Easter Parade (1948)
Country: US
Technical: Technicolor 103m
Director: Charles Walters
Cast: Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Peter Lawford, Ann Miller
Synopsis:
New York, 1911-12: an established song and dance man is dumped by his partner who wants to go solo and impulsively offers to tutor up the first hoofer that catches his eye. They will make a great partnership, but only if he can set aside his lover's spite long enough to notice.
Review:
Set picturesquely, though with little consequence, around the Easter Day parade, Arthur Freed's colourful production has some good tunes from Irving Berlin, especially Steppin' Out with My Baby (shades of Putting on the Ritz), though rhyming Michigan with 'wish again' was a step too far. Elsewhere the writing is impossibly idealised, with Lawford's character expected to fall in and out of love at the screenwriters' whim, but Garland is a delight and Astaire as polished as always. Standout moments include Jules Munshin as a French waiter giving a mimetic performance of his signature salad preparation and, in the film's most innovative sequence, an over-cranked Astaire leaping about in slow-mo while the chorus dances in tempo behind. A third and final visit to the restaurant, at which the lovers actually consume Munshin's creations, was a fatal oversight.
Country: US
Technical: Technicolor 103m
Director: Charles Walters
Cast: Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Peter Lawford, Ann Miller
Synopsis:
New York, 1911-12: an established song and dance man is dumped by his partner who wants to go solo and impulsively offers to tutor up the first hoofer that catches his eye. They will make a great partnership, but only if he can set aside his lover's spite long enough to notice.
Review:
Set picturesquely, though with little consequence, around the Easter Day parade, Arthur Freed's colourful production has some good tunes from Irving Berlin, especially Steppin' Out with My Baby (shades of Putting on the Ritz), though rhyming Michigan with 'wish again' was a step too far. Elsewhere the writing is impossibly idealised, with Lawford's character expected to fall in and out of love at the screenwriters' whim, but Garland is a delight and Astaire as polished as always. Standout moments include Jules Munshin as a French waiter giving a mimetic performance of his signature salad preparation and, in the film's most innovative sequence, an over-cranked Astaire leaping about in slow-mo while the chorus dances in tempo behind. A third and final visit to the restaurant, at which the lovers actually consume Munshin's creations, was a fatal oversight.
Country: US
Technical: Technicolor 103m
Director: Charles Walters
Cast: Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Peter Lawford, Ann Miller
Synopsis:
New York, 1911-12: an established song and dance man is dumped by his partner who wants to go solo and impulsively offers to tutor up the first hoofer that catches his eye. They will make a great partnership, but only if he can set aside his lover's spite long enough to notice.
Review:
Set picturesquely, though with little consequence, around the Easter Day parade, Arthur Freed's colourful production has some good tunes from Irving Berlin, especially Steppin' Out with My Baby (shades of Putting on the Ritz), though rhyming Michigan with 'wish again' was a step too far. Elsewhere the writing is impossibly idealised, with Lawford's character expected to fall in and out of love at the screenwriters' whim, but Garland is a delight and Astaire as polished as always. Standout moments include Jules Munshin as a French waiter giving a mimetic performance of his signature salad preparation and, in the film's most innovative sequence, an over-cranked Astaire leaping about in slow-mo while the chorus dances in tempo behind. A third and final visit to the restaurant, at which the lovers actually consume Munshin's creations, was a fatal oversight.