Royal Wedding (1951)

Royal Wedding
Director: Stanley Donen
Starring: Fred Astaire  Jane Powell  Peter Lawford  Sarah Churchill  Keenan Wynn
Year of release: 1951
Running time: 93 Min.
Age restriction: PG
Category: Comedy  Musical  Romance  

Fred Astaire dances on the ceiling in this 1951 Alan Jay Lerner musical for MGM, directed by Stanley Donen (Singin’ in the Rain). The appealing story finds Astaire as part of a brother-and-sister act (along with Jane Powell) that travels to London at the time of Queen Elizabeth II’s wedding. Astaire and Powell each find romances that threaten to break up the act, but that’s mostly fun window dressing in a movie better known for some truly creative sequences made vivid by Donen, including Astaire’s famous dance with a hat rack and his duet with Powell, “How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Loved You (When You Know I’ve Been a Liar All My Life)?”

Awards: Nominated for Oscar.