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Easter Parade

EASTER PARADE

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CREDITS

1948, 103 minutes, Technicolor.
Producer, Arthur Freed; Director, Charles Walters; Screenplay, Sidney Sheldon, Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett; Music Direction, Johnny Green and Georgie Stoll; Choreography, Robert Alton.

CAST

Hannah Brown, Judy Garland; Don Hewes, Fred Astaire; Jonathan Harrow 3rd, Peter Lawford; Nadine Hale, Ann Miller; Francois, Jules Munshin; Mike, Clinton Sundberg; Essie, Jeni LeGon; Singer, Richard Beavers; Specialty Dancers, Pat Jackson, Dee Turnell, Bobbie Priest.

SONGS

Easter Parade; It Only Happens When I Dance With You; Happy Easter; Drum Crazy; Everybody's Doing It Now; I Want To Go Back To Michigan; A Fella With An Umbrella; I Love a Piano; Snooky Ookums; Ragtime Violin; When the Midnight Choo Choo Leaves for Alabam'; Shaking the Blues Away; Stepping Out With My Baby; A Couple of Swells; Beautiful Faces Need Beautiful Clothes; The Girl On the Magazine Cover; Better Luck Next Time by Irving Berlin.

PLOT SYNOPSIS

"The plot is a lightweight bit of froth about a backstage romance which evolves when Astaire, a dancer, is deserted by his partner, Ann Miller, when she gets a chance to go into a Ziegfeld show. He picks Judy out of a cabaret chorus line as a replacement, and quick-as-a-timestep, they're on their way to the top - Astaire pining all the while for his first love until he finally realizes whom he really wants to escort in the Easter Parade."
- Lawrence B. Thomas, The MGM Years

NOTES

"As backstage romances go, it was no world-beater, but the perfect cue for a casket of Berlin evergreens which its attractive cast. . .sang and danced with immense elan. . .The result was the year's best musical."
- Clive Hirschhorn, The Hollywood Musical

"The important thing is that Fred Astaire is back, with Irving Berlin calling the tunes."
- Newsweek

"There's not much comedy and not much invention in this oversize MGM musical, but Fred Astaire and Judy Garland finally get to their great number "A Couple of Swells." "
- Pauline Kael, 5001 Nights At The Movies

ACADEMY AWARD WINNER:
Best Scoring of a Musical Picture

Easter Parade was the 2nd highest-grossing film of the year. See Box Office Hits

Gene Kelly was originally cast in the Fred Astaire role; Kathryn Grayson was originally cast in the Ann Miller part.

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