Reviews

This was one of the films the U.S.A. channel used to show before they got their current boring line--up. A sweet musical comedy,featuring Rosemary Clooney befriending a young refugee and helping her to stay in country and be a star. Not much plot but light and airy entertainment with some good songs. Anna Maria and Rosie make lovely singing stars. The supporting cast is great,including the comics who play Rosie's friends. It proved Paramount was just as capable and MGM,making musicals. I wish this one was on DVD,hopefully there'll be a groundswell of interest so people can buy it.Another good Rosie picture is Here Come the Girls,with Bob Hope and Arlene Dahl.Paramount hoped Rosie would replace Betty Hutton as their resident singing star but the decline of musicals and Rosie's decision to be a wife and mother prevailed and she did mainly television.

It was getting obvious that Fred Astaire was getting a bit old for such young leading ladies but he had such natural elegance,it still worked. This fun spic directed with a sure hand by Vincent Minneli is Hollywood's look at Broadway shoes with its frantic opening night jitters,dealing with flops,the optimism of the chorus kids. One movie book complained the picture was phony,that the stars never mingled with the chorus people,it just wasn't done. Lighten up,this is a frothy musical,maybe it would have been nice if the stars did mingle with the rest of the cast. There seemed to be a lot of tension during the making of this film,Nanette Fabray got the cold shoulder from the rest of the cast and didn't know why. The costume designer Mary Ann Nyberg got no cooperation from the MGM wardrobe department. The simple net coat she dsigned for Nanette took several days to put together with different sleeves each time, When Freed wanted Cyd Charisse to wear a copy of Nyberg's simple white dress with broomstick pleated skirt, The wardrobe department cut it seven different ways on seven different days,pushing the cost of the dress up to $1000. Nyberg finally confronted the head of wardrobe with facts and figures and she was able to to do her work with no interference. Thankfully all that backstage business didn't hurt the film,although it's amusing showing Ava Gardner in a cameo playing herself being sweet to reporters unlike real life. I love the costumes and musical numbers,the DVD has the out take "Two-faced Woman' another treat. It's a real dynamic number and one of Cyd's few solo spots,one wonders if Astaire didn't want anyone moving into his spotlight so he suggested to Freed the number had to go.

I always had a crush on Noel,she was one neat lady. I loved her wardrobe and the way she filled it out,plus her nice speaking voice. For a tiny redhead,that was one real built lady. Does anyone know if she supplied her own clothes or were they purchased for her? I read in a Superman book that the cast generally wore the same outfits so they could use footage in different episodes. For such a popular show,the cast was really underpaid. They were paid by the week and the company would churn out two episodes a week,with no residuals or anything. I'm glad Noel is still around to see her fans. I was always surprised that she retired after the show ended but I suppose people linked her too strongly with the role of Lois Lane. I liked Phyllis Coates as Lois,too,by the way. Phyllis was a bit more physical and Noel was more feminine. Plus,Noel got to be in the show when they switched to color,now you could see her glorious red hair. The episode where she was mistaken as a long dead Eqyptian queen showcased her nice figure. Her followers dressed her in a Cleopactra type outfit and were planning to bury her alive in secret tomb. Luckily,Superman saved the day. I didn't like new version of Lois and Clark,she was portrayed as too business and no femininity at all,what a disappointment. I'm glad when they did the first Superman movie,they stuck to the classic image,

Being an Agatha Christie fan,it bothers me when someone adapts one of her works and never bothers to read the source material. This outing has an enjoyable cast,crisp direction,nice period touch in the sets,cars and costumes. Much to my amazement,they actually followed the original stories. Francesca Annis is fun as Tuppence,James Warwick muskies a great Tommy and Reese Dimsdale is fun as Albert,the office mainstay. It's a glance at English Life in the twenties in the upper brackets. Manor houses,servants,costume balls,things that are out of date nowadays but fun to look at. Too bad Francesca and James never reteamed for N or M,or By the Pricking of my Thumbs. The other adaptions I liked were "Why Didn't They Ask Evans?" with Francesca and James,and "The Seven Dials Mystery" with Jame Warwick,all of them excellent.

The film of Bye,Bye Birdie is fairly entertaining although the cast complained director George Sidney made it more of an Ann-Margaret movie than the stage show. The beginning number was written for the screen to showcase Annie. The most startling thing was I bought an album of her singing from the early sixties and was surprised how small and weak her voice was,I guess they really built up the volume for the movies and her singing did improve when she did stage shows. A lot of the storyline is dated and did it seem that a lot of the numbers were a bit much? They seemed to dwarf the simple storyline. Poor Annie,she looked like an angel but when she got into her dance moves she seemed a bit slutty to be a simple teen-age girl the story called for but it perked the movie up so I guess that was all that was important. I love Paul Lynde and Maureen Stapleton in the cast. Dick Van Dyke and Janet Leigh were fun,too. Not exactly a classic but fun to watch. If Lyndsay Lohan is supposed to do a remake,can she sing and dance? I haven't heard anything about her in this respect.

Betty's last major film for her home studio Pararmount was one of her best. Her acting is toned down,her singing is warm and mellow. Vocal surgery had kept her from the shouting type of singing she did so in a way this was a more mature role for her. Ralph Meeker is good as her husband Benny Fields. The sets,costumes and color are very lush and typical of the big studio's fifties product. Billy Bird is a riot as Betty's companion. Ironically,in real life Blossom Seely did retire so Benny Fields could be the star of the family but his career fizzled and he retired a year later,also. There was a soundtrack issued at the time but it hasn't resurfaced. I never was a big fan of Hutton's but thought her role in this film was very good.

Neat little epic about starfish shaped aliens coming to Earth to warn it of impending Clayson with another planet. Oddly enough,viewers complains about the cheap costumes of the aliens,if they listened to the story,the aliens wore protective costumes to function in Earth's atmosphere because their actual shape would horrify the earth people. The special effects are very good,par for the course for fifties sci-fi. Definitely a must for your video shelf. The color is a bit faded but it's still a nice film to watch. The dubbing is well done and the musical numbers are fun. Probably not the classic film one would like but it still good. I'm a big fan of Japanese sci-fi.so it goes well with my collection.

Really exciting tale of mail-order bride coming to South American plantation owner to share his life and troubles. Eleanor Parker is surprisingly strong and beautiful as the bride,Charlton Heston is properly strong and macho as the husband. When army ants threaten the plantation Eleanor decides to stay and fight. I love scene where Charlton says "you're quite a woman" Eleanor slings back "you're right,I am." Great supporting cast including William Conrad as the inspector,Abraham Sofar as the loyal servant. If you're fans of older films,he played similar role in Elephant Walk with Liz Taylor. Real creeper scene where fat worker gets covered by ants. The emotional story is good,too,when Charlton finds out his bride was married before and the pain is causes him since he likes everything new on his plantation. This film is a prime example of Paramount at it's best,beautiful sets,costumes,photography,music. An era we'll never see again except in the movies, definitely a film to watch.

This film is the story of 20's singer Ruth Etting and her marriage to Marty Snyder. When Doris sings the old standards,it's great but MGM tacked on two numbers that sounded OK but they threw the ambiance off. It plays with the facts as usual,Ruth Etting was well into her thirties before she went Hollywood. In real life Ruth Etting was a quiet,refined woman stuck in a bad marriage. Despite what the film says,Ruth had many friends who just accepted Marty as her husband. Ruth was no ambitious tramp conniving people out of work so she could take their place but I guess it made a better story. The song Ten Cents a Dance was actually written for a stage show.

Fairly entertaining melodrama of girl who is paid off by rich widow for supposed intrigue with her,deceased rich husband. Yvonne buys into gambling casino in the Caribbean. Naturally,she attracts the attention of the local men, including her old boyfriend,a spoiled society guy who dumped her years before. Republic was struggling to stay afloat in the fifties,still pushing out forties-style movies on a changing movie audience. Yvonne is very watchable as always and makes the most of her role. She has a good supporting cast,including a young James Arness (tv's Matt Dillon.)The photography and location work are very nice. Not a classic but pleasant time filler.

Hitch claimed he only directed the script as written as he had no feel for the material. It's an OK comedy but did anyone else notice how annoying Carole Lombard's character is? Even the people around her are a bit offbeat. She is so annoying shrill and dreary one wonders why Robert Montgomery is working so hard to get her back. Alright for your Hitch collection but not really a fantastic film. It's a look back into the social mores of yesterday as Montgomery exposes Carole as a married woman so the store she's employed at fires her as it's the store's policy not to employ married women. One wishes the characters could have been played a little more warmly instead of the tart,sharp way they were directed by Hitchcock. Since he wasn't crazy about the project,he might have injected a bit more cynicism than he thought.