I really wasn't in the mood for a religious movie for Easter. Probably
should have recorded The Robe (1953), which I've never seen.

Fortunately, the ready antidote is Easter Parade (1948) with no
religious message whatsoever. This is a special movie, the only time
Fred Astaire and Judy Garland would dance together.

17 Irving Berlin songs! Most of his songs are cheerful, if not
relentlessly cheerful, and you can't help humming them. Judy does get to
torch one up, "Better Luck Next Time". The most incredible story about
Irving Berlin is that the producer asked that he replace one of his
songs with another to allow Judy Garland to clown a bit. That song was
"We're a Couple of Swells". It's a great number with song and dance by
Fred and Judy in front of moving scenery. Berlin wrote it in about an
hour.

Fred gets a great production number with "Steppin' Out With My Baby",
with an amazingly talented group of backup dancers. Fred moves at half
speed while the backup dancers move at normal speed.

Ann Miller gets a great song and dance number "Shakin' the Blues Away".
It always looks like she'll trip on the cape but she never does.

But the scene that's the most fun is Fred dancing in the toy store and
singing "Drum Crazy". He needs to buy a toy rabbit for Ann Miller; a boy
has grabbed the last one. Fred distracts him with a highly percussive
dance, leaping over a display case to play toy drums, then incorporating
full size drums into the end of the dance. It's a brilliant solo.

There's a plot about love complications among the four leads, including
Peter Lawford (who does sing one number but doesn't dance). Plot
schmot. Who cares. What I've read started out as a mean-spirited script was turned into a light-hearted script by Sidney Sheldon. Several fun running
gags: Judy, a professional dancer by that time for close to two decades,
has to be taught how to dance by Fred, and she can't remember how to tell
her right leg from her left! Peter Lawford tells the operator to dial
a different phone number to reach Ann Miller (still at the same hotel)
each time. Jules Munshin is given a chance to prove his value to the
studio is featured in several scenes as a waiter who lovingly describes
food that never gets ordered to the main cast, especially the salad.
Based on a favorable audience, he'd be the third lead in On the Town the following year.

Other people were supposed to be in the movie. Fred replaced Gene Kelly
who had broken his ankle. Miller replaced Cyd Charise who had torn
ligaments.

Ann Miller danced in a back brace and great pain as her husband,
attempting to murder her while she was pregant, had thrown her down
stairs.

Set between the Easter Parades along Fifth Avenue in 1911 and 1912, a
couple of the songs by Berlin had actually been written in that era by
Berlin while he was a Tin Pan Alley composer and songwriter.

The song "Easter Parade" was written by Berlin in 1933 and had appeared
in Broadway revues and other movies before this one. On his radio
program, Jack and Mary always did a routine using the song and walking
up the Avenue as an Easter tradition.

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