Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Fred Astaire, Petula Clark, Tommy Steele, Don Francks, Keenan Wynn, Al Freeman Jr.
Well, it’s not as bad as legend has it, but Francis Ford Coppola’s film of Finian’s Rainbow (1968) can hardly be called good—though Fred Astaire’s presence helps, as, to a lesser degree, does Petula Clark. There are also some good bits—like Al Freeman Jr. bringing a Bromo Seltzer to racist Senator Keenan Wynn in the slowest “Darky Shuffle” ever seen—amidst all the clunk. Plus, it’s kind of fascinating in its very wrong-headedness. Even when the stage play was new—back in 1947—it must have been the last gasp of old style liberalism with its “redistribute the wealth” politics (McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committee was taking on such matters about this same time). By 1968, it seemed more than a little quaint. That’s not the kicker, though. It’s the bloated length, the awkward mix of soundstage exteriors with real ones, and the overbearing Tommy Steele’s even-more-overbearing turn as leprechaun (it makes a Lucky Charms commercial look restrained) that cooks the goose. An ill-chosen, unhappy director probably didn’t help much.
The Hendersonville Film Society will show Finian’s Rainbow at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Mar. 13, in the Smoky Mountain Theater at Lake Pointe Landing Retirement Community (behind Epic Cinemas, 333 Thompson St., Hendersonville).
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