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Finian's Rainbow Overview:

Finian's Rainbow (1968) was a Musical - Fantasy Film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and produced by Joel Freeman and Joseph Landon.

Academy Awards 1968 --- Ceremony Number 41 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best Music - ScoringAdaptation score by Ray HeindorfNominated
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Finian's Rainbow BlogHub Articles:

Warner Archive Blu-ray: Musical Stars Go Modern in Finian's Rainbow (1968) and S.O.B. (1981)

By KC on Apr 6, 2017 From Classic Movies

This month, Warner Archive has released a pair of titles on Blu-ray where classic musical stars adapt themselves to modern times. Fred Astaire abandons the controlled environment of a big studio sound stage for wide open spaces in Finian's Rainbow (1968), while Julie Andrews exposes her raunchy side... Read full article

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Finian's Rainbow Quotes:

Finian McLonergan: [singing] Green is the color of the shamrocks /and the grass on Blarney hill / Oh, the darlin' green of Ireland /and the good old dollar bill.
Senator Billboard Rawkins: You've been violating the law, here.
Finian McLonergan: Since when?
Senator Billboard Rawkins: This afternoon. I just finished drafting this.
Senator Billboard Rawkins: [reading] Local ordinance number 7428: be it known that in the county of Rainbow Valley, it is a felony for members of the Caucasian and Negro races...
Finian McLonergan: But it seems to me that this law could not be a legal law...
Senator Billboard Rawkins: Of course it's legal! I don't know where you immigrants get these radical, foreign ideas!
Sharon McLonergan: From a wee book the immigration officer handed us. It's called 'The United States Constitution.'
Finian McLonergan: Haven't you read it?
Senator Billboard Rawkins: I don't have time to read it, I'm too busy defending it!
Sharon McLonergan: Father is a mineralogist from the old country. He can make gold sprout out of the ground.
Senator Billboard Rawkins: Gold? There's no gold in Ireland.
Finian McLonergan: I meself discovered a vein our countrymen have been searching for ever since the reign of... Alfred the Thoughtless.
Senator Billboard Rawkins: Who?
Finian McLonergan: You've never heard of Alfred the Thoughtless? He was King of Erin following his father, Thomas the Temporary, who in turn was the only son of the Virgin Queen, Serena the Spotless.
Senator Billboard Rawkins: [dictating a speech to Buzz] Gentlemen, the festering tides of radicalism are upon us. But before I yield up our glorious South -and her sister commowealth, the U.S. of A - I will lay down my life. I will do more - I will filibuster. Back, you crackpots! Forward, America! Forward to the hallowed principles of our forefathers. Forward to the sweet tranquility of the status quo. Forward... to yesterday!
Finian McLonergan: America is full of millionaires.
Sharon McLonergan: But Father, are there no ill clad or ill housed in America?
Finian McLonergan: Aye, but they're the best ill clad and the best ill housed in the world.
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Finian's Rainbow Facts
The character "Woody Mahoney" was based loosely on songwriting wanderer Woody Guthrie.
Not heard in the film is a soulful rendition of "Necessity," taken from the Burton Lane-E.Y. Harburg 1947 Broadway score and sung by Brenda Arnau with a chorus. Fortunately, this version has been preserved on the soundtrack LP from Warner Bros. Records, and more recently, on the soundtrack CD from Rhino Handmade.
The character of Billboard Rawkins, the racist senator, was based/suggested on the real-life Sen. Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi, who died while the show was being written.
The original Broadway production of "Finian's Rainbow" opened at the 46th Street Theater on January 10, 1947, ran for 725 performances and won the 1947 Tony Awards for the Best Actor (David Wayne), Music Director and Choreography.
Petula Clark, who had many hit records in French and English, does her own singing in the French-dubbed version of this film. The French audio track is included on the DVD.
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