Review of Royal Wedding (1951) by Daniel K — 09 Nov 2007

Donen and Freed make a great team here. A very pleasant surprise for me as I wasn't expecting much going in. This falls right in line with the good old Hollywood musical formula that worked again and again so well.

Astaire and Powell make a good team, even if they aren't dazzlingly brilliant together. I'm actually happy June Allyson (as lovely as she is) and Judy Garland (wouldn't buy her as Astaire's sister) didn't get the part.

This is probably the only musical I can think of that makes me think of Kubrick's 2001. The dancing on the walls and ceiling scene is spectacular. One of Astaire's best. The one thing that strikes me about color musicals (Powell and Pressburger were not afflicted with this particular disease) is that the costumes and colors often seem uncoordinated, garish, and disgusting.

Black and white is often much more effective and is always more effective if one doesn't understand how to use color properly.