. While it stars Fred Astaire and I LOVE him in films, this just isn't all that great a film. A time-passer--and that's about all--even though it has some nice moments.By the way, for years Fred Astaire was NEVER shown dancing in films unless ALL of him was shown. He felt it detracted from the dancing if he wasn't shown from head to toe. Well, he did NOT negotiate such a contract with the folks making "Finian's Rainbow", as he DOES dance and you don't see him from head to toe in songs such as "The Idle Rich". Perhaps this was due to his age and his slowing down a bit--which might explain why this was his last musical.

While Fred Astaire would dance and sing one more time in That's Entertainment, Part 2, and would give his final acting performance in Ghost Story, in this one would he do all three for the last time. Before I review the movie proper, I have to note that I previously watched this on VHS in a pan-and-scan version that wasn't always flattering. I have now watched a letterboxed version on the Dailymotion site but, unfortunately, the synchronization was often off by several minutes resulting in silence in the last 7. I also watched the last sequence-of several chronological ones uploaded there-on the same site with perfect sync but now it was full screen, the print wasn't as good, and it was interrupted by a commercial. Ugh! Still, despite all that, I managed to mainly understand where certain dialogue exchanges and musical numbers were fit in and highly enjoyed the performances of not only pro Astaire but also Petula Clark, Don Francks, Tommy Steele, Keenan Wynn, Al Freeman, Jr. who does a hilarious spoof of a stereotypical "shufflin' Negro" butler, and Barbara Hancock whose dancing is divine which makes her mostly silent character have a nice personality, among others in the fine cast. Many of Wynn's lines and his changing from white to Negro was quite funny especially since he's not made to look really foolish by doing that appallingly old-fashioned burnt cork appearance of minstrel days but more authentic like though he still looks like a white man pretending to be black. The songs, by E.Y. Harburg and Burton Lane, are fun and romantic and pleasingly sung by the cast. Perhaps the story, a mix of blarney, whimsy, and social satire, dates it in modern times but it's still entertaining enough. And it's wonderful seeing Astaire give it one more try in his old age. So on that note, I recommend Francis Ford Coppola's Finian's Rainbow. P.S. It's interesting to note for "Dallas" fans that two actors that played Digger Barnes were involved in different productions of this musical: Wynn-the second Digger-here and David Wayne-the first one-as Og in the original Broadway version for which he won a Tony. P.P.S. I just finished the other sequence of uploaded videos I mentioned on DailyMotion. Enjoyed it more despite the lesser print, no letterboxing, and the interrupted commercials.

The cynical world of the late 60's didn't really want the number of sweet movie versions of Broadway musicals that they were producing, and "Finian's Rainbow" was no exception. While it may not have been an absolute disaster at the box office (and broke Warner Brothers the way "Hello, Dolly!" did 20th Century Fox), it wasn't the hit the studio must have expected. However, it is still a fabulous movie and holds up a lot better than some of the film versions of shows released during this time.Take a look at Fred Astaire while he dances to "Look to the Rainbow" with a group of kids he meets in Rainbow Valley, located near Fort Knox where his Irish character has come to bury a pot of gold he has stolen from the leprechaun, Og (Tommy Steele). Astaire, then 69, starts off slow, and as the music pumps up begins to swing his bag around, lifting the bag high up in the air, twisting and turning as if he was a 20-year old. This is a rare moment in a movie where you want to start cheering with joy as a living legend shows what he's made of and the results of the discipline he's held onto for over half a century. Even 8 years later, dancing with Gene Kelly in "That's Entertainment Part II", Mr. Astaire still could move better than most people half his age. While he's top billed (and definitely the lead, as the character is the film's protagonist), the bulk of the movie's running time goes to his on-screen daughter, Sharon (played beautifully by Petula Clark) and the leprechaun, Og. Tommy Steele is a performer who is not for everybody's taste, and some of his character's humour seems to be really outdated. But overall, he's quite likable. In regards to Clark, what other singer/actress in 1968 could have done this role? Shani Wallis, perhaps, but Clark proves here she is more than a singer and brings her acting roots (she was a star in British films in the 1950's) to American audiences. When she breaks out into "How Are Things in Glocca Mora?", she gets the audience in the palm of her hand. And getting to sing the beautiful "Old Devil Moon" with her on-screen love interest, Woody (a slightly wooden Don Francks), she holds onto them.Most of the Broadway score is intact, save "Necessity", and is sung beautifully. Some people may find offense in the racist character Keenan Wynn plays, but he's played as a parody of real-life racists to show how ridiculous they are. Try not to laugh as the black scientist (Al Freeman Jr.) slowly shuffles towards Wynn with his bromo seltzer after Wynn's right hand man tells Freeman he doesn't shuffle enough like the old fashioned black servants they were used to. Wynn's agony and Freeman's glee are a joy to behold. In this storyline, I was slightly disappointed by the fact that Wynn's character, who is wizened up after briefly being turned into a black man, doesn't turn around and fire the bigoted staff he controls once he gains true wisdom and looses his prejudices. "The Begat" (Wynn's song with the black gospel singers he meets up with) is a true show-stopper, even though it really doesn't move the plot forward at all.Sadly, a wonderful Broadway revival only a few years ago didn't catch on with audiences even though critics loved it, but this film is as faithful a record as Hollywood could possibly do. I think Francis Ford Coppolla did an amazing job directing this film, and should be proud of his accomplishments. It is beautiful to look at, wonderful to listen to, and sentimental in the way it utilizes the magnetic Astaire almost 50 years after his Broadway debut.

The 60s were a strange time for cinema – a flourishing of surreal, psychedelic, political and often pretentious film-making. And yet the figures and ideals of the previous generation – Hollywood's golden age – were still around, and neither had they been totally forgotten by the younger generation. Finian's Rainbow was quite literally a remnant from that bygone era, having been an acclaimed stage musical in the 1940s. Had it not been for its controversial subject matter it would probably have been produced for screen in the 50s. As it was, the eventual film adaptation found itself an old-time song-and-dance show in an era where the musical had become something very different indeed.In a way Finian's Rainbow was always a mix-and-match musical. The E.Y. Harburg-Burton Lane score blends Broadway brass with Irish jigs and occasionally gospel to surprising success. The story also places old-world folklore alongside contemporary racial issues, in what is a sometimes awkward but generally passable modern-day fairytale. Aside from anything else, the Lane melodies are of considerable beauty and the Harburg lyrics witty enough that it makes a broadly appealing and timeless package. Fans of the inventive wordplay in the numbers from Wizard of Oz, which were also penned by Harburg, will appreciate such clever twists as "Make him a better person… not a worse 'un" Harburg even reuses the word "individdle", here rhyming it with fiddle, having rhymed it with riddle in Oz.Another relic of the old days appears in the form of Fred Astaire as the titular Finian. Astaire may be lacking his cane and topper, he may be showing the signs of his age a little, and his accent may be about as authentically Irish as a gift-shop Shillelagh – but it's still the same old Fred, full of the effortless dance-steps and easygoing charm that won over audiences thirty-five years earlier. It's a real delight to see him here, partly because his endearing demeanour is so reassuringly familiar, and yet he still makes an honest attempt to deviate from his regular persona to create this crusty yet lovable old Irishman. Representing the new is a fresh-faced Tommy Steele, playing the leprechaun Og. A certain proportion of Steele's performance, say 10%, is pure brilliance. Unfortunately the remaining 90% is pure annoyance, as Steele grins and capers his way maddeningly through some disappointingly flat renditions of the Harburg-Lane numbers. Still, he does appear to have struck some kind of unlikely rapport with Astaire, and their scenes together are among the most brightly comical.The director was from the young side of the fence. Francis Ford Coppola was a graduate of Roger Corman's schlock factory, and this was his first big-budget assignment. Coppola had already demonstrated himself to be a director who took a detached and distant view of things, often keeping his camera high above the action or peeping from amongst foreground foliage. Oddly enough this sets him up well for the light and abstract world of the musical, in which the broad canvas, rich detail and ensemble are more important than the intense close-up or the dramatic long take. Coppola shows real sensitivity to the music, keeping rhythms going with natural-looking background movement – check out the way the crowd shifts behind Petula Clark and Don Francks during "Look to the Rainbow". He also uses his harmonious technique to draw attention to the lyrics, for example having the camera pan up to the heavens on the line "Skies could be so bluish blue" in "Something Sort of Grandish".The conventions of the time and the sensibilities of the young production team have certainly left their mark on Finian's Rainbow. There are many thinly-veiled references to hippy and protest culture, with the "tobacco"-growing enterprise, a business-like police force and even a sit-down, in a reasonable attempt to make this a musical equivalent of In the Heat of the Night. However the difference between the old and the new is too stark for them to fuse. Coppola's penchant for realism results in some stunning outdoor photography, but this only grates all the more with the woefully fake-looking studio "forest", the like of which would now only be seen in a kid's TV show. Most of the components are glorious, but as a whole it is occasionally like watching two separate films spliced together.However, Finian's Rainbow is at least self-aware enough to realise that it has the opportunity to be a respectful homage to the classic musical, and never descends into a roughshod "update". The most profound and emotionally stirring aspect of the picture is that Astaire evidently knew it would be his last appearance as a dancer. Coppola surely knew it too, and the tender staging of Astaire's final scene is among the most poignant moments of self-reference in movie history.