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Finian's Rainbow (Trivia & Reviews) |
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| | | Because of its satire on racism, it was considered such a hot potato in Hollywood that film studios would not touch it unless they were allowed to change the story. Its original creators, E.Y. Harburg, Burton Lane, and Fred Saidy held out and by 1968 it was able to be filmed with very few changes. However, by 1968 its original message was outdated and its social impact was greatly diminished.
| | Astaire's role was expanded for the movie, allowing him more opportunity to dance, but it was a battle. Astaire: "At one point they didn't want Finian to dance, because he hadn't danced in the stage version. I said, 'Wait a minute, for God's sake. If I don't do a dance, the people will throw rocks at this thing. They'll say, 'What's the matter with him- is he sick or what?' "
| | Astaire performed the role with an Irish brogue and at one point director Coppola sent an emissary to Hermes Pan suggesting, "Do you suppose you could ask Fred to be less- uh, less like Fred Astaire?"
| | | | Hermes Pan makes his only other onscreen appearance (apart from Second Chorus) in this movie. During the "When the Idle Poor Become the Idle Rich" number, while Astaire gets a shave, Pan plays a shoeshine boy who throws a towel in Astaire's face.
| | Barbara Hancock was chosen via a huge nationwide talent search, and while she has exquisite dancing talent, she didn't continue an acting career. Tommy Steele, who was England's most popular rock singer at the time, and Petula Clark, a successful recording star, were obvious bids to increase the box office and appeal to younger fans.
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Reviews Robert C. Roman, Dance Magazine, March 1969: "Francis Ford Coppola's screen version makes the mistake of presenting the story as a superficially light treatment of the solemn problems which exist and hamper harmonious relationships between Blacks and Whites... He also continually reveals his inability to direct this type of musical- failing to keep the whole visual production in tune with the tale's changing moods (and how well this might have been done through dance sequences)... Hermes Pan, the choreographer, has been caught in the same type of unimaginative trap. His ensemble dances are understandably of the kick-up-your-heels variety, but the material given Fred Astaire to express the whimsy of Finian does little to dispel )as it should have) the sleek, fashionable Astaire of the top hat, white tie and tails... Even when it's an Irish jig or a reel, we're still thinking of Flying Down To Rio." Renata Adler, New York Times, 10 Oct 1968: "There is something awfully depressing about seeing... Fred Astaire looking ancient, far beyond his years, collapsed and red-eyed; with film work so shoddy that the camera hardly ever includes his feet when he dances and that people who have been sopping wet in one cut are absent-mindedly dry in the next; with nobody bothering to put the whole cheesy, joyless thing, which is in execrable color... into synch. Voices, Petula Clark's, Tommy Steele's, come from everywhere and nowhere, sometimes catching up with lips, sometimes floating." Murg., Variety, 9 Oct 1968: "Astaire's likeability remains undiminished. His big terp spotlighting... did not reveal much of his famed footwork. Producer Landon explained that screen masking details had to be ironed out." Alaskanray, Epinions.com, 21 Aug 2000: (3/5 stars) Doug Pratt's Laserdisc Review (original release) Doug Pratt's Laserdisc Review (remastered release) Comments? Suggestions? Corrections? Additions? Send us feedback!
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Last Updated on Friday, 06 November 2009 11:13 |
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Trivia and Reviews