''Royal Wedding'' is a 1951 American
musical
Musical is the adjective of music.
Musical may also refer to:
* Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance
* Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...
comedy film directed by
Stanley Donen, and starring
Fred Astaire and
Jane Powell
Jane Powell (born Suzanne Lorraine Burce; April 1, 1929 – September 16, 2021) was an American actress, singer, and dancer who first appeared in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals in the 1940s and 50s. With her soprano voice and girl-next-door ima ...
, with music by
Burton Lane
Burton Lane ( Levy; February 2, 1912 – January 5, 1997) was an American composer and lyricist primarily known for his theatre and film scores. His most popular and successful works include '' Finian's Rainbow'' in 1947 and ''On a Clear Day You ...
and lyrics by
Alan Jay Lerner
Alan Jay Lerner (August 31, 1918 – June 14, 1986) was an American lyricist and librettist. In collaboration with Frederick Loewe, and later Burton Lane, he created some of the world's most popular and enduring works of musical theatre bot ...
. Set in 1947
London at the time of the
wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten, the film follows an American brother-sister
song and
dance
Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...
duo who, while performing, each fall in love — he, with a female dancer, and she, with an impoverished but well-connected nobleman. The film marked Donen's second directorial feature. It was released as ''Wedding Bells'' in the United Kingdom.
''Royal Wedding'' is one of several MGM musicals that
entered the public domain because the studio failed to renew the
copyright registration in the 28th year after its publication.
Plot
The story sees brother and sister Tom and Ellen Bowen as stars of a show ''Every Night at Seven'', a
Broadway success. They are persuaded to take the show to London, capitalizing on the
imminent royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten.
On the ship, Ellen meets and quickly falls in love with the impoverished but well-connected Lord John Brindale. Whilst casting the show in London, Tom falls in love with a newly engaged dancer, Anne Ashmond. Tom assists Anne in reconciling her estranged parents and also asks his agent to locate Anne's supposed fiancé in
Chicago – only to discover that he's married and therefore Anne is free to do what she likes.
Carried away by the emotion of the wedding, the two couples decide that they will also be married that day. Thanks to the resourcefulness of Tom's London agent, Edgar Klinger, who knows someone in the Archbishop's office who can cut through the official red tape and also has a cooperative minister in his pocket, Anne and Tom, and Ellen and John, are in fact married on the royal wedding day.
Cast
*
Fred Astaire as Tom Bowen
*
Jane Powell
Jane Powell (born Suzanne Lorraine Burce; April 1, 1929 – September 16, 2021) was an American actress, singer, and dancer who first appeared in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals in the 1940s and 50s. With her soprano voice and girl-next-door ima ...
as Ellen Bowen
*
Peter Lawford as Lord John Brindale
*
Sarah Churchill as Anne Ashmond
*
Keenan Wynn
Francis Xavier Aloysius James Jeremiah Keenan Wynn (July 27, 1916 – October 14, 1986) was an American character actor. His expressive face was his stock-in-trade; and though he rarely carried the lead role, he had prominent billing in mos ...
as Irving Klinger / Edgar Klinger
*
Albert Sharpe
Albert Sharpe (15 April 1885 – 13 February 1970) was a Northern Irish stage and film actor.
Life and work
Albert Edward Sharpe was born at 8 Goudy's Court in Belfast on 15 April 1885, one of six children born to fishmonger John Sharpe, a Pres ...
as James Ashmond
Production
Stanley Donen and
Jane Powell
Jane Powell (born Suzanne Lorraine Burce; April 1, 1929 – September 16, 2021) was an American actress, singer, and dancer who first appeared in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals in the 1940s and 50s. With her soprano voice and girl-next-door ima ...
were not part of the film's original crew and cast; former dancer
Charles Walters
Charles Powell Walters (November 17, 1911 – August 13, 1982) was an American Hollywood director and choreographer most noted for his work in MGM musicals and comedies from the 1940s to the 1960s.
Early years
Charles Walters was born in Pasad ...
was the film's original director, with
June Allyson
June Allyson (born Eleanor Geisman; October 7, 1917 – July 8, 2006) was an American stage, film, and television actress, dancer, and singer.
Allyson began her career in 1937 as a dancer in short subject films and on Broadway in 1938. She sign ...
as Astaire's co-star.
Judy Garland was then signed as Ellen due to Allyson's pregnancy, over the objection of Walters who had spent a year-and-a-half nurturing her through her previous film, ''
Summer Stock''. Instead of listening to Walters' objection,
Arthur Freed brought in Donen as director; Garland, who during rehearsal worked only half-days, started calling in sick as
principal photography was to begin. Her behavior prompted Freed to replace her with Jane Powell and suspend Garland. According to Garland biographer, Gerold Frank, she was despondent about her career and personal life and she asked MGM to be released from her contract. MGM agreed and the contract that had begun in 1935 was abrogated on September 28, 1950.
Principal photography took place in 1950, from July 6 to August 24; retakes took place in mid-October.
The scene featuring the song "You're All the World to Me" was filmed by building a set inside a revolving barrel and mounting the camera and its operator to an
ironing board which could be rotated along with the room.
Astaire danced in the barrel set as if he really danced on the wall and ceiling. It inspired the
Lionel Richie
Lionel Brockman Richie Jr. (born June 20, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and television personality. He rose to fame in the 1970s as a songwriter and the co-lead singer of funk band the Commodores; writing and recordi ...
song "
Dancing on the Ceiling" with the music video featuring Richie doing the same room dance as a tribute to Astaire.
Notable songs and dance routines
The songs in ''Royal Wedding'' were written by
Burton Lane
Burton Lane ( Levy; February 2, 1912 – January 5, 1997) was an American composer and lyricist primarily known for his theatre and film scores. His most popular and successful works include '' Finian's Rainbow'' in 1947 and ''On a Clear Day You ...
(music) and
Alan Jay Lerner
Alan Jay Lerner (August 31, 1918 – June 14, 1986) was an American lyricist and librettist. In collaboration with Frederick Loewe, and later Burton Lane, he created some of the world's most popular and enduring works of musical theatre bot ...
(lyrics). The dances were choreographed by
Nick Castle.
* "Ev'ry Night At Seven": The film's opening number has Astaire and Powell perform from the "play within a play" Broadway musical that their characters are taking to London.
* "Sunday Jumps": Astaire parodies himself by dancing with a
hatrack. The fame of the dance rests on Astaire's ability to animate the inanimate. The solo takes place in a ship's gym, where Astaire is waiting to rehearse with his partner Powell, who doesn't turn up, echoing Adele Astaire's attitude toward her brother's obsessive rehearsal habits to which the lyrics (unused and unpublished) also made reference. In 1997, Astaire's widow Robyn authorized
Dirt Devil to use a digitally altered version of the scene where Astaire dances with their product in a commercial; Astaire's daughter Ava objected publicly to the commercial, stating that they had "tarnish
dhis image" and it was "the antithesis of everything my lovely, gentle father represented"
* "Open Your Eyes": This
waltz is sung by Powell at the beginning of a romantic routine danced by Powell and Astaire in front of an audience in the ballroom of a transatlantic liner. Soon, a storm rocks the ship and the duet is transformed into a comic routine with the dancers sliding about to the ship's motions. This number is based on a real-life incident which happened to Fred and Adele Astaire as they traveled by ship to London in 1923.
* "The Happiest Days of My Life": Powell's character sings this ballad to Lawford, with Astaire sitting at the piano.
* "How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Love You When You Know I've Been a Liar All My Life" has what is considered the longest title of any song in MGM musical history. For the first time in his career, Astaire casts aside all pretension to elegance and indulges in a comic song and dance
vaudeville-style with Powell. The routine recalls the "A Couple Of Swells" number with
Judy Garland in ''
Easter Parade''. Here, for the second time in the film, he seems to parody Gene Kelly by wearing the latter's trademark straw boater and employing the stomps and splayed strides that originated with
George M. Cohan
George Michael Cohan (July 3, 1878November 5, 1942) was an American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer and theatrical producer.
Cohan began his career as a child, performing with his parents and sister in a vaudev ...
and were much favored in Kelly's choreography.
* "Too Late Now": Powell sings her third ballad, this time an open declaration of love, to Lawford.
* "
You're All the World to Me": In one of his best-known solos, Astaire dances on the walls and ceilings of his room because he has fallen in love with a beautiful woman who also loves to dance. The idea occurred to Astaire back in the 1920s and was first mentioned by him in the MGM publicity publication ''Lion's Roar'' in 1945.
* "I Left My Hat in Haiti": This number, essentially the work of dance director Nick Castle, involves Powell, Astaire, and chorus in a song and dance routine with a Caribbean theme.
Reception
According to MGM's records, the film earned $2,548,000 in the US and Canada and $1,354,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit to the studio of $584,000.
The film was listed by ''
Variety'' as one of the top box office hits of 1951.
Upon its release,
Bosley Crowther in ''
The New York Times'' wrote that the film had "a lively lot of dancing and some pleasantly handled songs"; according to Crowther, "Mr. Astaire has fared better in his lifetime - and he has also fared much worse."
[
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, ''Royal Wedding'' had a 91% approval rating based on 23 reviews. The site's consensus reads: "Vintage MGM musical stuff, characterized by Stanley Donen's fleet direction and some amazing dance performances from star Fred Astaire."
]
Awards and honors
"Too Late Now" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song
The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is presented to the ''songwriters'' who have composed th ...
at the 24th Academy Awards
The 24th Academy Awards were held on March 20, 1952, honoring the films of 1951. The ceremony was hosted by Danny Kaye.
''An American in Paris'' and '' A Place in the Sun'' each received six Oscars, splitting Best Picture and Best Director, r ...
, losing the award to "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening
"In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" is a popular song with music by Hoagy Carmichael and lyrics by Johnny Mercer. It was originally planned to feature it in a Paramount film written for Betty Hutton that never took off, which was to be cal ...
" by Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer
John Herndon Mercer (November 18, 1909 – June 25, 1976) was an American lyricist, songwriter, and singer, as well as a record label executive who co-founded Capitol Records with music industry businessmen Buddy DeSylva and Glenn E. Wallich ...
, which featured in ''Here Comes the Groom
''Here Comes the Groom'' is a 1951 American musical romantic comedy film produced and directed by Frank Capra and starring Bing Crosby and Jane Wyman. Based on a story by Robert Riskin and Liam O'Brien, the film is about a foreign correspondent w ...
''.
The film is recognized by American Film Institute
The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees.
Leade ...
in these lists:
* 2002: AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions – Nominated
* 2006: AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals – Nominated
Home media
In 2007, Warner Home Video released ''Royal Wedding'' in a DVD set as part of its "Classic Musicals From The Dream Factory" series, along with "three fine-but-unexceptional films directed by Norman Taurog" and two other films: '' The Belle of New York'' and '' The Pirate''.[
The film was later featured in an episode of ''Cinema Insomnia''.][ It is also distributed through Corinth Films.][
The songs listed above were published by MGM on an early 10 inch long play record recorded at 33⅓ rpm (MGM E-543).
The song "Sunday Jumps" was referenced by Mel Gibson in '' What Women Want'' and by ]David Byrne
David Byrne (; born 14 May 1952) is a Scottish-American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, writer, music theorist, visual artist and filmmaker. He was a founding member and the principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of ...
in the Talking Heads concert film '' Stop Making Sense''. "Sunday Jumps" was also parodied by Kermit the Frog in '' The Great Muppet Caper''.
References
Notes
Bibliography
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Royal Wedding
1951 films
1951 musical comedy films
1951 romantic comedy films
American musical comedy films
American romantic comedy films
American romantic musical films
1950s English-language films
Films directed by Stanley Donen
Films about weddings
Films produced by Arthur Freed
Films set in 1947
Films set in London
Films with screenplays by Alan Jay Lerner
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
1950s American films