"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.
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.