What's wrong with Finian's Rainbow?

I liked this movie for lots of reasons. I love Fred Astaire, and I thought the whole final scene was so perfect as his exit from musicals and that that is how he left it - just beautiful! Petula Clark sang so prettily and Tommy Steele was delightful & charming as Og. The story was good too.

Now if I had one thing to say about the film that I could've done w/o or changed, I'd skip the whole sub-plot about the guys trying to invent smoking tobacco - I just didn't get what that had to do w/ anything! But overall, I really enjoyed the film.

Walk like it's for sale and the rent is due tonight- Miss Jay

"Finian's Rainbow" is one the three or four truly great Broadway musicals. Coppola had no idea of how to approach the material, and as Thomas Rizzo's beautifully written and intelligent review states, his treatment of Fred Astaire's dancing is criminal. Astaire generally insisted that he be photographed full length, and that the camera not move very much. This wasn't ego -- it was good aesthetic sense. Why he didn't -- shall we say -- put his foot down, I don't know.

As for Fred Astaire's "geriatric" dancing... We are seeing -- in his last dance performance -- his "late Beethoven" or even "late Miles Davis" style. Everything "unneeded" is stripped away (not that Astaire's style had ever been particularly baroque). If Astaire is lacking energy, it's hardly visible in his dance with Petula Clark. And near the opening, when he dances on the hilltop as he talks with Clark -- in those few seconds, he "dances" more than most dancers dance /in their entire careers/. In the Criterion edition of "Swing Time", the commentator observes that every time Fred Astaire /moves/, he dances. With the exception of his final dance (which is mis-staged and arguably ill-conceived), watching Astaire is a delight.

As for the songs... The score includes some of the greatest "cheap Irish music" (as Finian puts it) ever written. (Note to Mr. Rizzo... Burton Lane was the composer, not Harold Arlen.) The lyrics are by "Yip" Harburg, who was a master of silly forced rhymes. "Old Devil Moon" is supposed to be sexy/seductive, and Francks and Clark make it work. (Their casting is unusual, as both were well into their 30s -- Francks perhaps even older -- neither a "young'un". For me, it makes both characters, and their relationship, considerably more appealing.)

"Finian's" principal problem is that its approach to race relations, radical in the late '40s (musicals rarely dealt with social or political issues), was dated and arguably patronizing 20 years later. Had Coppola taken a fantastic "Midsummmer Night's Dream" approach, the film might have worked better. We'll never know.

"Finian's Rainbow" is hardly ever performed. At least the film preserves a performance of the work. And it resulted in a terrific soundtrack album, in excellent studio sound. The "Stereo Review" critic considered it superior to the original Broadway cast album, and I concur. Rhino released a grossly overpriced (natch) limited-edition CD, which is long out of print.

< there are some real stinkers like "Old Devil Moon", everytime I hear the line
"Wanna cry, wanna croon, wanna laugh like a loon" it makes me cringe.>

"Moon River" has the line "my huckleberry friend", and people asked what that means. A line from a wonderful song bugged them, but it didn't hurt the popularity of "Moon River".

"Old Devil Moon" is too good a song to call a stinker just because of that line.

I tried once to get through the movie on dvd. I gave up when the fake forest studio scenes came. I also thought that there were too many disparate characters to keep track of. They could have skipped the silent dancing girl completely, even though the actress was sweet.

Then I read somewhere that the director Francis Ford Coppola had a commentary track of the film on the dvd. So I watched it again listening to Francis tell us the background story about the film. It was very informative. I understood so much more about it and now actually appreciate the film and like it more after hearing his explanations. Petula is a delight, the photography is pretty, the songs are good (even though they all sounded the same when I saw it the first time).

So please watch it with Francis and enjoy a lesson in film history while listening to the songs nicely sung!

@krautdoggg.
I agree that Tommy Steele sort of steals the show. My favorite number from the show is the one you liked: "I Love the Girl I'm Near." Also, I liked the scenes with Susan The Silent.