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ANYTHING GOES (1956)
Paramount Studios decided to go the MGM route with a splashy musical confection called Anything Goes, an original story that borrows parts of the score from another musical in order to frame a new story with an engaging cast.
This movie has nothing to do with the 1936 musical that starred Ethel Merman as Reno Sweeney, though this film does borrow her leading man from that film. Bing Crosby stars in this musical as Bill Benson, a veteran musical comedy performer who has been pegged to star in a new musical with a young and energetic television star named Ted Adams (Donald O'Connor). After the expected old/young generation tension evaporates, Bill and Ted decide to vacation in Europe for the eight weeks before they are scheduled to begin rehearsals for their new show, even though a leading lady has not been signed yet. Bill jets to London, where he meets a talented performer named Patsy Blair (Mitzi Gaynor) who is working in London because her father's gambling debts have made it impossible for her to return to the states. Dazzled by Bill, she agrees to return to the states to do the show. Meanwhile, Ted goes to Paris and is enchanted by a prima ballerina named Gaby Duval (ZiZi Jeanmaire) and immediately signs her to be the leading lady in the new show.
Bill, Patsy, Ted, and Gaby all return to the states on an oceanliner and initial misunderstanding between Bill and Ted gets even stickier when Bill begins falling in love with Gaby and Ted fights feelings he's developing for Patsy.
This is the kind of musical that MGM used to make in their sleep during the 1950's and I actually had to check the opening credits twice to make sure this was not an MGM film because this film has the gloss that you would associate with some of MGM's strongest productions...this one rates up there with stuff like Easter Parade, Summer Stock, and On the Town, though, despite the presence of Donald O'Connor, it's no Singin in the Rain either.
It's a little odd that they chose to use several Cole Porter songs from his classic stage musical and re-think them for this musical, along with a couple of original songs by Jimmy Van Husen, including an oddity called "With an old fashioned turban and a crystal ball", but the musical numbers work for the most part.
Crosby is fine, though it's hard to distinguish this performance from any of a dozen other performances he gave. Gaynor is a charming and effervescent leading lady, but Jeanmaire is really out of her element here...a marvelous dancer, but a dreadful actress who was painful to watch when she wasn't dancing. If the character had to be French, why didn't they cast Leslie Caron? She would have been perfect in this role. But what this film really has going for it is a real old fashion movie star turn from Donald O'Connor as Ted. O'Connor first worked with Crosby in the 1938 film Sing You Sinners, when O'Connor was still a child, but he's all grown up here and proves that he had the chops to handle the leading man status that alluded him for most of his career. He was suave. sophisticated, and, as always, very funny and reason enough to watch this movie.
Musical highlights, featuring energetic and imaginative choreography by Nick Castle, include the title tune, a huge production number featuring Gaynor, Gaynor and O'Connor's classy pas de deux to "De-Lovely", the four-way duet of "You're the Top" performed by the 4 stars in side by side staterooms, and Crosby and O'Connor's opening number "You Gotta Give the People Hoke." Jeanmaire does headline an elaborate dream ballet choreographed by her husband, Roland Petit, but it really has nothing to do with the story at hand and just slows the movie down, but for the most part, a smooth musical outing that holds up well after almost 70 years.
Paramount Studios decided to go the MGM route with a splashy musical confection called Anything Goes, an original story that borrows parts of the score from another musical in order to frame a new story with an engaging cast.
This movie has nothing to do with the 1936 musical that starred Ethel Merman as Reno Sweeney, though this film does borrow her leading man from that film. Bing Crosby stars in this musical as Bill Benson, a veteran musical comedy performer who has been pegged to star in a new musical with a young and energetic television star named Ted Adams (Donald O'Connor). After the expected old/young generation tension evaporates, Bill and Ted decide to vacation in Europe for the eight weeks before they are scheduled to begin rehearsals for their new show, even though a leading lady has not been signed yet. Bill jets to London, where he meets a talented performer named Patsy Blair (Mitzi Gaynor) who is working in London because her father's gambling debts have made it impossible for her to return to the states. Dazzled by Bill, she agrees to return to the states to do the show. Meanwhile, Ted goes to Paris and is enchanted by a prima ballerina named Gaby Duval (ZiZi Jeanmaire) and immediately signs her to be the leading lady in the new show.
Bill, Patsy, Ted, and Gaby all return to the states on an oceanliner and initial misunderstanding between Bill and Ted gets even stickier when Bill begins falling in love with Gaby and Ted fights feelings he's developing for Patsy.
This is the kind of musical that MGM used to make in their sleep during the 1950's and I actually had to check the opening credits twice to make sure this was not an MGM film because this film has the gloss that you would associate with some of MGM's strongest productions...this one rates up there with stuff like Easter Parade, Summer Stock, and On the Town, though, despite the presence of Donald O'Connor, it's no Singin in the Rain either.
It's a little odd that they chose to use several Cole Porter songs from his classic stage musical and re-think them for this musical, along with a couple of original songs by Jimmy Van Husen, including an oddity called "With an old fashioned turban and a crystal ball", but the musical numbers work for the most part.
Crosby is fine, though it's hard to distinguish this performance from any of a dozen other performances he gave. Gaynor is a charming and effervescent leading lady, but Jeanmaire is really out of her element here...a marvelous dancer, but a dreadful actress who was painful to watch when she wasn't dancing. If the character had to be French, why didn't they cast Leslie Caron? She would have been perfect in this role. But what this film really has going for it is a real old fashion movie star turn from Donald O'Connor as Ted. O'Connor first worked with Crosby in the 1938 film Sing You Sinners, when O'Connor was still a child, but he's all grown up here and proves that he had the chops to handle the leading man status that alluded him for most of his career. He was suave. sophisticated, and, as always, very funny and reason enough to watch this movie.
Musical highlights, featuring energetic and imaginative choreography by Nick Castle, include the title tune, a huge production number featuring Gaynor, Gaynor and O'Connor's classy pas de deux to "De-Lovely", the four-way duet of "You're the Top" performed by the 4 stars in side by side staterooms, and Crosby and O'Connor's opening number "You Gotta Give the People Hoke." Jeanmaire does headline an elaborate dream ballet choreographed by her husband, Roland Petit, but it really has nothing to do with the story at hand and just slows the movie down, but for the most part, a smooth musical outing that holds up well after almost 70 years.