Finian's Rainbow (1968)

Fred Astaire: Finian McLonergan

Photos 

Quotes 

• Finian McLonergan : America is full of millionaires.

  Sharon McLonergan : But Father, are there no ill clad or ill housed in America?

  Finian McLonergan : Aye, but they're the best ill clad and the best ill housed in the world.

• Finian McLonergan : What do you think makes America different from Ireland?

  Sharon McLonergan : It has more Irishmen?

• Finian McLonergan : Don't be superstitious, it's bad luck.

• Finian McLonergan : You're an imposter! You can't be leprechaun you're too tall!

  Og : I know, and I'm getting taller!

• Finian McLonergan : How dare you come back here! Didn't I tell you you were an optical delusion?

  Og : I was ready to believe you yesterday but not today. Today I have proof!

  Finian McLonergan : What proof?

  Og : Does an optical illusion feel such a hungry yearning burning inside of him? Does an optical illusion feel the beat, beat, beat of the tom-tom in the roaring traffic's boom in his lonely room?

  Finian McLonergan : Are you flying high and wide on a magic carpet ride full of butterflies inside?

  Og : Aye, and what's worse, smoke keeps coming out of me eyes.

  Finian McLonergan : You go round like an elevator lost in the tide?

  Og : That's the feeling! Day and night, night and day!

• Sharon McLonergan : [looking in Finian's bag]  It's gold!

  Finian McLonergan : Aye, it's a pot of gold.

  Sharon McLonergan : And you stole it!

  Finian McLonergan : I did not steal it! I only borrowed.

  Sharon McLonergan : Who did you borrow it from?

  Finian McLonergan : Why do you want to know?

  Sharon McLonergan : So we can lend it right back to him, that's why!

  Finian McLonergan : That's impossible! He's not mortal.

  Sharon McLonergan : You killed him!

  Finian McLonergan : Of course not! He never was mortal. He's a leprechaun.

  Sharon McLonergan : A leprechaun?

  Finian McLonergan : Of course! Who else would have gold in Ireland?

• Senator Billboard Rawkins : You've been violating the law, here.

  Finian McLonergan : Since when?

  Senator Billboard Rawkins : This afternoon. I just finished drafting this.

  Senator Billboard Rawkins : [reading]  Local ordinance number 7428: be it known that in the county of Rainbow Valley, it is a felony for members of the Caucasian and Negro races...

  Finian McLonergan : But it seems to me that this law could not be a legal law...

  Senator Billboard Rawkins : Of course it's legal! I don't know where you immigrants get these radical, foreign ideas!

  Sharon McLonergan : From a wee book the immigration officer handed us. It's called 'The United States Constitution.'

  Finian McLonergan : Haven't you read it?

  Senator Billboard Rawkins : I don't have time to read it, I'm too busy defending it!

• Finian McLonergan : [singing]  Green is the color of the shamrocks /and the grass on Blarney hill / Oh, the darlin' green of Ireland /and the good old dollar bill.

• Finian McLonergan : How are things in Glocca Morra?

  Og : Oh, alas, alack, and willy-wally! I weep for Ireland.

  Finian McLonergan : Why, what's happened?

  Og : A blight has fallen over Ireland!

  Finian McLonergan : The British are back?

  Og : Never have I seen such a curse befall a folk in all me four hundrend and fifty... nine years! Poor Ireland!

  Finian McLonergan : Poor Ireland!

  Og : Suffering Ireland! The native land!

  Finian McLonergan : Me native land! A fine lot of faery folk you are! You and your associates letting all this happen! Why don't you wish it away?

  Og : We've lost the power!

  Finian McLonergan : You've lost the power to make wishes? What has Ireland to live for now! Answer me that!

  Og : Doom and gloom! DOOOOOOOOM AND GLOOOOOOOOM!

  Finian McLonergan : Who's the author of this foul outrage?

  Og : A monster, McLonnergan!

  Finian McLonergan : A monster? You mean the old flame-breathing type with the head of a dragon?

  Og : Oh, no, this is a tiny wee monster, about... your size.

  Finian McLonergan : Lead me to him! Who is this monster?

  Og : You'll excuse me for pointing, Mr. McLonnergan... but it's you.

• Finian McLonergan : Leprechaun, I've come to a decision! I deny your existence! You're only a figment of me imagination!

  Og : I am?

  Finian McLonergan : And I'll prove it to myself by walking right through you!

  [He walks toward Og] 

  Finian McLonergan : Step aside!

  [Og jumps out of the way] 

  Finian McLonergan : There, you see?

  Og : Oh, this is dreadful! I don't exist.

• Sharon McLonergan : Father is a mineralogist from the old country. He can make gold sprout out of the ground.

  Senator Billboard Rawkins : Gold? There's no gold in Ireland.

  Finian McLonergan : I meself discovered a vein our countrymen have been searching for ever since the reign of... Alfred the Thoughtless.

  Senator Billboard Rawkins : Who?

  Finian McLonergan : You've never heard of Alfred the Thoughtless? He was King of Erin following his father, Thomas the Temporary, who in turn was the only son of the Virgin Queen, Serena the Spotless.

• Sharon McLonergan : [singing]  When a rich man doesn't want to work/ He's a bon vivant/ Yes, he's a bon vivant. But when a poor man doesn't want to work / he's a loafer, he's a lounger he's a lazy good for nothing...

  Finian McLonergan : He's a jerk. When a rich man loses on a horse/ isn't he the sport /oh, isn't he the sport / but when a poor man loses on a horse / he's a gambler, he's a spender, he's a lowlife, he's a reason for divorce. When a rich man chases after dames, he's a man about town/ a man about town / but when a poor man chases after dames / he's a bounder, he's a rounder, he's a rotter, and a lotter dirty names.

• Finian McLonergan : Now that you're half mortal, you're indecent.

• Sharon McLonergan : Do you mean to say you're taking this land from these people merely because their skins are black?

  Henry : Don't let them chase us, Sharon!

  Senator Billboard Rawkins : Will somebody shut this kid up? He's making me look like a bully. Get them out of here, Sheriff.

  Sheriff : You heard the Senator, you folks better start packing!

  Boy : Is Henry the wrong color?

  Sharon McLonergan : No, he's the right color.

  [she runs after Senator Rawkins] 

  Sharon McLonergan : But there's something wrong with the world! I wish...

  Finian McLonergan : Sharon, don't...

  Sharon McLonergan : There's something wrong with the world that him and his kind have made for people like Henry! I wish you could know what that world is like! I wish to God you were black!

  [wind, thunder] 

  Senator Billboard Rawkins : Well, I'm a son of a biscuit...

• Finian McLonergan : Have you forgotten my daughter, Sharon?

  Og : [with Susan in his arms]  Of course not! She's the woman I love - present company excepted.