Finian's Rainbow (1968)

★ 5.9 2h 25m IMDb

Fantasy Romance Family

An Irishman and his daughter arrive in the American South with a stolen pot of gold, hoping to make their fortune. Pursued by a leprechaun desperate to recover his treasure, they become entangled in a battle over land, love, and prejudice in Rainbow Valley—where the gold’s magic turns wishes, and lives, upside down.

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Cast

Fred Astaire as Finian McLonergan Died 1987 · Omaha, Nebraska, USA Fred Astaire (May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, singer, actor and choreographer. He is widely regarded as the most influential dancer in the history of film. Born as Frederick Aust...

Petula Clark as Sharon McLonergan Age 93 · Ewell, Surrey, England, UK Petula Clark, CBE (born 15 November 1932) is an English singer, actress, and composer whose career has spanned seven decades. Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during W...

Tommy Steele as 'Og' the Leprechaun Age 89 · Bermondsey, London, England, UK From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Tommy Steele OBE (born Thomas William Hicks, 17 December 1936, Bermondsey, London), is an English entertainer. Steele is widely regarded as Britain's first teen...

Don Francks as Woody Mahoney Died 2016 · Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada Don Harvey Francks (February 28, 1932 – April 3, 2016), also known by his stage name Iron Buffalo, was a Canadian actor, musician and singer..

Keenan Wynn as Senator Billboard Rawkins Died 1986 · New York City, New York, USA Francis Xavier Aloysius James Jeremiah Keenan Wynn (July 27, 1916 – October 14, 1986) was an American character actor. His expressive face was his stock-in-trade; and though he rarely carried the lead...

Director Francis Ford Coppola

Cast Fred Astaire, Petula Clark, Tommy Steele, Don Francks, Keenan Wynn, Barbara Hancock, Al Freeman Jr., Ronald Colby, Dolph Sweet, Wright King

Wuchak 7/10 Sep 20, 2024

**_Amusing late 60’s musical with dynamic performances by the cast_**

An Irish father and daughter come to America and settle a couple of miles from Fort Knox in Kentucky. As Sharon (Petula Clark) falls for the community’s returning prodigal son (Don Francks), Finian (Fred Astaire) deals with a leprechaun (Tommy Steele) that desperately needs the pot of gold he “borrowed” while a mute dancing girl catches the leprechaun’s eye (Barbara Hancock).

"Finian’s Rainbow" (1968) is a fun musical based on the 1947 Broadway play, helmed by Francis Ford Coppola after proving his mettle with “You’re a Big Boy Now.” Although overlong, it’s an energetic mix of Elvis’ “Follow that Dream,” Astaire musicals and “The Wizard of Oz.” The above-noted cast members are all highlights, along with Keenan Wynn as the racist Senator and Al Freeman Jr as the research botanist. Astaire was 68 during shooting while Petula was 34; Franks was 35 (but looked older) while dancer Barbara Hancock was only 17. Speaking of the latter, she shines as she frolics about doing flips and what have you.

Someone criticized that the movie borrowed too many Hippie elements from the musical “Hair,” but this is totally bogus seeing as how the film started shooting (with a finished script) in late June, 1967, and "Hair" didn't debut off-Broadway until four months later. It didn’t make it to Broadway until 1968 while the movie version came out in 1979. No doubt the scriptwriters & Coppola naturally tried to make the 1947 musical more relevant to the mid-60s, but this had zero to do with ripping off "Hair." Personally, I didn't perceive much if any "Hair"-like elements and, honestly, it could easily fit the time-frame of the late ’40s.

Wynn’s character was inspired by real-life Senator Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi, a Democrat, who died seven months after the musical debuted. Film studios wouldn’t touch it due to the satirical bits pertaining to racism (like the Senator amusingly morphing into a black man); that is, unless they could change the script, which the writers wouldn’t allow. By the mid-60s, however, the time was right.

Coppola had nothing to do with the cutting off of Astaire's feet during his dancing scenes. After shooting had been done in 35mm, Warner Brothers chose to convert the movie to the wider 70mm and sell it as a “preserved-ticket roadshow attraction,” which was achieved by cropping off the tops and bottoms of the picture frame. Unfortunately, this included some shots of Astaire's footwork, which I didn't even notice while watching (in other words, it's a nothing burger).

This was Astaire’s last musical.

It runs 2 hours, 25 minutes, and was shot on studio sound-stages and the back lot at Warner Brothers Burbank Studios and Walt Disney's Golden Oak Ranch, as well as Potrero Valley, Thousand Oaks, although one sequence was shot in Napa Valley near Coppola's home, north of Oakland, as well another west of there in Bodega Bay. The opening includes scenic shots of iconic spots in the USA (with stand-ins for Astaire and Clark).

GRADE: B