Royal Wedding is a 1951 American musical comedy film directed by Stanley Donen, and starring Fred Astaire and Jane Powell, with music by Burton Lane and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner. Set in 1947 London at the time of the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten, the film follows an American brother-sister song and dance duo who, while performing, each fall in love — he, with a female dancer, and she, with an impoverished but well-connected nobleman. The film marked Donen's second directorial feature. It was released as Wedding Bells in the United Kingdom.[3]
Royal Wedding is one of several MGM musicals that entered the public domain because the studio failed to renew the copyright registration in the 28th year after its publication.[4]
The story sees brother and sister Tom and Ellen Bowen as stars of a show Every Night at Seven, a Broadway success. They are persuaded to take the show to London, capitalizing on the imminent royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten.
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On the ship, Ellen meets and quickly falls in love with the impoverished but well-connected Lord John Brindale. Whilst casting the show in London, Tom falls in love with a newly engaged dancer, Anne Ashmond. Tom assists Anne in reconciling her estranged parents and also asks his agent to locate Anne's supposed fiancé in Chicago – only to discover that he's married and therefore Anne is free to do what she likes.
Carried away by the emotion of the wedding, the two couples decide that they will also be married that day. Thanks to the resourcefulness of Tom's London agent, Edgar Klinger, who knows someone in the Archbishop's office who can cut through the official red tape and also has a cooperative minister in his pocket, Anne and Tom, and Ellen and John, are in fact married on the royal wedding day.
Stanley Donen and Jane Powell were not part of the film's original crew and cast; former dancer Charles Walters was the film's original director, with June Allyson as Astaire's co-star.[1] Judy Garland was then signed as Ellen due to Allyson's pregnancy, over the objection of Walters who had spent a year-and-a-half nurturing her through her previous film, Summer Stock. Instead of listening to Walters' objection, Arthur Freed brought in Donen as director; Garland, who during rehearsal worked only half-days, started calling in sick as principal photography was to begin. Her behavior prompted Freed to replace her with Jane Powell and suspend Garland. According to Garland biographer Gerold Frank, she was despondent about her career and personal life and she asked MGM to be released from her contract. MGM agreed and the contract that had begun in 1935 was abrogated on September 28, 1950.[1][5]
Principal photography took place in 1950, from July 6 to August 24; retakes took place in mid-October.[1]
The scene featuring the song "You're All the World to Me" was filmed by building a set inside a revolving barrel and mounting the camera and its operator to an ironing board which could be rotated along with the room.[1] Astaire danced in the barrel set as if he really danced on the wall and ceiling. It inspired the Lionel Richie song "Dancing on the Ceiling" with the music video featuring Richie doing the same room dance as a tribute to Astaire.
The songs in Royal Wedding were written by Burton Lane (music) and Alan Jay Lerner (lyrics). The dances were choreographed by Nick Castle.[6]
According to MGM's records, the film earned $2,548,000 in the US and Canada and $1,354,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit to the studio of $584,000.[2] The film was listed by Variety as one of the top box office hits of 1951.[9]
Upon its release, Bosley Crowther in The New York Times wrote that the film had "a lively lot of dancing and some pleasantly handled songs"; according to Crowther, "Mr. Astaire has fared better in his lifetime - and he has also fared much worse."[10]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Royal Wedding had a 91% approval rating based on 23 reviews. The site's consensus reads: "Vintage MGM musical stuff, characterized by Stanley Donen's fleet direction and some amazing dance performances from star Fred Astaire."[11]
"Too Late Now" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 24th Academy Awards, losing the award to "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" by Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer, which featured in Here Comes the Groom.
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
In 2007, Warner Home Video released Royal Wedding in a DVD set as part of its "Classic Musicals From The Dream Factory" series, along with "three fine-but-unexceptional films directed by Norman Taurog" and two other films: The Belle of New York and The Pirate.[14]
The film was later featured in an episode of Cinema Insomnia.[15] It is also distributed through Corinth Films.[16]
The songs listed above were published by MGM on an early 10 inch long play record recorded at 33⅓ rpm (MGM E-543).
The song "Sunday Jumps" was referenced by Mel Gibson in What Women Want and by David Byrne in the Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense. "Sunday Jumps" was also parodied by Kermit the Frog in The Great Muppet Caper.[citation needed]
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