Stars: Fred Astaire, Jane Powell, Peter Lawford, Sarah Churchill
Director: Stanley Donen
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Original Song-"Too Late Now")
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars
(Spoilers Ahead) The film opens for us with Tom and Ellen Bowen (Astaire and Powell), a brother-sister vaudeville dancing team (shades of real life, since Fred Astaire got his start with his sister Adele on the same circuit), and both have very similar attitudes toward love: they like love, they hate marriage. Ellen, in what has to be the closest I've ever seen a 1950's studio film get to showing female empowerment through sexuality, juggles beaus on a regular basis (she doesn't have the heart to break up with them...though they're all pretty good looking and I suspect that Ellen just is having a fun time), and Tom is all work and just the occasional ladies' man. The two of them are hired to go to England during the wedding season for the young prince and princess (clearly inspired by the recent wedding of Princess Elizabeth to Prince Philip, which had been enormous news around the world at the time). Off-they-sail, and on the ship, Ellen meets a handsome young lothario named John Brindale (Lawford) who charms her and quickly becomes her one-and-only. We also get a hilarious dancing number onboard the ship (did anyone else get massively freaked out by the wave crash during that cutaway and worry they'd accidentally started watching The Poseidon Adventure?), with Powell and Astaire being rolled around the floor, despite the tables, chairs, and other patrons of the performance staying stagnant.
Once in England, Astaire falls quickly for an English dancer named Anne (Churchill), whom he becomes enamored with despite her not having the verve one usually associates with an Astaire love interest (I know this is weird to say, but Powell and Astaire had such good chemistry you secretly wish the writers hadn't made them brother-and-sister, and instead had them falling in love), and both siblings wrestle with their attitudes toward marriage, to of course decide in the end that they should follow the prince and princess down the aisle. With only ninety minutes of runtime, it's a very light and fluffy film, but not without anything to lend itself.
As I mentioned before, Astaire and Powell own the screen here. Both absolute MGM pros who could sell pretty much any musical number, each radiates charisma and whenever they're playfully sparring with each other, the film comes to life (which is often). You kind of wish that the entire film would just consist of the two of them going out and doing musical numbers, then running back to their dressing rooms and talking about their respective love lives and then going out and doing another musical number-I think I could watch that for hours.
The film isn't nearly as fun when they are apart, though. I know that Powell got the film's Oscar nod for her solo number "Too Late Now" (which is beautiful, if a bit out-of-place in this light of a comedy), but they never achieve the sort of chemistry with their romantic counterparts that they do with each other. Astaire in particular is saddled with Sarah Churchill, an actress with an extremely famous last name (her father was Winston Churchill) who made some waves as an actress in the 1940's and 1950's in television and cinema, with this being her most significant film. Churchill had a tragic life (alcohol and failed marriages), and probably would make for an interesting biopic someday, but as an actress I wasn't impressed at all in her signature role.
Those are my thoughts-what are yours? Did you, like me, find yourself adoring this film way more than you thought you would? Who thought "Too Late Now" deserved the 1951 Oscar? And since it's Wedding Week-which casual wear dress was the better bridal gown-Powell's or Churchill's? Share in the comments!
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