Review of Easter Parade (1948) by Matt H — 25 Aug 2013

Fun, bubbly movie featuring two great talents. Enjoyable little musical, even if the musical numbers aren't the most memorable. The movie makes a huge mistake though; near the end it gives the (supposedly) 2nd string Ann Miller the better musical numbers, and give Garland and Astaire only one musical number together, "A couple of swells.

" A terrible number to portray Astaire and Garland's couple dance chemistry. And Garland's character is supposed to fall totally in love with Astaire though their dancing, but we the audience never really get to see it portrayed through the movie - mostly we're just told.

There's no questioning their individual talent, and together Garland and Astaire should be a great all-time dance couple; but the movie really fails to showcase their talent together. I guess I blame the musical numbers; Ann Miller surprising gets the best dance numbers, and none of the music is very memorable, and while the dancing displayed is very good, none of it is top notch.

Despite these flaws, Easter Parade is probably the best of the musicals I've been watching lately; it's not a favorite genre of mine (a lot of the stories are too hokey), but I think I can watch anything with either Astaire or Garland in it.

Their personalities are able to elevate the material that's given to them, in Easter Parade and also pretty much in every movie of theirs that I've seen.