So, the famous dancing on the ceiling scene was made by rotating the room, with the camera and all the furniture nailed down. Very good.
The only thing I don't understand: why does the photograph of Sara Churchill stay in place? Several times Fred Astaire puts it down, the picks it up, as the room rotates. Why doesn't it fall?
This was made long before the invention of velcro. Glue of some kind? A special notch in the table?
My guess is that the photo is mounted on a magnetic backing.
"You seem a decent fellow. I hate to kill you." "You seem a decent fellow. I hate to die."
It has been pointed out here that - if you watch carefully - filming that rotating set was not done in one take. There are supposedly at least 3 cuts - and maybe 4 - during that sequence.
A cut would allow Fred to pick up and set down an "unfixed" framed portrait. Also notice he tosses his jacket early onto a couch/sofa/something. Director Stanley Donen said in a special features segment on the DVD that the jacket had to be immediately fixed to the furniture during a cut to prevent the jacket from bouncing around the room.
BTW, Donen said that he had the idea for the room set on a rotating wheel. The cameraman (and focus puller?) had to lie on his belly strapped to the set base to keep the DP (and camera) from bouncing around the rotating set while keeping Astaire in frame and in focus. He said Astaire rehearsed his wall-to-ceiling-to...dance for 2 weeks, and the scene took 1 1/2 hours to film.
E pluribus unum