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Everything I Have is Yours
Marge and Gower Champion spent years at MGM as specialty dancers but were finally given the chance to become the next Fred and Ginger with an elaborate 1952 musical called Everything I Have is Yours.
Chuck and Pamela are a Broadway song and dance team who have just opened in their first Broadway musical but opening night, Pamela discovers that she's pregnant. The couple are thrilled that they are to become parents but decide for the sake of a healthy baby, Pamela should leave the show. Chuck moves Pamela to an elegant country house in Connecticut and hires a sexy man trap named Sybil (Monica Lewis) to replace her in the show. Pamela enjoys raising her daughter while Chuck and Sybil become the toast of Broadway. After four years, Pamela gets the itch to return to the stage but Chuck wants her to stay home and raise their daughter.
The Champions are wonderful dancers and they are almost as magical as Fred and Ginger when they are on the dance floor and for the longest time, I never understood why they never became the next Fred and Ginger...then I saw this movie. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers had a very special onscreen chemistry that extended beyond their tap shoes. Ginger, in particular, was a gifted comedienne who knew how to command the screen without dance. They were talented dancers and Gower would later become a Tony Award winning Broadway director and choreographer, but the truth of the matter is simply that Marge and Gower Champion were terrible actors and every moment they spend onscreen where they aren't dancing is almost painful...or deadly dull.
MGM cannot be faulted for giving them every opportunity to prove they had what it takes. They have been given a witty, if dated screenplay by Ruth Brooks Flippen and George Wells that was probably considered fun in 1952 but the idea of a man wanting to keep his wife barefoot and pregnant while he does whatever he wants would be booed off the screen today. I have to admit that I was amused by the bit of Chuck feeling all of Pamela's pregnancy symptoms but it eventually wore thin.
There is no denying that the film does come alive during the few dance sequences featuring the couple. Their opening duet, "Like Monday Follows Sunday" was cute as was Marge's solo "Derry Down Dilly" and Gower's "Serenade for a New Baby", an imaginative dance he performs for his daughter who's watching from her crib and there's a lovely dream ballet choreographed to the title tune that also works. The energetic choreography was provided by Gower Champion and Nick Castle.
Even the supporting cast was nothing to write home about, though Monica Lewis did have a few moments as the bitchy Sybil, but this one was a serious disappointment and unless you're hardcore Champion fans, I'd give this one a pass.
Marge and Gower Champion spent years at MGM as specialty dancers but were finally given the chance to become the next Fred and Ginger with an elaborate 1952 musical called Everything I Have is Yours.
Chuck and Pamela are a Broadway song and dance team who have just opened in their first Broadway musical but opening night, Pamela discovers that she's pregnant. The couple are thrilled that they are to become parents but decide for the sake of a healthy baby, Pamela should leave the show. Chuck moves Pamela to an elegant country house in Connecticut and hires a sexy man trap named Sybil (Monica Lewis) to replace her in the show. Pamela enjoys raising her daughter while Chuck and Sybil become the toast of Broadway. After four years, Pamela gets the itch to return to the stage but Chuck wants her to stay home and raise their daughter.
The Champions are wonderful dancers and they are almost as magical as Fred and Ginger when they are on the dance floor and for the longest time, I never understood why they never became the next Fred and Ginger...then I saw this movie. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers had a very special onscreen chemistry that extended beyond their tap shoes. Ginger, in particular, was a gifted comedienne who knew how to command the screen without dance. They were talented dancers and Gower would later become a Tony Award winning Broadway director and choreographer, but the truth of the matter is simply that Marge and Gower Champion were terrible actors and every moment they spend onscreen where they aren't dancing is almost painful...or deadly dull.
MGM cannot be faulted for giving them every opportunity to prove they had what it takes. They have been given a witty, if dated screenplay by Ruth Brooks Flippen and George Wells that was probably considered fun in 1952 but the idea of a man wanting to keep his wife barefoot and pregnant while he does whatever he wants would be booed off the screen today. I have to admit that I was amused by the bit of Chuck feeling all of Pamela's pregnancy symptoms but it eventually wore thin.
There is no denying that the film does come alive during the few dance sequences featuring the couple. Their opening duet, "Like Monday Follows Sunday" was cute as was Marge's solo "Derry Down Dilly" and Gower's "Serenade for a New Baby", an imaginative dance he performs for his daughter who's watching from her crib and there's a lovely dream ballet choreographed to the title tune that also works. The energetic choreography was provided by Gower Champion and Nick Castle.
Even the supporting cast was nothing to write home about, though Monica Lewis did have a few moments as the bitchy Sybil, but this one was a serious disappointment and unless you're hardcore Champion fans, I'd give this one a pass.