Easter Parade (1948) Review

Title: Easter Parade
Year: 1948
Director: Charles Walters
Country: US
Language: English

Winning the Oscar for "Best Score" at the 1948 Academy Awards came at a steep price for Easter Parade;  20th Century Fox paid famed composer Irving Berlin a vast sum of $600,000 (7.8 million adjusting inflation) to build the film around the songs. Of course having the immortal Judy Garland & iconic Fred Estaire (who replaced Gene Kelly after an injury) in the lead roles guaranteed that the film would be a tremendous success at the box office. 

In this, a nightclub performer (Fred Astaire) hires a naïve chorus girl (Judy Garland) to become his new dance partner to make his former partner jealous and to prove he can make any partner a star.

Marketing this as "the happiest musical ever made", MGM certainly delivered on the tagline with a whopping 17 musical numbers in a 1hr 40min run-time. Many, such as the title song, are memorable & will have you humming long after the picture is over. The choreography is remarkable; there is one song Fred Astaire dances to that Michael Jackson must have taken inspiration from to make his iconic Smooth Criminal music video decades later. 

Astaire & Garland are a charismatic pair that make Easter Parade a worthwhile repeat viewing. It's quite surprising that this is the first - and only- film that features the duo. Garland plays a vulnerable yet empowering character. Astaire gives a vulnerability to the typical masculine archetype too. Light on plot, but full of love, these two powerhouses of the Silver Screen are at peak entertainment. 

While it isn't my favourite of either's filmography (that would be Top Hat & Meet Me in St. Louis) Easter Parade is a wonderful viewing that, while a little too stagey at times, proves to be a tremendous hit. This is a "they don't make films like these anymore!" type of movie.