VHS : Finian's Rainbow

Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786300269552
Format: Color, Dolby, NTSC
ISBN: 6300269558
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Release Date: April 01, 1992
Running Time: 141 minutes
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: October 09, 1968
Sales Rank: 1186

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Editorial Review:

Amazon.com:
A funny thing happened to Finian's Rainbow in between its debut as a Broadway musical in 1947 and its appearance as a film in 1968. After 21 years, its theme of racial tension in the American South was no longer cutting edge, and the fact that its heroes are a group of sharecroppers called the Rainbow Valley Tobacco Cooperative dates it even further. Add a number of subplots and the heavy hand of a 29-year-old Francis Ford Coppola directing his first and only musical, and the two-and-a-half-hour running time feels bloated. Hermes Pan (best known for the classic Astaire-Rogers movies) is credited with choreographing the overbusy musical numbers, but he was reportedly overruled by Coppola at every turn. Still, there is a lot to enjoy in this movie, most notably Fred Astaire in his last lead role in a musical. Fred plays Finian McLonergan, an Irishman who has traveled to America in hopes of planting a pilfered pot of gold near Fort Knox and watching it grow. Even at 69, Fred shows he is still capable of a sprightly step and warbling "Look to the Rainbow." Another plus is the casting of '60s pop icon Petula Clark as his daughter, as she sings with an unaffected loveliness. Finally, the score by Burton Lane and E.Y. Harburg includes two of the best Broadway songs ever written--"Old Devil Moon" and "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?"--as well as the comic ditty "When I'm Not Near the Girl I Love." --David Horiuchi

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Pure Gold
This DVD was fun to watch. Fred Astaire does some fun dancing and
Petula Clark sings her blarney stone off.
Tommy Steele, steals the movie though. He is a crack up to watch.
Keenan Wynn waiting for his Bromo Seltzer had me rollin.

Rating:

- Great for the family!
I loved this movie growing up as a child and wanted to get some movies that I thought my children would enjoy that didn't have inappropriate items in them. They loved them. Want some family time pop some popcorn and enjoy this movie!

Rating:

- Under the Rainbow Radar
"Finian's Rainbow" was a hallmark of sorts. The stage production was first launched in 1947,but its allegedly socialist themes kept it off the silver screen until 1968. It was Fred Astaire's final film; it was also Francis Ford Coppola's directorial debut. George Lucas was an intern on the set.

"Finian's Rainbow" is about an old Irishman, Finian (Fred Astaire) who finds a pot of gold at the end of the legendary rainbow. Petula Clark stars as Finian's long-suffering daughter. The energetic ... Read More

Rating:

- Saved the day!!!
DVD
I had borrowed the movie, Finian's Rainbow from a former employer. I've since changed jobs and lost touch when my friend called and inquired about the movie. I had donated old VHS movies to the Rest Home in our area and that movie must have been in the box.I went to the rest home and they couldn't find it anywhere. I went on Amazon.Com and there it was. A new DVD which worked out better because my friend needed it for the local theatre for a musical and they could go right to the scenes needed. ... Read More

Rating:

- Not much of a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow
This is a pleasant enough movie, but Fred Astaire is showing his age. Ptula Clark is OK, but Don Francks is a zero as the romantic lead. The music IS wonderful, and the video quality is good, but the story is pretty hokey. Not on the A list, but it does round out a musical theater collection.

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