It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

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.

This is a totally misconceived musical fantasy that never knows what direction it's heading in. Parts of it are sticky-gooey religious drek with heiress Yolanda Aquaviva (Lucille Bremer) graduating from a convent to take her place at the head of the country's richest family. The other story thread concerns grifters (Fred Astaire and Frank Morgan) entering the country (it looks like Bolivia) to escape the American police. With assistance from an archangel (Leon Ames)the stories meet.Mildred Natwick, as the loony aunt, comes off best in a delightfully comic performance. Ames and Morgan have almost nothing to do. Astaire, with his worst toupee in a major film, seems bored. Bremer (of the twitchy eyes) has almost zero acting talent. The color cinematography and set decoration will knock your eyes out, but as the scenes run from obvious artsy sets to real back drops, there seems to be no consistency or authorial vision.Aside from a few comic moments (which belong to Natwick) the only things that saves this film from total failure is the musical number "Coffee Time." The set up is a carnival where Astaire and Bremer get pushed into doing a dance together. The oddly syncopated "Coffee Time" catches the viewer off guard because it's so damned good and quite arresting.The number is introduced by three girls who clap in counter beat to the slightly South American sounds of the main melody. Then swirls of dancers join in, also clapping their four-beat counter tempo. Finally Astaire and Bremer take the spotlight and for a few moments they both come alive as they dance across the amazingly psychedelic floor of black and white wavy streaks. This is a great song/number stuck in a lousy film.After the song, we resume the dreary narrative. I have no idea what director Vincente Minnelli was trying for, but nothing works. It's not a fantasy, it's not funny, and the religious angle is a total dud. Thank heaven for Mildred Natwick, the color cinematography, and "Coffee Time."

An interesting film -- a mixture of light comedy, romance, and fantasy, with a dream sequence of very modernistic music and a surreal dance number. Astaire accompanies himself on a harp in one scene and in another dances on a floor with wavy lines that create a three-dimensional optical illusion effect which is almost disconcerting. Frank Morgan (the Wizard of Oz) and Mildred Natwick give excellent supporting performances, as does Leon Ames, who appeared in many movies of the 1940's. It's one of Astaire's better dance movies, but completely different from his earlier ones in tone, creativity, and romantic expression, and it's in color. Worth seeing again.

A piece of Hollywood hokum, this musical has Lucille Bremer as an heiress who has been sheltered all her young life in a convent, and Fred Astaire as an enterprising thief who (stay with us here) presents himself, and is accepted as, Yolanda's guardian angel! Of course his aim is to get all her money and disappear over the border, but he's foiled along the way by fate (or is it?). The good thing about this hard to swallow fable is that there are two or three really enterprising dance numbers, and they are worth your time. But there are no real story surprises - the 'twist' you can probably see coming a mile away and of course, there is always a happy ending and a quick resolve in an MGM movie.

Canned magic from MGM and director Vincente Minnelli. Lushly-produced, if studio-bound musical about convent-school graduate who unknowingly inherits family fortune, and the con-artist who tries duping her out of it. Certainly an eyeful, "Yolanda" is tuneful and colorful yet aloof, never quite achieving its ambitions to be a romantic musical-comedy. The awkward prologue featuring South American schoolchildren gets the picture off to a clumsy start, although director Vincente Minnelli stages some beautiful production numbers. Fred Astaire and Lucille Bremer are not magnificent together, but they are charming, and their "Coffee Time" number is glorious. Mildred Natwick is hilarious as Bremer's batty aunt and there's a humdinger of a fiesta sequence. The colorful costumes are knockouts, but the film's finale seems truncated, tampered with (the plot threads are tied up off-screen). The cinematographer was Charles Rosher, whose beautiful colors evoke the best parts of "The Wizard Of Oz". Unfortunately for him and everyone else, the confines of the studio are in evidence throughout and one feels boxed in by the wall-to-wall whimsy. ** from ****