Easter Parade (1948)

Director:

Charles Walters

Writers:

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

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")

Also Known As:

Irving Berlin's Easter Parade (USA) (complete title)
Intermezzo lírico (Argentina) (Venezuela) [es]
Parade de printemps (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]
Desfile de Páscoa (Brazil) [pt]
En dans med dej (Sweden) [sv]
Forår i luften (Denmark) [da]
Osterparade (Austria) [de]
Osterspaziergang (West Germany) [de]
Pashalini parelasis (Greece) [el]
Sinun kanssasi kahden (Finland) [fi]
Ti amavo senza saperlo (Italy) [it]

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

A classic example of those old 40's musicals

Don't you just love those old 40's musicals? Easter Parade is certainly one of the best, with Fred Astaire doing his amazing flashy but precise dancing, Judy Garland using her legendary voice to sing right from her heart into yours, and Ann Miller doing her own unique style of dancing and tapping while belting out great songs. And of course, everybody in the film uses any excuse to sing yet another song, usually dancing to it as well.

One of the special sequences has Fred Astaire dancing in slow motion while the rest of the cast dance at normal speed behind him! Sure, we can do that these days with computers, but remember this film was made in 1948!!

Of course there's the usual plot - Boy meets girl, they fall in love, have a misunderstanding, but get together again just in time for the big finishing number. That used to really get the audiences in, in those days, and they repeated that theme in every musical that ever was.

Any weak spots? Several of the film's routines seem a little amateurish by today's standards. For example, the waiter tossing his invisible salad just to do a bit of clowning seems a little contrived. Also, the film is supposedly set in 1912, so all the 1948 fashions and hairstyles are completely anachronistic - but what does that matter, after all, it's just an enjoyable romp.

I've given this film eight out of ten, but if I could just vote on Judy Garland's singing and Fred Astaire's dancing, I'd certainly give them ten out of ten. This is definitely a "must-see" film, just for those two incredible talents!