I normally like movie musicals but not this one.<br /><br />At the time, young director Francis Ford Coppola was in way over his head and clearly out of his element. He did not know how to shape dialog or stage the songs - he seems unbelievably clueless. The movie crawls along at a snail's pace. It absolutely amazes me that the studio didn't pull him off the project after the first few weeks. <br /><br />There's hardly anything to recommend this film.<br /><br />Fred Astaire and Petula Clark's talents were really wasted here and it's almost painful to watch.<br /><br />Amazingly, the director and cameraman did not even pull the cameras back far enough to see Astaire's feet when he was dancing! The feet or legs are actually at the edge of the frame or sometimes out of frame altogether. <br /><br />Some good music, lousy story, BAD direction and a movie worth missing.<br /><br />If you are interested in good movie musicals of the same era, try Music Man 1962, Sound of Music 1965, Funny Girl 1968, Hello Dolly 1969, Godspell 1973.