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:''For an article about the musical stage play, see Finian's Rainbow''.
'''Finian's Rainbow''' is a 1968 American movie musical.
Based on the 1947 stage musical of the same name, the plot is a combination of whimsical fantasy and political satire. It revolves around roguish Irishman Finian McLonergan, who absconds from his native land with a pot of gold secreted in a carpetbag with his daughter Sharon in tow. His destination is Rainbow Valley in the mythical state of Missitucky, where he plans to bury his treasure in the mistaken belief that, given its close proximity to Fort Knox, it will multiply. Hot on his heels is the leprechaun Og, desperate to recover his stolen crock before he turns human. Among those involved in the ensuing shenanigans are Woody Mahoney, a ne'er-do-well dreamer who woos Sharon; his deaf-mute sister Susan, who expresses herself in dance; Howard, determined to grow mentholated tobacco; and bombastic Senator Billboard Rawkins, who wears his bigotry on his shirt sleeves as if it were a badge of honor.
Warner Bros. had optioned the film rights some two decades earlier, and they were on the verge of expiring. With ''Camelot'' having proven to be more costly than anticipated, and its commercial success still undetermined since it had not been released yet, Jack Warner was having second thoughts about another musical project, but when he saw Petula Clark perform at the Coconut Grove in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, he knew he had found the ideal Sharon. He decided to forge ahead and hoped for the best, despite his misgivings about having nearly-novice "hippie" director Francis Ford Coppola at its helm. Although Clark had made many films in the 1940s and 1950s in her native Great Britain, this would be her first starring role in a film in 10 years, and her first film appearance since rising to international fame with "Downtown" four years earlier.
Fred Astaire, whose last movie musical had been ''Silk Stockings'' eleven years earlier, and who had concentrated on his TV specials in the interim, was persuaded, at the age of sixty-nine, to return to the screen to portray the title character. Given his status as a screen legend and to accommodate his talents, the role was given a musical presence it had not had on stage, and he was given top rather than the original third billing. Dressed in a ratty old cardigan sweater instead of white tie and tails and a battered felt hat in place of a topper, Finian is a far cry from the persona Astaire projected as Ginger Rogers' suave dance partner in their many movie musicals.
In the liner notes she wrote for the 2004 Rhino Records limited, numbered edition CD release of the soundtrack, Clark recalls that old-Hollywood Astaire was befuddled by Coppola's contemporary methods of film-making and balked at dancing in "a real field with cow dung and rabbit holes." Although he finally acquiesced to filming a sequence in the Napa Valley near Coppola's home, the bulk of the movie was shot on studio soundstages and the back lot, leaving the finished film with jarring contrasts between reality and make-believe.
A veteran of some two dozen films made in her native Britain, Clark still was nervous about her first Hollywood movie and particularly concerned about dancing with old pro Astaire. He later confessed he was just as worried about singing with her. The film was partially choreographed by Astaire's long-time friend and collaborator Hermes Pan (who was fired by Coppola during filming [1]). ''Finian's Rainbow'' was Astaire's last major movie musical, although he went on to dance with Gene Kelly during the linking sections of ''That's Entertainment, Part 2''.
Clark recalls that Coppola's approach was at odds with the subject matter. "Francis . . . wanted to make it more real. The problem with ''Finian's Rainbow'' is that it's sort of like a fairy tale . . . so trying to make sense of it was a very delicate thing." Coppola opted to fall somewhere in the middle, with mixed results. Updating the story line was limited to changing Woody from a labor organizer to the manager of a sharecroppers' cooperative, making college-student Howard a research botanist, and a few minor changes to the lyrics in the Burton Lane-E. Y. Harburg score, such as changing a reference to Carmen Miranda to Zsa Zsa Gabor. Other than that, the plot remains firmly entrenched in the pre-Civil Rights era.
Preview audiences found the film overly long, and the musical number "Necessity" was deleted prior to its release, although it remained on the soundtrack album.
Harburg and Fred Saidy adapted the screenplay from their original book for the stage musical. The remainder of the cast includes Tommy Steele as Og, Don Francks as Woody, Keenan Wynn as the Senator, and Barbara Hancock as Susan.
Released in major cities as a roadshow presentation complete with intermission, at a time when the popularity of movie musicals was on the wane, the film was dismissed as inconsequential by many critics, who found Astaire's obviously frail and aged appearance shocking and Steele's manic performance annoying. Highly praised by all was Clark, who was nominated for a Best Actress Golden Globe Award, with nominations going to Astaire, Hancock, and the film itself, as well. It was Oscar-nominated for Best Score of a Musical Picture and Best Sound. Harburg and Saidy were nominated for Best Written American Musical by the Writers Guild of America.

Contents

Musical sequences

DVD

External links

Musical sequences

★ Prelude/Look to the Rainbow

★ This Time of the Year

★ How Are Things in Glocca Morra?

★ Look to the Rainbow (Reprise)

★ Old Devil Moon

★ Something Sort of Grandish

★ If This Isn't Love

★ (That) Great Come-and-Get-It-Day

★ When the Idle Poor Become the Idle Rich

★ Rain Dance Ballet

★ The Begat

★ When I'm Not Near the Girl I Love

★ How Are Things in Glocca Morra? (Reprise)

DVD

See also: ''Francis Ford Coppola DVDs''
The film was released in DVD format on March 15, 2005. It includes a full-length track of audio commentary by Coppola, who focuses mostly on the film's shortcomings, and a French soundtrack, with both the dialogue and songs translated. Proficient in the language, Clark was the sole cast member to record the foreign version. Presented in anamorphic widescreen format, the DVD captures all of Astaire's footwork, most of which was missing in the original release.
'Technical Details'

★ 2:35:1 Aspect Ratio - Anamorphic

★ English Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound

★ French Stereo Sound

★ English, Spanish, French Subtitles
'Special Features'

★ Watch ''Finian's Rainbow'' with 'Francis Ford Coppola' (Introduction & Commentary by Coppola)

★ Featurette: ''The World Premiere of Finian's Rainbow''

★ Theatrical Trailer

External links

★

★ Roger Ebert review

★ New York Times review

★ DVD review

★ Movie stills