Easter Parade (film)

Easter Parade

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Charles Walters
Produced by Arthur Freed
Written by Sidney Sheldon
Frances Goodrich
Albert Hackett
Starring Judy Garland
Fred Astaire
Music by Score:
Johnny Green
Roger Edens
Songs and Music:
Irving Berlin
Cinematography Harry Stradling
Edited by Albert Akst
Production
company
Distributed by Loew's Inc.
Release dates
  • June 30, 1948 (1948-06-30)
Running time
 108 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $2,655,000[1][2]
Box office $5,803,000[1]

Easter Parade is a 1948 American musical film starring Judy Garland, Fred Astaire and Peter Lawford, featuring music by Irving Berlin, including some of Astaire and Garland's best-known songs, such as "Easter Parade", "Steppin' Out with My Baby", and "We're a Couple of Swells".

It was the most financially successful picture for both Garland and Astaire as well as the highest-grossing musical of the year.

Plot

In 1912, Broadway star Don Hewes (Fred Astaire) is buying Easter presents for his sweetheart, starting with a hat and some flowers ("Happy Easter"). He goes into a toy shop and buys a cuddly Easter rabbit, after persuading a young boy to part with it and buy a set of drums instead ("Drum Crazy"). Hewes takes the gifts to his dancing partner, Nadine Hale (Ann Miller), who explains that she has an offer for a show that would feature her as a solo star. Don tries to change her mind and it looks as if he has succeeded ("It Only Happens When I Dance With You"), until Don's best friend, Johnny (Peter Lawford), turns up. Nadine reveals that she and Don are no longer a team and it becomes obvious that Nadine is attracted to Johnny. She does continue to try and pursue him, but he politely refuses her relationship out of respect for Don.

Angry, Don leaves to drown his sorrows at a bar. Johnny follows him and tries to persuade him to talk to Nadine, but to no avail; Don brags that he does not need Nadine and that he can make a star of the next dancer he meets. After Johnny leaves, he picks out one of the girls dancing on the stage, Hannah Brown (Judy Garland), and tells her to meet him for rehearsal the next day. Hannah then performs a duet, singing a musical number with a member of the band (Norman S. Barker) on trombone, "I Want To Go Back To Michigan." The next morning, Don tries to turn Hannah into a copy of Nadine, teaching her to dance the same way, buying her dresses in a similar style and giving her an "exotic" stage name, "Juanita." However, Hannah makes several mistakes at their first performance, which is a parody of Ginger Rogers's "feathers" dance in Top Hat; and the show is a fiasco.

Hannah meets Johnny, who is instantly attracted to her and sings "A Fella With An Umbrella" while walking her to her rehearsal with Don. After Johnny tries - unsuccessfully - to reunite Nadine and Don by inviting them both to lunch with him and then leaving them alone, she tells him that all of her friends are laughing because Hannah is trying to be her, causing Don to realize his mistake with his and Hannah's act. At their next rehearsal, he decides to start over from scratch by creating routines more suited to Hannah's personality. Hannah sings "I Love A Piano" and she works out a dance routine with Don that proves much more successful than their earlier performance. The duo, now known as "Hannah & Hewes", are shown to be performing "Snookie-Ookums", "The Ragtime Violin", and "When That Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves For Alabam'" in a montage of their performances.

At an audition for Ziegfeld Follies, where they perform "Midnight Choo-Choo", they meet Nadine who is starring in the show. Hannah realizes that Nadine was Don's former dancing partner and demands to know if they were in love. Don hesitates and Hannah runs out of the rehearsal where she encounters Johnny. Later, Don meets Hannah back at the hotel and reveals that he turned down the Ziegfeld offer, believing that Hannah and Nadine do not belong in the same show. Johnny soon arrives and takes Hannah out for dinner at which, after a comical routine by the waiter, Johnny reveals that he has fallen in love with Hannah. While Hannah does like Johnny, she admits she is actually in love with Don; she also admits to deliberately making mistakes when they rehearse so she can be with him longer. She and Johnny continue to have a close friendship.

Meanwhile, Nadine's show opens and Don goes to see it ("Shakin' The Blues Away"). He is the only member of the audience who seems unimpressed. Later on, Don goes to see Hannah and tell her that they will be starring in another show and invites her to dinner to celebrate. Hannah goes to dinner at Don's, only to have him suggest a dance rehearsal. She is immediately upset and turns to walk out, telling him that he's "nothing but a pair of dancing shoes" and that he doesn't see her as a woman, but as a dancing aid. Hannah is particularly annoyed that Don doesn't notice her new clothes and all the effort she has made for him. She tries to leave, but Don stops her and kisses her. Hannah then plays the piano and sings "It Only Happens When I Dance With You," after which Don realizes he is in love with Hannah and they embrace.

The couple take part in a variety show, with a solo by Don ("Steppin' Out With My Baby") and then comes the most famous musical number in the film ("A Couple of Swells"), in which Don and Hannah play a pair of street urchins with vivid imaginations. Don and Hannah go out to celebrate after the show and end up watching Nadine perform. Nadine is mad with jealousy when the audience gives Don and Hannah a round of applause as they come in. Nadine is the star dancer in "The Girl On The Magazine Cover." The song features an ingenious stage act, in which women appear against backdrops that look like the covers of contemporary magazines. Nadine herself appears on the cover of Harper's Bazaar. Afterwards, she insists that Don perform one of their old numbers with her for old times' sake, as she tries to win Don back - "It Only Happens When I Dance With You (Reprise)." When Don reluctantly agrees, Hannah becomes upset and runs out, believing that Don has only been using her to regain Nadine, and that he has succeeded.

She ends up at the bar where she and Don first met. There she pours out her troubles to Mike the bartender ("Better Luck Next Time"). Later, when Hannah returns to her apartment, she finds Don waiting for her. Don tries to explain that he was forced to dance with Nadine, but Hannah thinks Don used her to make Nadine jealous and win her back. Don tells Hannah he'll wait all night for her to forgive him, but just before Hannah opens the door, Don is kicked out of her building by the house detective. The next morning Hannah is telling Johnny about her and Don's misunderstanding. Johnny says if he loved someone he would let her know it, implying that Hannah should forget the argument and be with Don. Hannah realizes that Johnny is right and goes to meet Don for their date for the Easter Parade.

Meanwhile, Don has been receiving various gifts at his apartment that morning, such as a rabbit and a new top hat, unaware that they're from Hannah. She arrives unexpectedly at his house, as if the argument never happened. Don is a little confused by this turn of events, but decides to go out with Hannah anyway. As they walk in the Easter parade, photographers, echoing a scene with Nadine from the beginning of the film, take their pictures and Don proposes to Hannah ("Easter Parade").

Cast

Awards

The film won the 1948 Academy Award for Best Original Music Score. The writers of the film also received the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Musical.

Musical numbers

All songs by Irving Berlin

Performance credits below indicate both singing and dancing unless otherwise noted.

  1. "Happy Easter" (Fred Astaire)
  2. "Drum Crazy" (Astaire)
  3. "It Only Happens When I Dance with You" (Astaire singing, dancing with Ann Miller)
  4. "I Want To Go Back To Michigan" (Judy Garland)
  5. "A Fella with an Umbrella" (Peter Lawford, Garland)
  6. Vaudeville Montage: "I Love a Piano" (Garland singing, dancing with Astaire), "Snookey Ookums" (Astaire, Garland), "The Ragtime Violin" (Astaire singing, dancing with Garland), and "When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam'" (Garland, Astaire)
  7. "Shakin' the Blues Away" (Miller)
  8. "It Only Happens When I Dance With You (reprise)" (Garland singing)
  9. "Steppin' Out with My Baby" (Astaire, chorus, and featured dancers Patricia Jackson, Bobbie Priest, Dee Turnell)
  10. "A Couple of Swells" (Astaire, Garland)
  11. "The Girl on the Magazine Cover" (Richard Beavers singing, Miller dancing)
  12. "It Only Happens When I Dance With You (instrumental)" (Astaire and Miller dancing)
  13. "Better Luck Next Time" (Garland singing)
  14. "Easter Parade" (Garland, Astaire)

One musical number, a seductive performance of "Mr. Monotony" by Garland wearing the top half of a tuxedo and nylon tights (a style of dress which would become something of a trademark in later years after she wore the same outfit in 1950's Summer Stock), was cut from the film as it was deemed too risqué for a film supposedly set in 1912. Audiences finally got to see this number in the 1990s when an edited version was included in the 1994 compilation film That's Entertainment! III. The complete number was first seen as part of the extras on the VHS and Laser Disc special edition versions the following year. When Easter Parade was released to DVD, several minutes of outtakes, raw footage, and alternate takes of this performance were included in addition to the footage previously released.

Unfortunately, as with White Christmas six years later, it is impossible to remix the musical numbers from this film into Stereo or surround sound due to the fact that the pre-recording and post-recording original production angles burned in a fire, leaving only a monaural composite track containing dialogue, music and effects, and an isolated music-only track intended for international release.

"Mr. Monotony" was also supposed to have been covered by Jane Lynch and Matthew Morrison for an episode of the TV series Glee; the song was also cut from the episode.

Reception

The film earned $4,144,000 in the US and Canada and $1,659,000 overseas, resulting in a profit of $5,803,000.[1] According to Variety it was the second most popular film of 1948.[4]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  2. ↑ Another source puts the cost at $3 million Variety February 1948
  3. ↑ Astaire, Fred (1959). Steps in Time. London: Heinemann. p. 291. ISBN 0-241-11749-6.
  4. ↑ "Top Grossers of 1948", Variety 5 January 1949 p 46

External links

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