Judy Garland and Fred Astaire lookin' good in their spiffy duds and 1080p High Definition.I suppose ...

1. Holiday Din: MGM's Easter to Dye For... - New York classic
movie
Judy Garland and Fred Astaire lookin' good in their spiffy duds and 1080p High Definition.
I suppose Fred Astaire and Judy Garland fans are hopping for joy about the new Warner Bros. HD
Blu-Ray release of the 1948 blockbuster EASTER PARADE...and why the hell not? If you worship at
their respective celluloid shrines, this refurbished Technicolor bon-bon is by and far the best
evocation of Irving Berlin's musical that your peepers are ever to set their sights on.
(c) Warner Home Video
To be honest, I like this pic - but I don't love it. Admittedly, seeing a great copy of a movie does
ratchet it up the plus scale. But, for me, EASTER PARADE is a tad on the diabetic side...especially
when one is privy to what could have been.
True, the movie pulled out all the stops - the first time Berlin and MGM ever collided; and, yes, it
does contain 17 - count 'em - 17 tunes out of the songmeister's formidable catalogue. Then there's
Astaire and Garland - certainly not amateur night at the old barn dance.
But the origins of EASTER PARADE told quite a different tale. The first director assigned to the
project was Vincente Minnelli. The scriptwriters were the team of Frances Goodrich and Albert
Hackett. Their screenplay intrigued Minnelli BECAUSE it wasn't the typical goody-goody fare. It
painted some rather dark strokes about show business (and, let's face it, there are some gray areas
in the director's Meet Me in St. Louis and even in the later 1954 Minnelli-Goodrich-Hackett
collaboration The Long, Long Trailer - a movie I personally love, and one which Desi Arnaz confided
to me in 1975 as being "...the best thin Lute-zy an' I ever did!") just as their subsequent comedies
with Minnelli (Father cable reel of the Bride and Father's Little Dividend) depicted a not-so-perfect
look at post-war American suburban life.

2. Goodrich and Hackett are probably best-known today for scripting It's a Wonderful Life, which,
frankly, isn't the happiest picture either. Not that I'm insinuating that their vision of EASTER
PARADE would have given A Couple of Swells an ulterior abusive meaning - implying the aftermath
of an argument between the Kramdens (then again, one can't ignore that they did go on to win
accolades for their adaptation of that wacky, riotous Broadway show, The Diary of Anne Frank).
Nevertheless their unvarnished screenplay is one I crave to peruse.
Shortly after the husband-and-wife team's final draft was delivered, Minnelli was furloughed; Sidney
Sheldon, the young upstart writer, who had just scored a major coup at RKO with The Bachelor and
the Bobby-Soxer, was brought in to doctor the scenario. Time was running out - as they needed the
picture to be in theaters for the upcoming Easter holidays. Gene Kelly and Garland were primed at
the starting gate and were awaiting Sheldon's revisions, as was producer Arthur Freed. Why
Minnelli was let go became a classic MGM sugar-coated fantasy. The PR take was that the studio felt
Minnelli and Garland had been working too much together, and, for diversity's sake, wanted to give
their beloved star a change of pace. In reality, the real reason was that their marriage was already
showing some telltale disharmonious cracks buttressed by the fact that their recently completed
Technicolor outing The Pirate was testing poorly in preview screenings.
Charles Walters, who had been doing AD work at Metro, as well as supervising musical numbers,
was brought in by Freed - and benevolently rewarded with his first full-scale directorial credit.
These changes were just the surface scratches of the EASTER PARADE curse. Shortly before
production was to commence, Kelly broke his ankle. Fred Astaire, already into his first of
approximately 9000 retirements, was coaxed to take over at the last minute. Garland was nervous -
having never worked with Astaire (who had previously scored big time in two Berlin smashes for
Paramount, Holiday Inn and Blue Skies). Sheldon was appalled - deeming it shocking to think that a
love story between the veteran dancing star and Garland would be tolerated by mainstream
audiences, since their age differences were practically scandalous. Really, Sidney? In Hollywood?
Older guy, young would-be actress? Wow! Not even in lieu of the fact that since the 1920s spools of
film had been successfully mined highlighting not-yet-legal teens Loretta Young, Myrna Loy, Jean
Arthur and others in amour-toujour tales opposite forty-somethings Lon Chaney, Jack Barrymore,
and most notoriously Charlie Chaplin (which infamously spilled into from the reel to the real)? No
dice, eh?
Which brings us to costar Ann Miller, a replacement for lamented-torn-ligamented casualty Cyd
Charisse; unlucky-in-love Miller was just coming off a violent relationship which left her with a
broken back. Rather than lose the op of ascending from Columbia to Metro, she amazingly
performed the knock-out Shakin' the Blues Away number in a steel spine brace. FYI, Sid, she was
also, at the time "dating" none other than chicken soup/amphetamine dispenser studio head Louis B.
Mayer. Astaire himself would nine years later have one of his greatest roles in Funny Face - opposite
Audrey Hepburn (born 1929)...WAYYYY younger than Garland (born 1922) was in EASTER PARADE.
Approving the new Pygmalion-esque script as saccharine enough, EASTER PARADE finally went into
a hurried production. Now don't get me wrong: I can really dig Astaire, Garland and Berlin...In fact, I
applaud such segments as Astaire's Drum Crazy number; ditto Steppin' Out With My Baby wherein
the master hoofer glides in slow-mo whilst the background dancers accentuate in real-time. And who
doesn't chortle at the charming aforementioned Fred 'n' Judy duet, A Couple of Swells? These are
no-brainers; but there's a price to pay. This is mostly personified by Peter Lawford, clunking his way
through the proceedings in possibly Berlin's worst tune ever, A Fella with an Umbrella. This is
performed during a minor MGM tsunami featuring the ungainly non-singer-dancer literally tripping
the light fantastic as he concurrently twirls a mutated vendor's brolly. It's what I subtitle Clinging in

3. the Rain - and remains a sterling example of why non-genre fans despise musicals. All the more
grating is the knowledge that his character is a supposed philharmonic genius dubbed The
Professor. If you MUST go this route - couldn't you have at least given Oscar Levant a phone call, or
sent Georges Guetary a transatlantic cable (both of whom later worked for Minnelli...in the SAME
picture)? Another supporting role that should have me claiming justified second amendment rights is
surprisingly nowhere near as offensive. Jules Munshin as a prissy head waiter is amusing enough to
qualify the comedian for Swish Buckle Medallion Valedictorian a la The Franklin Pangborn Academy
of Arts and Sciences.
Of course, there's the title song itself. Am I the only one who is pissed off that we have to wait nearly
the entire 103 minute running time for this number - and are gypped by its not being presented in its
entirety? I mean - come on - the song starts with Astaire and Garland in his apartment donning
appropriate rabbit-day attire; they do a bit of business (I mean that in a clean way)...and then we
dissolve to an admittedly magnificent matte shot of Fifth Avenue on Easter Sunday as the MGM
chorus wraps up the last stanza before the song has really had a chance to take off. Apparently, the
studio was praying that the impressive hordes of adorned parade-groomed extras would sidetrack
the audience from the fact that the main reason for the movie's being was only going to be presented
in excerpt. It's a genuine WTF moment (even more so when one realizes that a full-length rendition
of the tune was showcased in Holiday Inn six years earlier)!
Clearly what I think means nada - EASTER PARADE made a mint in 1948, becoming an instant
classic MGM musical (if one can stomach such a contradiction as an "instant classic"). During the
1960s, it would be run all night long on TV stations Saturday night into Easter Sunday...and then
again during the following afternoon. Comden and Green thought enough of The Girl on the
Magazine Cover number to include the similar Beautiful Girl (originally from 1933's Going
Hollywood) in Singin' in the Rain four years later.
Technical credits couldn't be better. Harry Stradling shot the movie in an ebullient palette of vibrant
color schemes and tones. Robert Alton choreographed the musical numbers; Irene did the costumes;
Johnny Green and Roger Edens arranged the orchestrations. So that's all A+.
Okay, now I gotta talk about the color - and this is a good thing. During the Sixties, TV stations often
had only black and white versions; MGM re-issued EASTER PARADE in Eastmancolor knock-offs,
which quickly faded to pink. Non-theatrical 16MM prints were done in Kodachrome, giving the
lavishly produced pic an unfair home movie look.
By the early 1970s, primitive CRIs (Color Reversal Intermediates) rendered the picture washed out
with primary colors being blue and gray, which only registers with viewers if they're Civil War buffs.
All of this was corrected by the mid-late 1980s when digital remastering finally restored a semblance
of the 1948 release's pigmentation. Various laserdiscs and DVD versions improved upon the
imagery, but up until now, in the 1080p Blu-Ray, the visuals have never been as sharp. My one
complaint is that the colors occasionally look a bit too saturated, but, as indicated at the beginning
of this piece, it's the best this title has ever looked - or is likely to ever look.
The extras have been on display before - but, since the main reason for purchasing EASTER PARADE
is the picture upgrade...who cares? These supplements comprise running commentary by Ava
Astaire McKenzie (the dancer's daughter) and musical expert extraordinaire John Fricke. The pair
also appears in an informative 2005 thirty-five-minute documentary, Easter Parade: On the Avenue.
There is a radio promo, the trailer and a rediscovered excised number, Mr. Monotony (no raffish
pun, I promise), presented in outtakes and dailies. A 1951 Screen Guild Theatre radio broadcast is
also included. Promos and jacket cover art herald the American Masters PBS special Judy Garland:

4. By Myself...but I couldn't find it. Either it was discarded after the publicity materials were printed,
or, it's what has ironically become known in the lingo of small platter patter ...as an Easter egg.
Happy hunting.
EASTER PARADE. Color. Full frame [1.37:1]; 1080p High Definition. Mono audio: 1.0 DTS-HD
[English and Spanish]. 1000332829. SRP: $19.98. Warner Home Video.
http://www.examiner.com/review/holiday-din-mgm-s-easter-to-dye-for