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The Royal Wedding Reviews
The Royal Wedding Reviews
| 25 of 27 people found the following review helpful  Taps Across the Ocean, By This review is from: Royal Wedding / The Belle of New York (DVD) Leonard Maltin gives three stars to Royal Wedding, but only two and one half to The Belle of New York, which he calls "uninspired". Royal Wedding exists in more than forty versions on DVD, including budget versions and in sets. My reason for choosing this new edition is that first, it's in print, while many of the other aren't, and second this is a film that deserves to be seen in a quality version without the skips, stops, color bleeds and edits on some of the budget releases.After the lackluster opening number, I was ready to turn off Royal Wedding, but as if rising to the challenge, it quickly picked up steam, first with the incredible choreography of Astaire in the gym, next with Powell's wonderful singing, and finally with the excellent Lerner/ Lane musical numbers. Like all Hollywood musical in a musicals, there are long, lavish showstopping stretches of singing and dancing. This film, however, also dazzles with its vivid British sets and lavish scenery and a perfect... Read more 20 of 24 people found the following review helpful Astaire at his best, and the movies aren't bad, either, By Amazon Verified Purchase This review is from: Royal Wedding / The Belle of New York (DVD) This disc is welcome news for Astaire fans. It resurrects two films which which have many pleasant moments and contain three outstanding musical numbers. Belle of New York, the movie which spends more time with Astaire dancing than any of his other movies, has been long unavailable except for an out-of-print VHS tape. Royal Wedding has been all too available in uniformly execrable public domain releases.BELLE OF NEW YORK: This was one of Astaire's few critical and box office losers. The flaws, in hindsight, are obvious. The New York playboy Astaire plays is charming but an emotional light-weight. He finds love eventually and he never loses his charm. Still, he's a shallow guy. The Salvation Army-type lass he falls in love with is played by Vera-Ellen, who was always perky and a supremely proficient dancer. Still, there's something chilly, to my mind, about her dancing. She can do any step Astaire does, but does it with little spontaneity. The smile on her face while... Read more 13 of 15 people found the following review helpful  Five Stars for Royal Wedding; One Star for Belle of New York, Amazon Verified Purchase This review is from: Royal Wedding / The Belle of New York (DVD) "Royal Wedding" is among the top five or so of the great Technicolor musicals of the late 1940s and 1950s. For fans of the genre, it is not to be missed, and finally a decent-looking studio release is available. "The Belle of New York", on the other hand, is a different story.How do these misfires happen? You have the number-one musical-producing studio and number-one musical star of all time, a worthy partner, a supporting cast of terrific character actors, a pair of great songwriters, top pros writing and directing, and yet the result of their collaboration is this lifeless waste of an hour and a half. "The Belle of New York" is Astaire's second-to-worst movie, better only than the dreadful "Yolanda and the Thief". The plot is uninteresting, and Fred's character is perhaps, this time, just a bit too much of a wastrel to be sympathetic. The special effect of the couple floating and dancing in the air is too silly to watch without a little embarrassment, and the comedy... Read more |
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