Easter Parade: On the Avenue

I was not a huge fan of the film "Easter Parade", so I guess it's a bit surprising that I'd watch the special features disc. Well, I am very glad I did. One, an episode of "The American Experience" is brilliant and another is this very nice making of featurette.

The film consists of interviews of folks associated with the movie talking about their experiences through interviews filmed about 2005. You'll hear from the likes of Fred Astaire's daughter, Ann Miller and the writer Sidney Sheldon. I really enjoyed these stories--they made the film very interesting and explained so much of the context of the film. A few of the stories were particularly interesting, such as Louis B. Mayer proposing to a very, very young Ann Miller. I also loved the interview with the man who played the little boy in "Easter Parade". Seeing him tear up as he talked about co-starring in a scene with Fred Astaire was quite touching. The only negative is that the featurette overstated the feature film A LOT--such as calling it one of the greatest films or that the ending was among the greatest ever. No, no it wasn't. But, I guess folks doing these sort of short films are trying to drum up interest, and perhaps these overstatements can be forgiven. Overall, a dandy little film well worth your time.

This was an extra on disc 2 of the Easter Parade DVD set. Anyone familiar with the behind-the-scenes story of this movie probably won't be too surprised at what's revealed about it here like Gene Kelly's and Cyd Charisse's injuries keeping them from doing this movie with their replacements being Fred Astaire and Ann Miller. Ms. Miller reveals her injuries she suffered at her then-hubby as she filmed her dance scenes. One player who's still alive as of this writing who also did an interview here is Jimmy Bates who was the kid in the "Drum Crazy" number and tells of his getting a present from Astaire after that number being a bike. He really loved him because of that experience! Also interviewed were screenwriter Sidney Sheldon who softened Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett's original story, John Fricke-Judy Garland's biographer, and Ava Astaire-McKenzie, Fred's daughter. All provided great anecdotes about the production. So on that note, Easter Parade: On the Avenue, was a fine short doc extra on the disc.