Review of Royal Wedding (1951) by Blake P — 17 Aug 2011

Good watch. Tom (Astaire) and his sister Ellen (Powell) are a brother and sister dancing act, and are shocked to find themselves booked to give a show for Princess Elizabeth's wedding in England. Once their, they both unexpectedly find love, Tom a dancer (Churchill), and Ellen Lord Brindale.

Will it get in the way of the show? "Royal Wedding" may not be as good as "The Band Wagon" or "Meet Me in St. Louis", but it certainly is a fun find! Fred and Jane are surprisingly great as siblings, and was considered to copy Fred and his sister Adele's relationship back when they performed together.

This movie wouldn't be half as fun though if they didn't have Stanley Donen as a director. This was his first real directing job, and had already had experience working with Gene Kelly in "Cover Girl" and "On the Town" so at this point he knew what he was doing.

It was him that added all of the fun scenes in both the movies, and showed his brilliance when he had Astaire dancing on the ceiling! That's a cool thing to see, and I actually researched it to find out how they actually filmed it.

I was that good! This was one of the last Technicolor musicals after gradually shifting to CinemaScope and Deluxe, and it certainly looks good. Hint for the other viewers: skip this on play instantly-- it looks terrible.

I caught this on TCM and found it to look very vibrant, and trust me, you wouldn't want to miss out on it! "Royal Wedding" might not be the best of the best, but is certainly a movie that will put you in a good mood.