Overrated and overhyped

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The wedding may have been some affair but unfortunately the film is rather benign.Keenan Wynn steals the picture as twin brothers- one the manager Irving of Astaire and Powell and the other as a British gentleman. The two brothers are supposed to be twins but one has that British accident and the other sounds like he came out of Brooklyn.Astaire and Powell are a dance team that go to England to perform just at the time that Elizabeth is to be married to Philip. As is the case with everyone else, they're caught up in the pre-wedding excitement, especially when Powell meets an Earl played by Peter Lawford. In the dance troupe, the bachelor Astaire finds romance with none other than a dancer, played by Sir Winston's daughter, Sarah Churchill.The dancing routines are engaging with Astaire dancing on ceilings and the two singing and dancing to the Liar song.Otherwise, it's routine fanfare all the way.

After a successful run on Broadway, sibling musical team Fred Astaire and Jane Powell (as Tom and Ellen Bowen) are invited to play London during "the wedding season." This means participating in the 1947 "Royal Wedding" of Princess Elizabeth and her cousin Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark (presently known as Elizabeth II and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh). Romance is in the London air as Ms. Powell meets playboy Peter Lawford (as John "Johnny" Brindale) and Mr. Astaire meets showgirl Sarah Churchill (as Anne Ashmond). Sarah is the daughter of Winston Churchill (who, with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin, was one of the "Big Three" winners of World War II). Churchill's daughter and the actual UK wedding are thematic, but less than overwhelming...It's a surprise to find so many of MGM's "That's Entertainment!" (1974) showstoppers were from average musicals. However, the soundtrack is grand and includes three of Astaire's best numbers. Without the Astaire highlights, "Royal Wedding" is sub-par stuff. The romances are dull and Powell, while lovely, seems too way young to be Astaire's sister. As reported here and in other sites' trivia, June Allyson was pregnant with Dick Powell Jr., and Judy Garland was bitten by the buzz bug; so, the role went to Jane Powell...First, watch as Astaire dances with a hat-rack in "Sunday Jumps". This marvelous routine made headlines in 1997 when digitally altered to feature Astaire dancing with a "Dirt Devil" vacuum cleaner. Friends of the deceased star, and many TV viewers, were appalled. Happily, the commercial was removed. Next, watch for Astaire and Powell sing the interminably titled, but delightful, "How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Love You When You Know I've Been a Liar All My Life?" This song also returned Astaire to the record best-seller lists. Finally, Astaire and MGM's crew get him dancing on the ceiling in "You're All the World to Me". As anyone with a laptop knows, it's not a difficult special effect; but it's really Astaire, not a spinning room, that makes it magical.***** Royal Wedding (3/8/51) Stanley Donen ~ Fred Astaire, Jane Powell, Peter Lawford, Sarah Churchill

Every night at seven, brother and sister Broadway team Fred Astaire and Jane Powell (who are 30 years apart in age!) wow the audiences with their magical chemistry. Now, with the royal wedding gaining worldwide press in London, Fred and Jane are booked there in their latest show and find romance among the festivities. They are so accustomed to working together that the idea of breaking up is a difficult thought to consider.An enjoyable show biz musical originally created for Fred and June Allyson (and later Fred and Judy Garland), it ended up being the gorgeous Ms. Powell who slugged Astaire around in the unforgettable comedy number, "How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Loved You When You Know I've Been a Liar All My Life?". (I'd like to see how they fit that onto sheet music!) Powell's daintiness disappears in her black wig, Jersey accent and gum-chewing while saying lines like "You used to treat me like a high class dame" (teeth clenched of course). Then there's their dance on a rocking cruise ship crossing the Atlantic where everything but the ship's wheel gets into the way of their routine. And of course, don't forget Fred looking for his hat in Haiti where none of the chorus people playing Haitian natives are black.So there's a great deal of minor things to gripe about here, but when you've got Fred dancing on the ceiling while singing "You're all the World to Me" (a song which sounds amazingly like "I Want to be a Minstrel Man" from the Eddie Cantor musical "Kid Millions"), you have a moment that in 1951 you know audiences were buzzing about even when they saw the original trailer before the film's release.The funniest bit though comes from Keenan Wynn in a dual role as Astaire and Powell's American agent and his British twin brother, their split screen phone conversations as funny as Ethel Merman's conversations with the unseen Harry Truman in "Call Me Madam". This is without a doubt one of Wynn's best performances, stealing every moment he is on screen.As for Sarah Churchill as Astaire's love interest, she only dances with him briefly in one audition sequence, and comes off rather ordinary, moments of charm coming through here and there. Peter Lawford's obvious playboy love interest for Powell is barely explored, one sequence in an old British mansion giving you a glimpse into his family struggles which is never explored. As for the royal wedding itself, you definitely see the procession, but there is actually never any indication of who it is, the assumption being the then Princess Elizabeth who had married a few years before and by now was the mother of two children.

There's not even enough substance in this movie to call it champagne, its pure soda pop."Royal Wedding" is a true classic Astaire movie. It contains the spectacular number where he dances on the walls and ceiling of his room, and its worth watching just for that.The plot is amusing if only because its so flimsy, even by the standards of movie musicals. Astaire and Powell play a brother and sister dance team who go to England to star in a show at about the same time as the royal wedding of (then) Princess Elizabeth II. They both fall in love. They decided (for like two minutes) that they don't want to get married, and then they change their minds and they both marry their loved ones. That's it, no wacky misunderstandings, no awkward situations, nothing. There are one or two other subplots, but they are resolved in equally effortless ways. Its like the shortest episode of Three's Company ever.Of course the plot is padded by like half a dozen dance numbers, which are nothing special (except the aforementioned dancing on the ceiling routine), but since its Fred Astaire, they are a joy to watch.Keenan Wynne has a really fun part, playing twin brothers, one from Brooklyn and one from London. He clearly has a wonderful time doing several routines where he plays both brothers having long distance phone calls with each other.Anyway, its a very fun more, but totally lacking in any kind of substance.