Lavish sets, thousands of extras, and cameos by virtually every big star in 1960 Hollywood can't save this disaster, done in by its stupid story, witless script, and endless running time -- originally 3 hours and 15 minutes! What were they thinking?!! I turned on TCM and discovered Shirley Jones, of all people, playing a sexy, bitter, beatnik hoofer. Huh??? I was hooked. I had to watch it to the bitter end.
They made several super-duper "cavalcade of stars" films like this around the same time: IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD, AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS, and so on. None of them were great, but this may be the worst of the pack.
Jones looks radiant and Cantinflas's charm and talent are obvious, but both are done in by the stupidity of their roles and of the story. Jones, one of the finest singers in movies, cast as a DANCER who hardly gets to sing? Dailey, a great dancer, cast in a downbeat dramatic role where he barely gets to dance? Casting doesn't get much more perverse.
Don't miss the WEST SIDE STORY rip-off, a lengthy Apache-dance sequence featuring a comely, half-naked Jones trying to make like Cyd Charisse without being given a single note to sing ... all of this with loud faux-Bernstein music on the soundtrack.
Even weirder is Judy Garland's "appearance" -- actually she doesn't appear, but the characters hear her voice singing a song, supposedly on the radio. As Alice would say, PEPE just gets "curiouser and curiouser ..." This must have been one of the overblown, elephantine messes that helped kill the Movie Musical in the 1960s.
They made several super-duper "cavalcade of stars" films like this around the same time: IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD, AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS, and so on. None of them were great, but this may be the worst of the pack.
Jones looks radiant and Cantinflas's charm and talent are obvious, but both are done in by the stupidity of their roles and of the story. Jones, one of the finest singers in movies, cast as a DANCER who hardly gets to sing? Dailey, a great dancer, cast in a downbeat dramatic role where he barely gets to dance? Casting doesn't get much more perverse.
Don't miss the WEST SIDE STORY rip-off, a lengthy Apache-dance sequence featuring a comely, half-naked Jones trying to make like Cyd Charisse without being given a single note to sing ... all of this with loud faux-Bernstein music on the soundtrack.
Even weirder is Judy Garland's "appearance" -- actually she doesn't appear, but the characters hear her voice singing a song, supposedly on the radio. As Alice would say, PEPE just gets "curiouser and curiouser ..." This must have been one of the overblown, elephantine messes that helped kill the Movie Musical in the 1960s.