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Most of Astaire’s esteemed career is boiled down to his time with Ginger Rogers in such films as Top Hat and Swing Time. That said, he managed to make an impression by himself for years afterward, with romantic leads as notable as Judy Garland (in Easter Parade). Here, though, the real chemistry Astaire has isn’t with the woman playing his paramour, Sarah Churchill, but with the actress playing his sister, Jane Powell. What’s most immediately striking about Powell is not that she is beautiful; plenty of actresses were in this time. Powell, though, is beautiful in a very modern way, spritely, prankish, spunky, and also very pretty. In her various scenes, both with Astaire and the actor playing her new man, future Rat Packer Peter Lawford, Powell shines most when she’s riffing with Astaire off the dance floor.

This is, in essence, the issue with any movie starring Fred Astaire, as opposed to Gene Kelly. For whatever reason, while both men are amazing dancers, unparalleled in their craft and charisma, Astaire’s affable nature dissipates a bit when he’s not tapping a rhythm. Gene Kelly dances superlatively in Singin’ In The Rain, but the film is also a trenchantly witty movie about making movies with plenty of great gags and one-liners (“Why, I make more money than…Calvin Coolidge! PUT TOGETHER!”), sweet songs, and entertaining performances. Kelly was also in the almost-as-great An American in Paris, replete with a climactic dance sequence but also featuring great characters and a compelling romance. Fred Astaire is a great dancer and a good actor, but he wasn’t able to find someone as equal to him as Ginger Rogers, to the detriment of his future work.

Royal Wedding’s not a bad movie, mind you. If you enjoy MGM-era material, you’ll find a lot to like here, but after a while, if you’ve heard the same notes, it’s not so compelling to hear them rearranged. Fred Astaire is always going to be one of the best dancers of all time, and as a screen presence, he was relatively commanding. As an actor, he was watchable, but none of his films were as adventurous and brave as the dances he’d perform on screen. Both he and Kelly are memorable figures in the world of film and dance, marrying the two art forms, but only Kelly had the insight to make the movies about more than just dancing. You can watch An American in Paris as a great film, or as a great work of dance. Royal Wedding is charming and cute and light, and if it wasn’t for Astaire dancing on the ceiling, we’d have forgotten it long ago if not for Turner Classic Movies.

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