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
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