Easter Parade (1948)

Director:

Charles Walters

Writers:

Frances Goodrich (story) &
Albert Hackett (story) ...
(more)

Release Date:

8 July 1948 (USA)

Genre:

Musical | Romance

Tagline:

The Happiest Musical Ever Made is Irving Berlin's Easter Parade

Plot:

Don Hewes and Nadine Hale are a dancing team, but she decides to start a career on her own. So he takes the next dancer he meets...

Plot Keywords:

Dance | Easter | Ziegfeld Follies | Fashion Show | Showbiz

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 1 win

Cast

Judy Garland	...	Hannah Brown
Fred Astaire	...	Don Hewes
Peter Lawford	...	Jonathan Harrow III
Ann Miller	...	Nadine Hale
Jules Munshin	...	Headwaiter François
Clinton Sundberg	...	Mike the Bartender
Richard Beavers	...	Singer ("The Girl on the Magazine Cover")
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
John Albright	...	Western Union Messenger (uncredited)
Lola Albright	...	Hat Model / Showgirl (uncredited)
Shirley Ballard	...	Showgirl (uncredited)
Jimmy Bates	...	Boy (uncredited)
Hal Bell	...	Dancer (uncredited)
Margaret Bert	...	Florist (uncredited)
Ralph Brooks	...	Diner at Rooftop Show (uncredited)
Peter Chong	...	Sam - Don's Valet (uncredited)
Jimmie Dodd	...	Cabby (uncredited)
Dolores Donlon	...	Showgirl (uncredited)
Fern Eggen	...	Salesgirl (uncredited)
Harry Fox	...	Desk Clerk (uncredited)
Sig Frohlich	...	Callboy (uncredited)
June Gale	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Ruth Hall	...	Showgirl (uncredited)
Sam Harris	...	Backstage Well-Wisher / Diner at Rooftop Show (uncredited)
Hector and His Pals	...	Themselves (uncredited)
Helene Heigh	...	Hat Shop Owner (uncredited)
Shep Houghton	...	Specialty Dancer (uncredited)
Marjorie Jackson	...	Showgirl (uncredited)
Patricia Jackson	...	Dancer (uncredited)
Bob Jellison	...	Drugstore Patron (uncredited)
Doris Kemper	...	Anna - Backstage Maid (uncredited)
Gail Langford	...	Showgirl (uncredited)
Joi Lansing	...	Hat Model / Showgirl (uncredited)
Nolan Leary	...	Drugstore Clerk (uncredited)
Jeni Le Gon	...	Essie, Nadine's Maid (uncredited)
Frank Mayo	...	Headwaiter (uncredited)
Harold Miller	...	Diner in Restaurant (uncredited)
Howard M. Mitchell	...	Drugstore Patron (uncredited)
George Noisom	...	Western Union Messenger (uncredited)
Robert Emmett O'Connor	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Dick Paxton	...	Western Union Messenger (uncredited)
Albert Pollet	...	Waiter (uncredited)
Angi O. Poulis	...	Peddler (uncredited)
Bobbie Priest	...	Dancer (uncredited)
Jean Romer	...	Twin Showgirl (uncredited)
Lynne Romer	...	Twin Showgirl (uncredited)
Ralph Sanford	...	Hotel Detective (uncredited)
Sara Shane	...	Showgirl (uncredited)
Dick Simmons	...	Al - Ziegfeld Aide (uncredited)
Dee Turnell	...	Dancer (uncredited)
Benay Venuta	...	Bar Patron (uncredited)
Patricia Walker	...	Showgirl (uncredited)
Johnny Walsh	...	Western Union Messenger (uncredited)
Wilson Wood	...	Marty, Piano Player (uncredited)

Directed by
Charles Walters

Writing credits
Frances Goodrich		(story) &
Albert Hackett		(story)
Sidney Sheldon		(screenplay) &
Frances Goodrich		(screenplay) &
Albert Hackett		(screenplay)
Guy Bolton		uncredited

Produced by
Arthur Freed	....	producer
Roger Edens	....	associate producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Conrad Salinger		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
Harry Stradling Sr.		(as Harry Stradling)

Film Editing by
Albert Akst

Art Direction by
Cedric Gibbons
Jack Martin Smith

Set Decoration by
Edwin B. Willis

Costume Design by
Irene		(costumes: women)
Valles		(costumes: men)

Makeup Department
Jack Dawn	....	makeup designer
Sydney Guilaroff	....	hair styles designer
Dorothy Ponedel	....	key makeup artist (uncredited)

Production Management
Al Shenberg	....	production manager (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Carl 'Major' Roup	....	second assistant director (uncredited)
Wallace Worsley Jr.	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
Arthur Krams	....	associate set decorator

Sound Department
Douglas Shearer	....	recording director
James Brock	....	sound (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Warren Newcombe	....	special effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Richard Borland	....	grip (uncredited)
Ed Hubbell	....	still photographer (uncredited)
Sam Leavitt	....	camera operator (uncredited)
Cliff Shirpser	....	assistant camera: Technicolor (uncredited)

Music Department
Leo Arnaud	....	orchestrator
Johnny Green	....	musical director
Conrad Salinger	....	orchestrator
Robert Tucker	....	vocal arranger
Van Cleave	....	orchestrator
Sidney Cutner	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Roger Edens	....	composer: additional music (uncredited)
Robert Franklyn	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Paul Marquardt	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Leo Shuken	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Other crew
Henri Jaffa	....	associate technicolor color director
Natalie Kalmus	....	technicolor color director
Fred Astaire	....	choreographer (uncredited)
Leslie H. Martinson	....	script supervisor (uncredited)
Charles Walters	....	choreographer (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (controlled by Loew's Incorporated)
• Loew's

Distributors

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1948) (USA) (theatrical) (controlled by Loew's Incorporated)
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1962) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Living Colour Entertainment (2008) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (1992) (USA) (VHS)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (1992) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (1999) (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2000) (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2006) (USA) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Irving Berlin's Easter Parade (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

107 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (MPAA rating: certificate #12947) | South Korea:All | Sweden:Btl | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | UK:U

Filming Locations:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

The song "Easter Parade" that the movie was based upon was first sung in Irving Berlin's 1933 Broadway revue "As Thousands Cheer" by Marilyn Miller and Clifton Webb and was inspired by the annual event in New York City where people stroll down Fifth Avenue displaying their new hats (some very outrageous) and their Easter finery. The song also appeared in the Irving Berlin movie Holiday Inn (1942).

Goofs:

Factual errors: The stage manager at the Ziegfeld Follies mispronounces "Ziegfeld".

Quotes:

Don Hewes: Miss Brown, what idiot ever told you you were a dancer?
Hannah Brown: You did.

Movie Connections:

Featured in That's Entertainment! (1974)

Soundtrack:

Beautiful Faces Need Beautiful Clothes

"Oh I Could Write a Sonnet, about your Easter bonnet."

For the only teaming of Fred Astaire and Judy Garland, Gene Kelly had to break an ankle playing touch football although he told the studio it was in rehearsal. So Fred Astaire who after another Irving Berlin musical extravaganza, Blue Skies at Paramount, got pulled out of retirement for this film. It was a happy accident for film fans.

Easter Parade by this time had become the national anthem for Easter and enjoys a grand seasonal popularity as Irving Berlin's White Christmas also. It was originally written for the musical revue As Thousands Cheer in 1933 and sung as a duet by Clifton Webb and Marilyn Miller. Bing Crosby reprised it in Holiday Inn in a very nice number driving a horsedrawn sleigh from church Easter services. But usually when it is presented visually, the clip of Judy Garland singing it in the finale is the one always shown.

By the way the melody originally was for a lyric entitled Smile and Show Your Dimple which bombed for Irving Berlin. Berlin was quoted as saying that popular songs are a perfect marriage between words and music and in this case the melody got divorced and married a second lyric successfully.

Easter Parade is a good mixture of old Irving Berlin material and new songs written for this film. Fred Astaire shines with one of the new ones in Stepping Out With My Baby which is a good followup to Putting On the Ritz which Astaire sang and danced to in Blue Skies. And Judy just shines in Better Luck Next Time.

The plot is a pretty simple one and for the MGM opulence that their musicals were known for their are very few actual speaking roles in this film. It's a romantic quadrangle with Fred Astaire being dumped by his erstwhile partner Ann Miller and then taking on Judy Garland in one of those 'I'll show her' moments of bravado. Peter Lawford's around to get whoever Astaire doesn't.

The acting honors in Easter Parade go to Judy. For all that talent Judy Garland was a most insecure person in life and she drew from that in bringing Hannah Brown to the screen.

Ann Miller's big number is Shaking the Blues Away which Ruth Etting introduced in 1927. Doris Day in fact does it in Love Me or Leave Me. Still Ann makes it more of a dance number than Doris did which is what Irving Berlin originally intended it to be.

The thing about Easter Parade and so many other films like it is that all that talent was contracted to that studio. You can't make a film like Easter Parade today because you'd have to pay full market price for the talent, even as Irving Berlin's numbers slip year after year into public domain.

The Easter parade with women dressed in their finest most tasteful frock is still a New York tradition on Easter Sunday. So is this film.