Finian's Rainbow is a 1968 musical fantasy film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Fred Astaire and Petula Clark. The screenplay by E. Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy is based on their 1947 stage musical of the same name. An international co-production of Ireland and the United States, the film follows an Irishman and his daughter who steal a leprechaun's magic pot of gold and emigrate to the U.S., where they become involved in a dispute between rural landowners and a greedy, racist U.S. senator.
The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, and a Writers Guild of America Award.
Plot
A lovable rogue named Finian McLonergan absconds from his native Ireland with a crock of gold secreted in a carpetbag, plus his daughter Sharon in tow. His destination is Rainbow Valley in the (fictional) state of Missitucky, where he plans to bury his treasure in the mistaken belief that, given its proximity to Fort Knox, it will multiply.
Hot on Finian's heels is the leprechaun Og, desperate to recover his stolen crock before he turns human. Among those involved in the ensuing shenanigans are Woody Mahoney, a ne'er-do-well dreamer who woos Sharon; Woody's mute sister Susan, who expresses herself in dance; Woody's good friend and business partner Howard, an African-American botanist determined to develop a tobacco/mint hybrid; and bombastic Senator Billboard Rawkins, who wears his bigotry as if it were a badge of honor.
Complications arise when Rawkins, believing there is gold in Rainbow Valley, attempts to seize the land from the people who live there and makes some racial slurs while doing so. Sharon furiously wishes he would turn black himself and, because she happens to unknowingly be standing on the spot where the magical crock of gold (which is capable of granting three wishes) is buried, Rawkins does exactly that. Rawkins' dog, who has been trained to attack black people, chases him off into the woods. Later, the sheriff returns with the district attorney, who threatens to charge Sharon with witchcraft unless Rawkins is produced.
Rawkins runs into Og in the woods and tells him that a witch changed him from a white man to black. Seeing that the change of skin color did nothing to alter his hateful racism, Og casts a spell to make Rawkins more open-minded.
The townspeople gather in the barn for the wedding of Sharon and Woody, but the sheriff, his deputies, and the district attorney interrupt the ceremony and arrest Sharon for witchcraft. Finian convinces them that Sharon can change Rawkins back to white overnight, and they lock Sharon and Woody in the barn until daybreak. To save his daughter, Finian tries to find the crock of gold he buried, unaware that Susan has discovered it and moved it. Og meets with Susan on the bridge under which she has hidden the gold and wishes she could talk. When she begins to speak, Og realizes he must be standing above the crock.
As the district attorney sets the barn on fire with Sharon and Woody locked inside, Og debates whether or not he should use the gold's final wish to save Sharon by turning the senator white again, even if it would mean the crock would lose its magic, the gold would disappear, and he would become fully mortal. After a passionate kiss from Susan, he decides it might not be so bad to be a human and wishes for Rawkins to be white once more. Sharon and Woody are released from the burning barn, and it is discovered that Howard's mentholated tobacco experiments have at last been successful, ensuring financial success for all the poor people of Rainbow Valley, both white and black. Sharon and Woody are wed, and everyone bids a fond farewell to Finian, who leaves Rainbow Valley in search of his own rainbow.
Cast
Production
Development
Since the musical was a success on stage, an interest in filming it existed early on. MGM was interested in filming it in 1948 as a vehicle for Mickey Rooney. However, Harburg set the price for the rights at $1 million and wanted creative control. For a time, a German company wanted to make the film adaptation. In 1954, the Distributors Corporation of America tried to make it as an animated film. A soundtrack of the score was recorded by several stars, but the film was not completed. In 1958, the authors of the musical teamed with Sidney Buchman to produce a film independently, but this project did not proceed.