Outside of "Flower Drum Song", I can't think of a musical that deals with an illegal immigrant, here a sweet Polish girl played by the delightful Anna Maria Alberghetti. She is seen early in the film escaping from immigration officials and heading to Greenwich Village to meet up with Lauritz Melchoir, a lovable old Polish immigrant who knew her family back in the old country. Instead, she finds a hungover shell of a legendary opera singer, reeling in pain from the tap dancing going on in the floor above him. This makes her befriend handsome Bob Williams and dancer Tommy Morton, and later Williams' girlfriend (a perky Rosemary Clooney), and breaks out singing an aria while they spoof a dog food commercial jingle that Clooney is working on. Soon finding out that she's wanted by the U.S. Immigration department, Clooney and her friends decide to plug her anyway with a different name to appear on Don Wilson's talent show where her identity is revealed, and this leads to a country wide demand for immigration to allow the young girl citizenship, something that the justice department and local congressmen are extremely opposed to.
More political in nature than most light-hearted musicals of this era, this has some touching moments, one particularly where the lovable Melchoir (a mixture of S.Z. Sakall and Sydney Greenstreet) emotionally sings "Vesti la Giubba" after listening to a recording of him in his heyday, showing the actor behind the great opera star. Clooney, taking on a rather juicy Doris Day type part, gets to sing her pop standard "Come On-A My House" and leads the foursome of Alberghetti, boyfriend Williams and dancer Morton in a Barrow Street production number, "Haven't Got a Worry in the World", dealing with typical Greenwich Village type characters straight out of "My Sister Eileen" and 1953's musical version, "Wonderful Town". The political aspect of this, mixed with the show business aspect of the film, makes it unique with Fred Clark very good as a government big wig doing his job but obviously not liking what he has to do, and Don Wilson obviously having fun spoofing himself. The always likable Lloyd Corrigan is amusing as Clooney's agent. Considering the immigration controversies in 2018, this shows how a film, probably considered dated for decades (if remembered at all), can all of a sudden become timely.
More political in nature than most light-hearted musicals of this era, this has some touching moments, one particularly where the lovable Melchoir (a mixture of S.Z. Sakall and Sydney Greenstreet) emotionally sings "Vesti la Giubba" after listening to a recording of him in his heyday, showing the actor behind the great opera star. Clooney, taking on a rather juicy Doris Day type part, gets to sing her pop standard "Come On-A My House" and leads the foursome of Alberghetti, boyfriend Williams and dancer Morton in a Barrow Street production number, "Haven't Got a Worry in the World", dealing with typical Greenwich Village type characters straight out of "My Sister Eileen" and 1953's musical version, "Wonderful Town". The political aspect of this, mixed with the show business aspect of the film, makes it unique with Fred Clark very good as a government big wig doing his job but obviously not liking what he has to do, and Don Wilson obviously having fun spoofing himself. The always likable Lloyd Corrigan is amusing as Clooney's agent. Considering the immigration controversies in 2018, this shows how a film, probably considered dated for decades (if remembered at all), can all of a sudden become timely.