calvinnme "Royal Wedding" is a great movie for anyone who loves those big MGM musicals of the 40's and 50's and the dancing of Fred Astaire. Of course, the big numbers in this film include Astaire dancing with a hat rack, which only goes to prove he could make any dance partner look good, as well as the famous number where Astaire dances on the walls and ceilings of his London hotel room. The trick here, well known by now, was that the room was actually set up to rotate. What is wondrous about this scene is that Astaire never seems to have any trouble keeping his balance as this rotation is going on. He just looks like someone who is so much in love he is just jumping with joy from floor to wall to ceiling and back. Less mentioned is the number where he dances with Jane Powell on board ship in choppy waters as furnishings roll about, but it is also a charming piece of choreography.The plot is fairly simple. Astaire and Powell play a brother and sister song and dance team, Tom and Ellen Bowen, both of whom claim to be against any long-term romantic entanglement. They are invited to perform in London during the period preceding the wedding of then Princess Elizabeth to Prince Philip. While in England they both fall in love, leading to a happy ending for both but breaking up the partnership in the process. It's rather interesting that art loosely imitated life in this case, since Fred Astaire's long-running dance partnership with his sister Adele was ended when she got married to a member of the English nobility in 1932. It's also strange that this film was actually made four years after the royal wedding took place. By that time the royal couple already had two children. As for good supporting performances, Keenan Wynn is quite funny playing twin brothers who are theatrical agents on opposite sides of "the pond". They can't understand each other during their telephone conversations because, although both are speaking English, they are using the familiar expressions of their respective countries.From a technical standpoint, this film may either be in rather rough shape or completely restored if you see it, since it spent a long time in the public domain before Warner Brothers restored it in 2007. If you have the restored copy, I highly recommend it.

TheLittleSongbird Royal Wedding may not be one of the classic musicals and everybody involved have been in and done better things, but any fans of great choreography and dancing and Fred Astaire will find plenty to like about it. It does have a good shortcomings, that are thankfully outweighed by the many things that are delightful.Starting with what didn't come off so well, the story is as thin as a wafer and occasionally loses momentum when there's no singing or dancing. The script is very commonplace, and while it mostly flows well, reads well tonally and has entertaining moments some of the comic moments fall limp and it's cringe-worthingly stereotypical in places(i.e. Keenan Wynn's slang). The songs and choreography are top notch, but the (slightly) clumsily staged finale was an exception. Two performances don't work. Peter Lawford has to work with a dully written character that often felt incidental to the plot, and he brings very little personality or charm to it. Even worse is Sarah Churchill, she is incredibly wooden here and doesn't ever look comfortable with what she's given. Her chemistry with Astaire completely lacks warmth, and veers on non-existent on occasions.The production values are very colourful however, not quite lavish but very beautiful nonetheless, and the photography shows adept technical skills and very good attention to detail. The songs are great, with three being particularly memorable. One is the Oscar-nominated Too Late Now, which has a lot of emotional resonance and is performed with just as much by Jane Powell(though maybe Judy Garland may have given it more heft if she was cast). Two is How Could You Believe Me..., which benefits from some of Lerner's funniest and cleverest lyric writing and a genuinely easy-going natural chemistry between Astaire and Powell. Last is the infectiously catchy I Left My Hat in Haiti. The choreography is even better, there is so much energy and sparkle to it and the two highlights both feature Astaire and are among his best and most iconic. One being Sunday Jumps, with the most inventive use of a duet with a hat-rack you'll ever find in a film, and the other being his dancing on the walls and ceiling in his hotel room in You're All the World to Me which is the epitome of jaw-dropping.Royal Wedding may not be perfect in the writing department, but it's not too slow-going(even those bits lacking momentum don't hurt the film that badly) and has an endearingly light-footed, good-humoured(though not always) and warm-hearted quality, in a way also that often entertains and never talks down. So while there are flaws in the writing, the spirit and tone are just right. The characters are not too original and Lawford and Churchill's are not interesting at all, but the rest of the characters are very likable and engaging. Stanley Donen's direction is very accomplished technically and in terms of pacing and balancing everything is very assured also. The performances on the whole are fine, Keenan Wynn is amusing and Jane Powell is a more than worthy partner for Astaire and plays her role with plenty of attractive spunk and graceful charm. But it is Astaire who is the main reason to see the film, he was one of the dance world's greatest and one of the all-time greats at interpreting songs in musicals. While he didn't have the best voice in the world, though it was still an above-pleasant one, his dancing is masterful and he exudes complete confidence.Overall, has shortcomings and falls short of being great(like it could have been considering it had Astaire and was directed by Donen). But these shortcomings are far outweighed by the good things, and the good things are delightful and a good many. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Dave from Ottawa In the decade following his triumphal comeback in 1948's Easter Parade, Fred Astaire played a succession of slight variations on essentially the same character: a lifelong bachelor and a successful Broadway hoofer putting on a show, who finds time for romance with a woman half his age. Here, he and Jane Powell play a brother-sister song and dance act who separately find romance while on tour in London. The parallel romantic story lines are pretty tame and familiar stuff, and anyway, this sort of movie flies or fails on its musical numbers and this movie has a few famous ones. Fred does an elaborate dance number using a hat rack for a partner when his sister fails to show up for a shipboard rehearsal; the two dance on a rocking ship to comedic effect in a parallel to an actual event in Astaire's life; and Astaire dances on the walls and ceiling of his hotel room in the most famous number in the movie. The latter was a technical marvel at the time, requiring the cameras and crew to be bolted to a rotating frame which moved with the room as it rotated, giving the illusion that the room and camera were standing still on the ground as Astaire went up the walls and across the ceiling! A few of the stage numbers are pretty good, too, although the film loses momentum when the dancing stops. Jane Powell holds her own alongside Astaire in their numbers together, although be warned: her song numbers come from the Jeanette MacDonald school of film vocals and can leave your ears ringing from their shrillness. Enjoy the production numbers and don't expect much in between and you will not be disappointed.

ryancm ROYAL WEDDING has been finally been remastered after the terrible public domain copy that's been out for years. An thank goodness, as this is one of Freds best. Cute story of brother and sister act who get caught up in nice romantic plots. This movie is highly underrated and should be seen by every musical lover. All the songs fit well into the story, even though the numbers within the show don't make sense. What is the show about, anyway? No matter. That's not the point. Fred is always great with no exception here. The big surprise is Jane Powell. She's terrific and it's her best film. Wonderful voice and her dancing is top notch. Watch them especially in HOW COULD YOU BELIEVE ME....number. Sensational. People have been very critical of Sarah Churchill. She was a good co-star for Fred as she was more his age. If she seemed a bit stiff perhaps that's the way she was directed. She was English and the English are very cool and collect. She reminded me a bit of Deborah Kerr. Anyway, she was just fine in her limited role. Peter Lawford, was...well Peter Lawford. Keenan Wynn was his usual self in his upteenth supporting role. I think he made more movies than any other actor at MGM. The DVD has two wonderful specials, an interview with Stanley Donnen and the casting of Ellen in the film. I know Judy Garland was supposed to have been Fred's sister, but to tell you the truth, as good as Garland was, she would not have been right for this role. I'm sure she was fired for good reasons. Now I'm a Judy Garland fan, but after SUMMER STOCK, she was through, and rightly so. The only drawback to this terrific musical is that the use of rear projection is quite jarring. Too bad they didn't make a trip to good old London. Regardlaess, this is a great, great show and don't miss it.