ROYAL WEDDING (1951) - August 26th

TCM gives me one guideline for writing this column: Be Honest. In all honesty, I never loved musicals with the same passion as Westerns, films noir or political thrillers. As it turns out, I was wrong. (If I were running for president, I'd say my position has "evolved.")

I'm recommending Royal Wedding because it will forever be the film that made me re-think musicals. For that, I have to thank Jane Powell, who stars as Fred Astaire's young sister. I was preparing to interview Jane (I call her Jane) before we screened the movie at our TCM Classic Film Festival in April. So I watched it. Mind you, I'd seen it, but Royal Wedding is one of those movies famous for its scenes and not necessarily for the film as a whole. You know Fred Astaire dancing on the wall in "You're All the World to Me" and you know him dancing with the hat stand in "Sunday Jumps," but until you see all the numbers in the sequence of the entire film, you haven't really seen it. And in this context, as I watched Astaire lead the hat stand (it's a HAT STAND, for cryin' out loud!), my jaw dropped to new depths. Trust me, it's more impressive than you remember.

Later, Astaire and Jane do a bawdy vaudeville number with the longest title in MGM history, "How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Love You When You Know I've Been a Liar All My Life." Immediately after the movie, I found and e-mailed the YouTube clip of it to my idiot friends. They're still idiots, but at least they got to see one of the great camp numbers in movie musical history.

There's a great story about how Jane Powell got the role too, replacing June Allyson and Judy Garland. I've run out of space to tell the story. Suffice it to say, MGM cast the right actress. After you spend five minutes with Jane Powell, you instantly wish she were your mother. Check that. You wish it were 1951 and she was your girlfriend-- the girl who makes re-think musicals.

by Ben Mankiewicz