Finian's Rainbow (1968)

A mysterious Irishman, Finian, and his beautiful daughter Sharon, arrive one day in Rainbow Valley, a small Southern town of tobacco sharecroppers in the mythical state of Missitucky. The ... See full summary »

Director:

Francis Ford Coppola

Writers:

E.Y. Harburg (book), Fred Saidy (book),

Stars:

Fred Astaire, Petula Clark, Tommy Steele

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 1 win & 7 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Fred Astaire	...	Finian McLonergan
Petula Clark	...	Sharon McLonergan
Tommy Steele	...	'Og' the Leprechaun
Don Francks	...	Woody Mahoney
Keenan Wynn	...	Senator Billboard Rawkins
Barbara Hancock	...	Susan the Silent
Al Freeman Jr.	...	Howard
Ronald Colby	...	Buzz Collins
Dolph Sweet	...	Sheriff
Wright King	...	District Attorney
Louil Silas	...	Henry

Storyline

A mysterious Irishman, Finian, and his beautiful daughter Sharon, arrive one day in Rainbow Valley, a small Southern town of tobacco sharecroppers in the mythical state of Missitucky. The town has its own resident dreamer, Woody Mahoney, who thinks that he might be able to put the town on the map by crossing mint with tobacco so that it'll grow already mentholated. Finian's come to the town because he's stolen a leprechaun's crock of gold and plans to plant it in the ground so it'll grow faster (or else why would the Americans have rushed to dig the gold out of California only to plant it back in the ground at Fort Knox?). But trouble arrives in the form of Og the leprechaun, who has followed Finian to America and is bent on retrieving his gold. Meanwhile, the bigoted Senator Billboard Rawkins, in an effort to stop progress in his state in the form of a new dam and hydroelectric system, plans to take the remaining parcel of land needed to stop the project - Woody's, which Finian has ...

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Plot Keywords:

gold | tobacco | leprechaun | senator | wish | 

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Taglines:

If all you want out of a movie is a great, big, wonderful time - just follow the rainbow - whistle the songs - and join in the fun.

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Genres:

Family | Fantasy | Musical

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Certificate:

G

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 October 1968 (USA)

Also Known As:

La vallée du bonheur

Filming Locations:

Potrero Valley, Thousand Oaks, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$3,500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Brothers/Seven Arts

Technical Specs

Runtime:

141 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (35 mm prints) 70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Petula Clark, who had many hit records in French and English, does her own singing in the French-dubbed version of this film. The French audio track is included on the DVD.

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Goofs

The mail-order company whose catalog is used repeatedly in the movie is named "SHEARS" - the name being clearly visible on the front cover, at many points. However, during the song "That Great Come and Get It Day", the inside of the front cover clearly reads "Only at Sears".

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Quotes

Sharon McLonergan: Do you feel a warmish, kind of glowish, peculiarish sensation?
Og: No... it's a sort of quiverish, shiverish, flibberty-gibberish sensation!
Sharon McLonergan: Does it make you feel hummingbirds in your heart?
Og: Butterflies in my feet!
Sharon McLonergan: Bees in your bonnet!
Og: [dancing] Stars in my britches!
Sharon McLonergan: It makes you want to dance!
Og: [falls over] I hadn't noticed.

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Connections

Referenced in Musical Comedy Tonight II (1981)

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Soundtracks

"How Are Things in Glocca Morra?"
(1946) (uncredited)
(Finale)
Sung by Petula Clark, Don Francks, Tommy Steele, Barbara Hancock,
Keenan Wynn and chorus

User Reviews

MORE SILVER AND BRONZE THAN GOLD AT THE END OF THIS "RAINBOW"

The film version of "Finian's Rainbow" was conceived at a time when the public's interest in movie musicals was on the wane; in fact, in light of the poor critical reception accorded "Camelot" the year before, studio head Jack Warner would have been content to pull the plug on what he perceived as another sure-fire disaster. To an extent, his feelings were justified - what had been a daringly provocative look at racial strife in the deep American South as seen through the eyes of a scheming Irishman and his less-than-supportive daughter when it debuted on Broadway in 1947 was no longer very pertinent twenty-one years later, and the fairy tale aspects of the plot - which included the hyperactive antics of a leprechaun intent on retrieving his "borrowed" pot of gold - were going to be a hard sell in 1968. The score, although exquisitely timeless and highly recognizable, was old-fashioned in its theatricality and not likely to result in a best-selling cast album. Furthermore, directing the project was a virtual unknown, a "hippie" from northern California named Francis Ford Coppola, with only one prior film - a non-musical - to his credit. Given the odds the movie was doomed, Warner basically maintained a "hands-off, don't-ask, don't-tell" policy and simply hoped for the best.

The end result may not have been the "best", but it is considerably better than most critics described it upon its release. The overlong book, with several insignificant sub-plots, could have used some judicious trimming. Tommy Steele's performance as Og, the slowly-turning-into-a-human leprechaun, is frantically overblown. The film's editing is criminal in that Fred Astaire's feet are often unseen in his dance routines. And the attempt to blend reality and make-believe results in an awkwardly uneven balance of the two - Coppola would have been far more successful had he decided to emphasize the whimsical and play down the outdated political aspects of the story. But for all these shortcomings, "Finian's Rainbow" - from its spectacular opening credits to its nicely staged farewell to Finian - almost a goodbye to Astaire himself, for whom this would be his last dancing role - is pleasant entertainment, buoyed by its familiar score and anchored by the presence of Petula Clark, whose delightfully fresh and sweetly seductive performance is the true gold to be discovered here. At the time known in the States as the pop singer responsible for the mega-hit "Downtown", Clark drew on her previous experience as an actress in mostly grade-B British films and developed a character whose acceptance of a leprechaun hiding in the backyard well is as easily believed as her skepticism regarding her father's plot to multiply his borrowed gold by burying it in the shadows of Fort Knox and her fiancé's plans to grow mentholated tobacco. The Arlen/Harburg score - including such standards as "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" and "Look to the Rainbow" - could well have been composed specifically for her voice, which wraps itself around each note with a hint of a brogue and

• in the case of "Old Devil Moon" - a raw sensuality suggesting the

woman inside the sweet Irish colleen. Deservedly, Clark was nominated for a Best Actress Golden Globe for her portrayal of Sharon McLonergan, and if for nothing else, her performance makes "Finian's Rainbow" definitely worth a look-see.