Last night I watched a movie I wanted to like very much, and I hated it, Royal Wedding from 1951, with Fred Astaire, Jane Powell, Keenan Wynn, and Albert Sharpe, the original Finian of Finian's Rainbow and Darby O'Gill and the Little People. I liked half the score by Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane and detested Lerner's screenplay, which makes one think he'd never worked in a theater in his life: Jane Powell's character is completely non-professional for a lady who's supposedly a huge star, the auditions for dancers was ridiculous, and nothing was remotely real. I did like the cast, although O thought the Churchill lady playing Astaire's romantic interest was a dog.
Astaire danced wonderfully, although I hated much of the musical staging. Also, the DVD color was horrible, dark, dull, and everything was submerged in dark brown.
