Royal Wedding (1951)

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Movie
German title Royal wedding
Original title Royal Wedding
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1951
length 93 minutes
Age rating FSK without age restriction
Rod
Director Stanley Donen
script Alan Jay Lerner
production Arthur Freed for
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
music Burton Lane
camera Robert H. Planck
cut Albert Akst
occupation
synchronization

Royal Wedding (Original: Royal Wedding ) is an American film musical by Stanley Donen with Fred Astaire and Jane Powell from 1951. The music is by Burton Lane , the lyrics to the songs were written by Alan Jay Lerner .

action

The siblings Tom and Ellen Bowen successfully appear on Broadway on the show Every Night at Seven . Through their agents, the British-American twins Irving and Edgar Klinger, they get an engagement in London. Here the preparations for the wedding of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip take place. Although both Bowens don't think much of marriage, they are still involved in love affairs: Ellen, who has always had many admirers in America, falls in love with the playboy Lord John Brindale, who comes from impoverished nobility, on the crossing to London ; While preparing for the show in London, Tom meets dancer Anne Ashmond, whom he likes immediately.

Tom takes Anne out in the evening and helps her reconcile her parents, who have been at war for years. However, he is saddened to learn that Anne is already engaged to a salesman from Chicago . Tom can find out through a research of his agents that Anne's fiancé is already married, so she would now be free for him. Suddenly Tom shrinks from marriage, as does his sister, who has fallen in love with John and could also marry him. The siblings assure each other that weddings would end their joint careers and that they could therefore never marry. Tom and Ellen are so impressed by the royal wedding that they finally marry Anne and John on the same day.

background

Astaire and Powell play a singing and dancing sibling pair, which is based on the real relationship between Fred and his sister Adele Astaire . Jane Powell falls in love with the English aristocrat Lawford, which in turn alludes to Adele Astaire and her romance and later marriage to the British aristocrat Lord Charles Cavendish, the son of the Duke of Devonshire .

Jane Powell was actually a fix-it-all for the role of Ellen. Ginger Rogers was originally chosen for the role, but she declined. After that June Allyson was offered the role, but she became pregnant. Judy Garland was then supposed to be Ellen, but had to cancel for personal reasons. In the end, Jane Powell got the role.

Singing and dance numbers

Choreographer Nick Castle worked with Astaire on some of the dance numbers. In contrast to the less successful songs, the film contains some of Astaire's most important dance numbers. Two of his solo appearances, in which he parodies himself and colleagues, are among his most famous dance appearances in the film.

  • Ev'ry Night at Seven :
    Here a tired Astaire, who pretends to be a bored king, dances together with an all the more fun-loving Powell.
  • Sunday Jumps :
    The solo takes place in a gym on a ship, where Astaire is waiting for his partner to rehearse, but she does not appear. This scene refers to Adele Astaire's relationship to her brother's obsessive rehearsals, which was originally also addressed in the lyrics (which, however, were not used in this form). According to Astaire, the idea for this issue comes from where Astaire et al. a. dancing with a clothes rack, by the choreographer Hermes Pan . This part was often incorrectly referred to as "hat-rack-dance" ("hat stand dance"). He later parodies Gene Kelly here by incorporating a bodybuilder episode in which Astaire kicks a few clubs aside. This scene alludes to Kelly's dance number with The Nicholas Brothers in The Pirate movie .
    Parts from this number have been cited in other films:
  • Open Your Eyes :
    This lively waltz is sung by Powell at the beginning of a dance number that takes place in the ballroom of the transatlantic ship. When a strong storm comes up, the initially beautiful and almost classic standard dance number becomes a slapstick scene, in which the couple is influenced by the list of the ship. This scene is based on a real-life experience that Fred and Adele Astaire had when they went to London on a ship in 1923.
  • The Happiest Days of My Life :
    Powell sings this ballad for Peter Lawford while Astaire is at the piano.
  • How Could You Believe Me when I Said I Love You when You Know I've Been a Liar All My Life :
    is the longest track song ever used in an MGM production. For the first time in his career, Astaire renounces his elegant appearance and stages a somewhat looser, comically vulgar number in vaudeville style with Powell . The song is reminiscent of A Couple of Swells , a number with Judy Garland from Easter Parade (German title Easter Walk ). Astaire parodies Gene Kelly in the straw hat. In the tap dance we also see numerous stomps and feet turned outwards. In addition, Astaire dances with slightly bent knees throughout. This type of dance goes back to George M. Cohan and became a stylistic trademark of Gene Kelly.
  • Too Late Now :
    Powell sings her third ballad, now in an open declaration of love to Lawford.
  • You're All the World to Me :
    is one of Astaire's best known solo numbers. Astaire dances up the walls as well as on the ceiling . The idea for this came to him many years before and was mentioned by him for the first time in an MGM publication "Lion's Roar" from 1945. The number was filmed with the camera and the cameraman sitting tightly in a rotating cage, which looks like a room (if the room rotates with the camera fixed to the room, the gravity changes only for the dancer acting in it, and so the Impression of "going up the walls"). The same technique was later used to a weightless environment in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (German title. 2001: A Space Odyssey ) to simulate.
  • I Left My Hat in Haiti :
    This song is by Nick Castle and combines Powell, Astaire and a chorus with a Latin American theme.

synchronization

Today the second dubbed version from 1980 is used, which was made by Interopa Film GmbH.

role actor German Dubbing voice (1980)
Tom Bowen Fred Astaire Eckart Dux
Ellen Bowen Jane Powell Uta Hallant
Lord John Brindale Peter Lawford Peter waiter
Anne Ashmond Sarah Churchill Regina Lemnitz
Irving Klinger / Edgar Klinger Keenan Wynn Joachim Kemmer
James Ashmond Albert Sharpe Heinz Theo branding

Awards

For the song Too Late Now , Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane were nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Song in 1952 .

reception

Royal Wedding grossed over $ 3.9 million worldwide, which meant a profit of $ 584,000 for Studio MGM. The film was also largely received warmly by critics. Bosley Crowther was cautiously positive in the New York Times : “A brilliant number, three or four numbers that are good, a laugh here, a laugh there; colored news pictures of the British royal wedding and so on. Mr. Astaire drove worse in his lifetime - but also a lot worse. "

Even today's reviews are mostly positive, with Rotten Tomatoes the film - based on 23 reviews - received a positive rating of 91%. The film service describes the Royal Wedding as "an entertaining musical film with excellent dance interludes". Cinema judged: "Plush musical with a few real hit numbers". Dave Kehr does n't see the Royal Wedding as one of Donen's strongest works, but one scene alone makes it worth seeing. The dance scene with Astaire on the walls was "an impeccably executed piece of cinema magic and an extraordinary expression of Donen's love for the medium".

literature

  • Fred Astaire : Steps in Time. An autobiography . Cooper Square Press, New York 2000, ISBN 0-8154-1058-1 (EA Harper New York 1959).
  • John Mueller: Astaire Dancing. The Musical Films of Fred Astaire . Knopf, New York 1985, ISBN 0-394-51654-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ German synchronous index: German synchronous index | Movies | Royal wedding. Retrieved June 28, 2018 .
  2. ↑ According to Eddie Mannix's notes
  3. ↑ Bosley Crowther: THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; Fred Astaire and Jane Powell seen in 'Royal Wedding' at Radio City Music Hall . ( nytimes.com [accessed June 28, 2018]).
  4. ^ Royal Wedding. Accessed June 28, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Royal wedding . ( filmdienst.de [accessed on June 28, 2018]).
  6. ↑ CINEMA online: Cinema at CINEMA: program, films, DVDs, stars, trailers and more | cinema.de. Retrieved June 28, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Dave Kehr: Royal Wedding. Accessed June 28, 2018 .