# Finian's Rainbow (film)

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.

## Finian McLonergan

* 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

* 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

* [singing] When I'm not near the girl I love/ I love the girl I'm near!
* What fools these mortals be!

## Dialogue

    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

* 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

* 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

* Finian's Rainbow quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* Finian's Rainbow at Allmovie