Royal Wedding (1951)

3 stars

Tom Bowen (Fred Astaire) and Ellen Bowen (Jane Powell) are a brother and sister dance team from New York. Their agent (Keenan Wynn) books them in London for performances during the time of the royal wedding. Aboard a cruise ship to London, Ellen becomes involved with aristocrat and playboy, Lord John Brindale (Peter Lawford). In London, Tom meets and falls in love with Anne Ashmond (Sarah Churchill), a dancer in his show. Despite a few minor complications, it all ends happily as the two couples find love and marriage on the day of the royal wedding.

Royal Wedding is famous for several dance sequences, including a classic number in which Astaire appears to dance on the ceiling and walls of his hotel room. Jane Powell proves to be an elegant and athletic partner for Astaire; though perhaps his best duet of the movie takes place with a hat rack he discovers on the cruise to England. This is one of Astaire's best and I highly recommend it.

Cast
Tom Bowen	Fred Astaire
Ellen Bowen	Jane Powell
Lord John Brindale	Peter Lawford
Anne Ashmond	Sarah Churchill
Irving/Edgar Klinger	Keenan Wynn
James Ashmond	Albert Sharpe

In Focus

The high point of Royal Wedding is the Ceiling Dance in which Astaire appears to dance on the ceiling and walls of his hotel room. The effect was accomplished by putting the whole set inside of a rotating cage with fixed camera mount. As the cage turned, Astaire would seamlessly dance across the four sides of the box, creating the illusion of weightlessness.

Click the play button to view this classic dance sequence. To see the dance as it appeared on the movie set, go to the start of the clip and click ↻ to rotate and play the video. Click ✋ to pause the rotation and the playback.

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