Charles Herold (cherold) Royal Wedding is a must-see film simply for two of Astaire's best solo numbers, one involving a hat rack and the other involving the defiance of gravity. There are also a couple of solid number with his co-star Jane Powell, one a bit of bad-boy shtick and the other a very funny dance on a rocking boat.The movie begins well. Astaire and Powell are a sibling dance team off to England. Inveterate flirt Powell meets her match in an English lord, while Astaire falls for a pretty dancer (played by one of Winston Churchill's daughters!).The early scenes are notable for an unusually casual approach to romance, but of course things get serious later on. And as they do, the frothy start gives way to the grind of a standard Astaire story complete with mild obstacle and easy resolution.Powell sings several forgettable songs in her annoying operatic voice and there are some other decent dance numbers, including one set in Haiti that pretends Haiti that ignores that the country is almost entirely populated by the descendants of African slaves. There's also a lot of English people going "pip pip," and I have no idea if that's any more accurate than the Haiti stuff. It comes across as rather cartoonish, but who knows?Anyway, it's a fun movie. Not great, but enjoyable.

TheLittleSongbird Royal Wedding may not be one of the classic musicals and everybody involved have been in and done better things, but any fans of great choreography and dancing and Fred Astaire will find plenty to like about it. It does have a good shortcomings, that are thankfully outweighed by the many things that are delightful.Starting with what didn't come off so well, the story is as thin as a wafer and occasionally loses momentum when there's no singing or dancing. The script is very commonplace, and while it mostly flows well, reads well tonally and has entertaining moments some of the comic moments fall limp and it's cringe-worthingly stereotypical in places(i.e. Keenan Wynn's slang). The songs and choreography are top notch, but the (slightly) clumsily staged finale was an exception. Two performances don't work. Peter Lawford has to work with a dully written character that often felt incidental to the plot, and he brings very little personality or charm to it. Even worse is Sarah Churchill, she is incredibly wooden here and doesn't ever look comfortable with what she's given. Her chemistry with Astaire completely lacks warmth, and veers on non-existent on occasions.The production values are very colourful however, not quite lavish but very beautiful nonetheless, and the photography shows adept technical skills and very good attention to detail. The songs are great, with three being particularly memorable. One is the Oscar-nominated Too Late Now, which has a lot of emotional resonance and is performed with just as much by Jane Powell(though maybe Judy Garland may have given it more heft if she was cast). Two is How Could You Believe Me..., which benefits from some of Lerner's funniest and cleverest lyric writing and a genuinely easy-going natural chemistry between Astaire and Powell. Last is the infectiously catchy I Left My Hat in Haiti. The choreography is even better, there is so much energy and sparkle to it and the two highlights both feature Astaire and are among his best and most iconic. One being Sunday Jumps, with the most inventive use of a duet with a hat-rack you'll ever find in a film, and the other being his dancing on the walls and ceiling in his hotel room in You're All the World to Me which is the epitome of jaw-dropping.Royal Wedding may not be perfect in the writing department, but it's not too slow-going(even those bits lacking momentum don't hurt the film that badly) and has an endearingly light-footed, good-humoured(though not always) and warm-hearted quality, in a way also that often entertains and never talks down. So while there are flaws in the writing, the spirit and tone are just right. The characters are not too original and Lawford and Churchill's are not interesting at all, but the rest of the characters are very likable and engaging. Stanley Donen's direction is very accomplished technically and in terms of pacing and balancing everything is very assured also. The performances on the whole are fine, Keenan Wynn is amusing and Jane Powell is a more than worthy partner for Astaire and plays her role with plenty of attractive spunk and graceful charm. But it is Astaire who is the main reason to see the film, he was one of the dance world's greatest and one of the all-time greats at interpreting songs in musicals. While he didn't have the best voice in the world, though it was still an above-pleasant one, his dancing is masterful and he exudes complete confidence.Overall, has shortcomings and falls short of being great(like it could have been considering it had Astaire and was directed by Donen). But these shortcomings are far outweighed by the good things, and the good things are delightful and a good many. 7/10 Bethany Cox

w22nuschler This is a movie loosely based on Fred Astaire and his sister who used to dance with Fred until she married royalty. Jane plays his sister in the movie. It is believable to me even though Fred was in his 50's and Jane was 21. Fred and Jane basically tour the world and entertain with their song and dance. Fred does some of the most memorable dances as a solo act in the film. He does the dance with the wooden coat rack. He also does my all time favorite where he dances on all sides of a room. He and Jane do a couple of really original song and dance scenes. The first one is where they sing and dance on a ship as it goes thru a storm. They slip and slide around in an entertaining scene. This scene actually happened to Fred and his real life sister. They also do a funny vaudeville-like scene where they stomp on each other. Winston Churchill's daughter plays Fred's love interest and Peter Lawford plays Jane's. Keenan Wynn is his usual funny self in a dual role.

jc-osms Typically enjoyable Fred Astaire vehicle from the 50's and if not on a par with the wonderful "The Bandwagon", "Royal Wedding" certainly deserves a podium position for its vibrant colours (in some scenes, you almost think you're seeing all seven colours of the rainbow in the shot!), fine cinematography (London is faithfully rendered with cobbled streets, red buses and postboxes, even a pea-souper before the "Clean Air" Act was passed later in the decade), topped of course by Astaire's superb dancing. Okay, he's way too old to be Jane Powell's brother and the plot is wafer thin as per usual with Fred's flicks, but his dancing both solo, including the celebrated "Dancing on the Ceiling" scene (later updated by director Donen in the 80's for pop star Lionel Richie's hit song of the same name), but including almost as good scenes dancing with the ship's gym equipment and in another scene, the room furniture, including his hatstand and in concert with the young vibrant Powell, he shines. She can dance by the way... The songs didn't quite connect with me apart from the riotously funny "How Could you Believe Me When I Said Loved You when You Know I've been a Liar all my Life"(surely a country and western song-title from heaven!), but then Fred hasn't the greatest voice and Powell's light operatic warblings don't move me much either. In the minor parts, a young Peter Lawford lords it up, improbably, as an - ahem - English lord, while Sarah Churchill, the great war leader's niece, no less, seems a tad plain both in appearance and her minimal dancing efforts. The humour, centring mainly on the different takes on the languages from the US and UK perspectives, is somewhat forced too but maestro Donen exerts a sure hand at the helm, from the stylish "wedding invitation" titles to the fly-away pan-out shot over London at the close. A pleasant underrated musical comedy with which to while away an afternoon or evening.