Audience Rating: G (General Audience) Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9786300269552 Format: Color, Dolby, NTSC ISBN: 6300269558 Label: Warner Home Video Manufacturer: Warner Home Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Warner Home Video Release Date: April 01, 1992 Running Time: 141 minutes Studio: Warner Home Video Theatrical Release Date: October 09, 1968 Sales Rank: 14719
Amazon.com: A funny thing happened to Finian's Rainbow in between its debut as a Broadway musical in 1947 and its appearance as a film in 1968. After 21 years, its theme of racial tension in the American South was no longer cutting edge, and the fact that its heroes are a group of sharecroppers called the Rainbow Valley Tobacco Cooperative dates it even further. Add a number of subplots and the heavy hand of a 29-year-old Francis Ford Coppola directing his first and only musical, and the two-and-a-half-hour running time feels bloated. Hermes Pan (best known for the classic Astaire-Rogers movies) is credited with choreographing the overbusy musical numbers, but he was reportedly overruled by Coppola at every turn. Still, there is a lot to enjoy in this movie, most notably Fred Astaire in his last lead role in a musical. Fred plays Finian McLonergan, an Irishman who has traveled to America in hopes of planting a pilfered pot of gold near Fort Knox and watching it grow. Even at 69, Fred shows he is still capable of a sprightly step and warbling "Look to the Rainbow." Another plus is the casting of '60s pop icon Petula Clark as his daughter, as she sings with an unaffected loveliness. Finally, the score by Burton Lane and E.Y. Harburg includes two of the best Broadway songs ever written--"Old Devil Moon" and "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?"--as well as the comic ditty "When I'm Not Near the Girl I Love." --David Horiuchi
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Pure Gold
This DVD was fun to watch. Fred Astaire does some fun dancing and
Petula Clark sings her blarney stone off.
Tommy Steele, steals the movie though. He is a crack up to watch.
Keenan ... Read More
Rating: - Great for the family!
I loved this movie growing up as a child and wanted to get some movies that I thought my children would enjoy that didn't have inappropriate items in them. They loved them. Want some family time pop some ... Read More
Rating: - 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 ... Read More
Rating: - Saved the day!!!
DVD
I had borrowed the movie, Finian's Rainbow from a former employer. I've since changed jobs and lost touch when my friend called and inquired about the movie. I had donated old VHS movies to the Rest ... Read More
Rating: - 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 ... Read More
- Pure Gold
- Under the Rainbow Radar
- Not much of a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow