Finian’s Rainbow (1968)

Although it ran for 725 performances on Broadway, it’s tempting to suggest that the reason this satirical musical took 21 years to make it to the screen was because studio executives recognised that its magic works best on the stage.

Even old hands would have struggled to balance the whimsical story of a leprechaun searching for his stolen gold with sharp insights into racism and greed.

Directing his first film for a major studio, Francis Ford Coppola fumbles both fantasy and sermon.

However, Fred Astaire, in one of his last starring roles, is as charmingly watchable as ever as Finian McLonergan, who arrives in America from Ireland with a crock of gold, intending to bury it near Fort Knox in the hope that it will multiply in value.

But complications arise through his daughter Sharon’s adventures and the arrival of a leprechaun who wants the gold back.

Finian McLonergan
Fred Astaire
Sharon McLonergan
Petula Clark
Og
Tommy Steele
Woody
Don Francks
Susan the Silent
Barbara Hancock
Judge Billboard Rawkins
Keenan Wynn
Howard
Al Freeman Jr
Sharecropper
Brenda Arnau
Henry
Louis Silas
Sheriff
Dolph Sweet
District Attorney
Wright King

Director
Francis Ford Coppola