Finian's Rainbow (1968)

 Under the Rainbow Radar
"Finian's Rainbow" was a hallmark of sorts. The stage production was first launched in 1947,but its allegedly socialist themes kept it off the silver screen until 1968. It was Fred Astaire's final film; it was also Francis Ford Coppola's directorial debut. George Lucas was an intern on the set.

"Finian's Rainbow" is about an old Irishman, Finian (Fred Astaire) who finds a pot of gold at the end of the legendary rainbow. Petula Clark stars as Finian's long-suffering daughter. The energetic Tommy Steele is the friendly leprechaun. Finian and his daughter find a multi-cultural commune, Rainbow Valley, where blacks and whites live together in peace. All is well. Until an evil Senator (Keenan Wynn) has his eyes on the land,as well as the pot of gold. The racist Senator is turned black thanks to the daughter's inadvertent wish. Since it is a fairy tale, good triumphs and everyone lives happily ever after.

"Finian's Rainbow" addressed '60s issues such as racism. It was psychedelic with its Rainbow Valley and leading leprechaun man. It has a good, perennial message. There is some strong singing and dancing.

Unfortunately, "Finian's Rainbow" is heavy-handed. The pace lags. It's a sloooow movie. To make matters worse, the songs are forgettable... never a good sign in a musical. Luckily, Coppola grew from this movie. He went over the rainbow... to the land of Sicily and an offer no moviegoer can refuse! March 12, 2008

 Saved the day!!!
DVD
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Very Satisfied Customer March 3, 2008

 Not much of a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow
This is a pleasant enough movie, but Fred Astaire is showing his age. Ptula Clark is OK, but Don Francks is a zero as the romantic lead. The music IS wonderful, and the video quality is good, but the story is pretty hokey. Not on the A list, but it does round out a musical theater collection. January 21, 2008

 Long, but good
This is a too long movie, that needn't be. Don Francks, and Petula Clark are just wonderful, if not exceptional, and really make you regret how few movies they made. The content was of the times, race relations, prejudice, and money, all in a song and wonderful story. However it really didn't need an intermission. ( It's not "Gone With the Wind"). The stars really kept this from being a "Movie of the Week" also director Francis Ford Coppola, showed his talent in this regard. Astaire is what you would expect. A true Star. This is a crossover Musical like the strange "Tommy" and sadly could only expect things like "Zanado" in it's wake. Till 25 year later when "Moulin Rouge" brought the musical back into relevance.


January 21, 2008

 Follow the rainbow
Roguish Irishman Finian McLonergan (Fred Astaire) arrives in Rainbow Valley near Fort Knox with his daughter Sharon (Petula Clark) to test out his theory of economics - that if he plants a crock of gold stolen from the leprechauns, it will grow. Unfortunately for his plans, a Leprechaun (Tommy Steele) has followed him to retrieve the gold, a racist senator wants to buy the land he has buried it in and his daughter is accused of witchcraft when an ill-advised wish comes true...

Unlike many of the roadshow musicals of the Sixties, Finian's Rainbow doesn't feel overlong or overblown - despite being shot in 70mm, it keeps the scale small and retains much of the charm of the original show in the process. The direction is energetic and fluid, with some beautiful camerawork and the odd experimental touches - Woody's arrival features similar racing tracking shots to the ones Coppola used in Bram Stoker's Dracula - but the style never takes over. This is certainly considerably lighter on its feet than Coppola's very maudlin One From the Heart and much more involving. There's a sense of fun to Finian's Rainbow that doesn't come over in any of his later films, making it surprisingly enjoyable and hard to dislike.

The score - How Are Things in Glockamora?, That Old Devil Moon, Something Sort of Grandish and Follow the Rainbow - is better than you remember, boasting some very surreal lyrics, and the script is often genuinely witty and always good natured. The racial satire is surprisingly deftly handled considering the similarities to the rather heavy-handed The Watermelon Man: at one point Al Freeman Jr is taught how to shuffle like a black man when employed by the senator (Wynn), who is later turned into a black himself and rejected by his cronies.

Of the cast, bad Oirish accents notwithstanding, only Don Francks fails to engage. A colourless leading man with the look of a badly drawn Gene Kelly crossed with Frederic Forrest, he has a strong voice but ultimately lacks the charisma to carry off the romantic lead - and for someone whose great money-making scheme is to grow mentholated tobacco thus condemning a large number of the inhabitants of Rainbow Valley to lung cancer to appeal in this day-and-age, he needs all the charisma he can get.

Hermes Pan's choreography is adequate to the occasion but not particularly inspired, especially with Astaire's solos. He is not always helped by Coppola's direction, which often breaks the action into different settings, making it hard to maintain continuity in a routine. At other times, he shoots the dancers from the waist up, taking too long to pull back for a full body shot to show the whole body at work. However, Something Sort of Grandish, imaginatively and amusingly shot around a washing line, is beautifully handled, and his use of the Scope frame for The Girl I'm Near is flawless.

The picture quality is clear and crisp, and the [Overture, Intermission and Exit Music have all been retained. Alongside an introduction and commentary by Coppola and the theatrical trailer there's also a half-hour TV broadcast of the film's premiere but not, curiously enough, the short film about the making of the feature that was shot by Coppola's then-protégé, one George Lucas. December 30, 2007

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