Finian's Rainbow (film)
1968 film by Francis Ford Coppola
Finian's Rainbow is a 1968 film about an Irish immigrant and his daughter move into a town in the American South with a magical piece of gold that changes people's lives.
- Directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Written by Yip Harburg and Fred Saidy.
Let yourself glow (taglines)
Finian McLonergan
edit- Don't be superstitious, it's bad luck.
- [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
edit- My family's been having nothing but trouble with immigrants ever since they come to this country!
- [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 commonwealth, 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!
Og
edit- [singing] When I'm not near the girl I love/ I love the girl I'm near!
- What fools these mortals be!
Dialogue
edit- Sharon McLonergan: [looking in Finian's bag] It's gold!
- Finian McLonergan: Aye, it's a pot of gold.
- Sharon McLonergan: And you stole it!
- Finian McLonergan: I did not steal it! I only borrowed.
- Sharon McLonergan: Who did you borrow it from?
- Finian McLonergan: Why do you want to know?
- Sharon McLonergan: So we can lend it right back to him, that's why!
- Finian McLonergan: That's impossible! He's not mortal.
- Sharon McLonergan: You killed him!
- Finian McLonergan: Of course not! He never was mortal. He's a leprechaun.
- Sharon McLonergan: A leprechaun?
- Finian McLonergan: Of course! Who else would have gold in Ireland?
- 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.
- Finian McLonergan: What do you think makes America different from Ireland?
- Sharon McLonergan: It has more Irishmen?
- Senator Billboard Rawkins: You've been violating the law, here.
- Finian McLonergan: Since when?
- Senator Billboard Rawkins: This afternoon. I just finished drafting this. [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!
- Finian McLonergan: Leprechaun, I've come to a decision! I deny your existence! You're only a figment of me imagination!
- Og: I am?
- Finian McLonergan: And I'll prove it to myself by walking right through you! [He walks toward Og] Step aside! [Og jumps out of the way] There, you see?
- Og: Oh, this is dreadful! I don't exist.
- Finian McLonergan: How dare you come back here! Didn't I tell you you were an optical delusion?
- Og: I was ready to believe you yesterday but not today. Today I have proof!
- Finian McLonergan: What proof?
- Og: Does an optical illusion feel such a hungry yearning burning inside of him? Does an optical illusion feel the beat, beat, beat of the tom-tom in the roaring traffic's boom in his lonely room?
- Finian McLonergan: Are you flying high and wide on a magic carpet ride full of butterflies inside?
- Og: Aye, and what's worse, smoke keeps coming out of me eyes.
- Finian McLonergan: You go round like an elevator lost in the tide?
- Og: That's the feeling! Day and night, night and day!
- Woody Mahoney: How'd you get so pretty? And so rich?
- Sharon McLonergan: Well, you see, in Glocca Morra, where we come from, there's an old legend, and it says: 'You'll never grow old and you'll never grow poor, if you look to the rainbow, beyond the next moor.'
- Woody Mahoney: That's a lovely legend.
- Sharon McLonergan: Aye.
- Woody Mahoney: I wonder who thought it up.
- Sharon McLonergan: My father: Finian McLonnergan.
- Finian McLonergan: How are things in Glocca Morra?
- Og: Oh, alas, alack, and willy-wally! I weep for Ireland.
- Finian McLonergan: Why, what's happened?
- Og: A blight has fallen over Ireland!
- Finian McLonergan: The British are back?
- Og: Never have I seen such a curse befall a folk in all me four hundrend and fifty... nine years! Poor Ireland!
- Finian McLonergan: Poor Ireland!
- Og: Suffering Ireland! The native land!
- Finian McLonergan: Me native land! A fine lot of faery folk you are! You and your associates letting all this happen! Why don't you wish it away?
- Og: We've lost the power!
- Finian McLonergan: You've lost the power to make wishes? What has Ireland to live for now! Answer me that!
- Og: Doom and gloom! DOOOOOOOOM AND GLOOOOOOOOM!
- Finian McLonergan: Who's the author of this foul outrage?
- Og: A monster, McLonnergan!
- Finian McLonergan: A monster? You mean the old flame-breathing type with the head of a dragon?
- Og: Oh, no, this is a tiny wee monster, about... your size.
- Finian McLonergan: Lead me to him! Who is this monster?
- Og: You'll excuse me for pointing, Mr. McLonnergan... but it's you.
- Senator Billboard Rawkins: I can't show my face.
- Og: What's wrong with your face?
- Senator Billboard Rawkins: Are you blind, boy? I'm black!
- Og: I think it's very becoming.
- Senator Billboard Rawkins: It is NOT! I'm a white man, dammit! A white man! At least I was, up until a couple of days ago.
- Og: Well, that's a coincidence! I was green a couple of weeks ago! Don't you find the occasional change of color interesting?
Taglines
edit- Let yourself glow
- If all you want out of a movie is a great, big, wonderful time - just follow the rainbow - whistle the songs - and join in the fun.
Cast
edit- Fred Astaire — Finian McLonergan
- Petula Clark — Sharon McLonergan
- Tommy Steele — Og
- Don Francks — Woody Mahoney
- Keenan Wynn — Senator Billboard Rawkins
- Barbara Hancock — Susan the Silent
- Al Freeman Jr. — Howard
- Ronald Colby — Buzz Collins
- Dolph Sweet — Sheriff
- Wright King — District Attorney
- Louil Silas — Henry
External links
edit- Finian's Rainbow quotes at the Internet Movie Database
- Finian's Rainbow at Allmovie