Every night at seven, brother and sister Broadway team Fred Astaire and Jane Powell (who are 30 years apart in age!) wow the audiences with their magical chemistry. Now, with the royal wedding gaining worldwide press in London, Fred and Jane are booked there in their latest show and find romance among the festivities. They are so accustomed to working together that the idea of breaking up is a difficult thought to consider.
An enjoyable show biz musical originally created for Fred and June Allyson (and later Fred and Judy Garland), it ended up being the gorgeous Ms. Powell who slugged Astaire around in the unforgettable comedy number, "How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Loved You When You Know I've Been a Liar All My Life?". (I'd like to see how they fit that onto sheet music!) Powell's daintiness disappears in her black wig, Jersey accent and gum-chewing while saying lines like "You used to treat me like a high class dame" (teeth clenched of course). Then there's their dance on a rocking cruise ship crossing the Atlantic where everything but the ship's wheel gets into the way of their routine. And of course, don't forget Fred looking for his hat in Haiti where none of the chorus people playing Haitian natives are black.
So there's a great deal of minor things to gripe about here, but when you've got Fred dancing on the ceiling while singing "You're all the World to Me" (a song which sounds amazingly like "I Want to be a Minstrel Man" from the Eddie Cantor musical "Kid Millions"), you have a moment that in 1951 you know audiences were buzzing about even when they saw the original trailer before the film's release.
The funniest bit though comes from Keenan Wynn in a dual role as Astaire and Powell's American agent and his British twin brother, their split screen phone conversations as funny as Ethel Merman's conversations with the unseen Harry Truman in "Call Me Madam". This is without a doubt one of Wynn's best performances, stealing every moment he is on screen.
As for Sarah Churchill as Astaire's love interest, she only dances with him briefly in one audition sequence, and comes off rather ordinary, moments of charm coming through here and there. Peter Lawford's obvious playboy love interest for Powell is barely explored, one sequence in an old British mansion giving you a glimpse into his family struggles which is never explored. As for the royal wedding itself, you definitely see the procession, but there is actually never any indication of who it is, the assumption being the then Princess Elizabeth who had married a few years before and by now was the mother of two children.
An enjoyable show biz musical originally created for Fred and June Allyson (and later Fred and Judy Garland), it ended up being the gorgeous Ms. Powell who slugged Astaire around in the unforgettable comedy number, "How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Loved You When You Know I've Been a Liar All My Life?". (I'd like to see how they fit that onto sheet music!) Powell's daintiness disappears in her black wig, Jersey accent and gum-chewing while saying lines like "You used to treat me like a high class dame" (teeth clenched of course). Then there's their dance on a rocking cruise ship crossing the Atlantic where everything but the ship's wheel gets into the way of their routine. And of course, don't forget Fred looking for his hat in Haiti where none of the chorus people playing Haitian natives are black.
So there's a great deal of minor things to gripe about here, but when you've got Fred dancing on the ceiling while singing "You're all the World to Me" (a song which sounds amazingly like "I Want to be a Minstrel Man" from the Eddie Cantor musical "Kid Millions"), you have a moment that in 1951 you know audiences were buzzing about even when they saw the original trailer before the film's release.
The funniest bit though comes from Keenan Wynn in a dual role as Astaire and Powell's American agent and his British twin brother, their split screen phone conversations as funny as Ethel Merman's conversations with the unseen Harry Truman in "Call Me Madam". This is without a doubt one of Wynn's best performances, stealing every moment he is on screen.
As for Sarah Churchill as Astaire's love interest, she only dances with him briefly in one audition sequence, and comes off rather ordinary, moments of charm coming through here and there. Peter Lawford's obvious playboy love interest for Powell is barely explored, one sequence in an old British mansion giving you a glimpse into his family struggles which is never explored. As for the royal wedding itself, you definitely see the procession, but there is actually never any indication of who it is, the assumption being the then Princess Elizabeth who had married a few years before and by now was the mother of two children.