The Worst Film Ever

Just perfect...

Don't listen to the negative reviews

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The wedding may have been some affair but unfortunately the film is rather benign.Keenan Wynn steals the picture as twin brothers- one the manager Irving of Astaire and Powell and the other as a British gentleman. The two brothers are supposed to be twins but one has that British accident and the other sounds like he came out of Brooklyn.Astaire and Powell are a dance team that go to England to perform just at the time that Elizabeth is to be married to Philip. As is the case with everyone else, they're caught up in the pre-wedding excitement, especially when Powell meets an Earl played by Peter Lawford. In the dance troupe, the bachelor Astaire finds romance with none other than a dancer, played by Sir Winston's daughter, Sarah Churchill.The dancing routines are engaging with Astaire dancing on ceilings and the two singing and dancing to the Liar song.Otherwise, it's routine fanfare all the way.

The print I saw for "Royal Wedding" was super-ugly and dark. Apparently the film is in the public domain and lots of lousy copies are out there--including the streaming version from Netflix. My advice is to see if the copy from MGM/Turner Entertainment is better--it should be.As for the film, the casting is quite odd. There is a 30 years difference in the age of Fred Astaire and his on-screen 'sister' Jane Powell. Because of this, the chemistry seems a bit odd and you can't help but being taken out of the moment. Too bad they couldn't have gotten Eleanor Powell out of retirement, as she was as close to Astaire's talents as any woman alive and she was much closer in age to him. Seeing these two amazing dancers together would have been a treat, as she was a match for his athleticism and ability to tap.The film is a re-written account of the life of Astaire and his real life sister, Adele. They were a huge act in the 20s and 30s and much of the film is taken from their lives--including her romance with a British Lord. Of course, being a Hollywood film, it's also stuffed with lots of polish and subplots--and the real story is only a starting point! But considering most folks watch films like this only to watch Fred dance, who cares?! As for the dancing, the film has some very nice numbers. My favorite is the very famous scene where he dances up the walls and on the ceiling in his hotel room--quite the stunt. He also had a nice dance with a hat tree! While the dancing isn't as spectacular, I also enjoyed "How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Love You When You Know I've Been a Liar All My Life". This song and dance number with Powell had amazingly funny lyrics and is the complete antithesis of what you'd expect from the classy and polished Astaire. While it sure ain't subtle, it is entertaining. As for the rest of the songs and Powell's dancing, they are pleasant but unremarkable. Clearly, the focus is on Fred's dancing in this film.As for my summary, I certainly wouldn't consider this to be among Fred Astaire's best. This doesn't mean it's bad--but considering how amazingly perfect his films of the 30s were (such as "Top Hot" and "The Gay Divorcée"), this doesn't mean "Royal Wedding" is a bad film--it's quite enjoyable and has some great moments. Just don't watch it off Netflix or on a horrible public domain copy.By the way, this film has one of the creepiest lines in movie history when, near the end of the film, Fred and Jane tell their handler (Keenan Wynn) that "We wanna get married". They don't, thank goodness, mean to EACH OTHER (ewww) but I could see someone thinking that!

In the decade following his triumphal comeback in 1948's Easter Parade, Fred Astaire played a succession of slight variations on essentially the same character: a lifelong bachelor and a successful Broadway hoofer putting on a show, who finds time for romance with a woman half his age. Here, he and Jane Powell play a brother-sister song and dance act who separately find romance while on tour in London. The parallel romantic story lines are pretty tame and familiar stuff, and anyway, this sort of movie flies or fails on its musical numbers and this movie has a few famous ones. Fred does an elaborate dance number using a hat rack for a partner when his sister fails to show up for a shipboard rehearsal; the two dance on a rocking ship to comedic effect in a parallel to an actual event in Astaire's life; and Astaire dances on the walls and ceiling of his hotel room in the most famous number in the movie. The latter was a technical marvel at the time, requiring the cameras and crew to be bolted to a rotating frame which moved with the room as it rotated, giving the illusion that the room and camera were standing still on the ground as Astaire went up the walls and across the ceiling! A few of the stage numbers are pretty good, too, although the film loses momentum when the dancing stops. Jane Powell holds her own alongside Astaire in their numbers together, although be warned: her song numbers come from the Jeanette MacDonald school of film vocals and can leave your ears ringing from their shrillness. Enjoy the production numbers and don't expect much in between and you will not be disappointed.

Burton Lane, who created the music for "Royal Wedding", wrote memorable music for Finian's Rainbow as well as "On a Clear Day". So it is strange that there is little in this score that can be described as "memorable".One might describe some of the dancing in those terms, however; mostly as done by Fred alone or with Jane Powell who showed herself to be both an accomplished singer and dancer.As has been pointed out by others, there is nearly no attempt to relate the musical numbers to the almost non-existent story. The opening number shows Fred with a crown on his head and Jane plays a chambermaid who is flirting with Fred. This is, I suppose, a half-hearted attempt to justify the "Royal" of the title.The real "royal wedding", of course, was the slightly earlier 1947 one of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip which is the background of the story. And being that this is a sort of "film à clef", Jane, in effect, is playing the real Fred's sister and partner, Adele, who did marry nobility and did indeed "break up the act".Peter Lawford's function was to look handsome and the forgettable Sarah Churchill (Yes, Winston's daughter.) was supposed to be, uh, supportive. Though Peter didn't sing in the final cut of "Royal Wedding", his brief reprise of "Every Night at Seven" was filmed. (It is included twice in the extras) but Sarah did only a few dance steps even if she was supposed to be playing a dancer.Keenan Wynn is "rahther" wasted here in a double role as twins, both American and British stereotypes, which can best be described as "cringe-making" ("cheerio", "pip-pip" etc.).It occurs to me that "James Ashford" (the father of Sarah Churchill's character.) played by Albert Sharpe, seems to be a close relative of Alfred P. Doolittle from Shaw's "Pygmalion" or it's musical version, "My Fair Lady" whose book was also, I think not coincidentally, written by Alan Jay Lerner. When he similarly dresses up in his formal wear, I half-expected him to break out into a chorus of "Get Me to the Church On Time". Fred and Jane play "lowlifes" rather unconvincingly in the song "How could you believe me, etc." which is not to be compared with the much better "Couple of Swells" number that he and Judy did in "Easter Parade". (However, both songs remain in the standard repertory.)But Fred memorably dances on the walls and ceilings and with a clothes rack. And Jane dances and pipes prettily. The rest is pretty routine.