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My Sister Eileen (1955)
The story has been told in many forms, but one of the lesser-known but still entertaining renditions came with Columbia's 1955 musical My Sister Eileen, which is a musical remake of a 1942 film that with a better score and some different casting could have been something really terrific, like the Broadway musical that would later be based on the same material.
This is the story of the Sherwood sisters, who have just arrived in Greenwich Village fresh off a bus from Ohio. Ruth (Betty Garrett) is the older, cynical, wisecracking sister who wants to be a writer who feels like she lives in the shadow of her pretty baby sister, Eileen (Janet Leigh), who has set her sights on becoming an actress. On their first day of pavement pounding, Ruth meets a suave publisher (Jack Lemmon) who thinks most of Ruth's work is drivel except for the story she wrote about Eileen. Instantly attracted to the guy, Ruth tries to convince the guy that she and Eileen are one and the same.
The title character finds herself being pursued by a sweet and shy soda jerk named Frank Lippincott (Bob Fosse) and a slick talking reporter named Chick Clark (Tommy Rall) who both try to assist Eileen in getting her show business career started as a way of getting things started. The girls also have to deal with a slightly greasy landlord (Kurt Kaznar) and an unemployed football hero (Dick York).
Director Richard Quine actually collaborated on the screenplay with Blake Edwards, which is based on a play that is based on a book by Ruth McKinney, the real life inspiration for Ruth Sherwood. The story originally came to screen in 1942 with Rosalind Russell and Janet Blair playing Ruth and Eileen, respectively. The play become a musical in 1953 with Russell and Edie Adams in the starring roles. For some reason, Columbia chose to re-think this story and employ a completely different but inferior score.
There's some odd casting choices here...Jack Lemmon's role as the slightly smarmy publisher seemed tailor-written for Dean Martin, I could practically hear his voice coming out of Lemmon's mouth during his big solo, "It's Bigger Than You and Me" Bob Fosse (who also choreographed the film) and Rall are terrific dancers, as a matter of fact they perform a challenge dance that is the film's highlight, but their performances are a little soft and as cute as Janet Leigh is, there had be someone more musically inclined who could have made this role sparkle the way it should have.
The songs by Jule Styne and Leo Robin are unremarkable and vastly inferior to the songs in the '53 musical. The score includes "As soon as they Look at Eileen", "I'm Great", "There's Nothin Like Love", and a dance number called "Give me a Band and My Baby" featuring Garrett, Fosse, Rall, and Leigh and some clever choreography by Fosse that hints at the genius he would later become creating dance on film.
Garrett is a lot of fun as Ruth though and manages to create a semblance of chemistry with the clearly miscast Lemmon, but Leigh makes a rather bland Eileen, though she does look breathtaking. Richard Quine's zingy direction does keep things moving nicely, but the score and some of the casting really hurt this one.
The story has been told in many forms, but one of the lesser-known but still entertaining renditions came with Columbia's 1955 musical My Sister Eileen, which is a musical remake of a 1942 film that with a better score and some different casting could have been something really terrific, like the Broadway musical that would later be based on the same material.
This is the story of the Sherwood sisters, who have just arrived in Greenwich Village fresh off a bus from Ohio. Ruth (Betty Garrett) is the older, cynical, wisecracking sister who wants to be a writer who feels like she lives in the shadow of her pretty baby sister, Eileen (Janet Leigh), who has set her sights on becoming an actress. On their first day of pavement pounding, Ruth meets a suave publisher (Jack Lemmon) who thinks most of Ruth's work is drivel except for the story she wrote about Eileen. Instantly attracted to the guy, Ruth tries to convince the guy that she and Eileen are one and the same.
The title character finds herself being pursued by a sweet and shy soda jerk named Frank Lippincott (Bob Fosse) and a slick talking reporter named Chick Clark (Tommy Rall) who both try to assist Eileen in getting her show business career started as a way of getting things started. The girls also have to deal with a slightly greasy landlord (Kurt Kaznar) and an unemployed football hero (Dick York).
Director Richard Quine actually collaborated on the screenplay with Blake Edwards, which is based on a play that is based on a book by Ruth McKinney, the real life inspiration for Ruth Sherwood. The story originally came to screen in 1942 with Rosalind Russell and Janet Blair playing Ruth and Eileen, respectively. The play become a musical in 1953 with Russell and Edie Adams in the starring roles. For some reason, Columbia chose to re-think this story and employ a completely different but inferior score.
There's some odd casting choices here...Jack Lemmon's role as the slightly smarmy publisher seemed tailor-written for Dean Martin, I could practically hear his voice coming out of Lemmon's mouth during his big solo, "It's Bigger Than You and Me" Bob Fosse (who also choreographed the film) and Rall are terrific dancers, as a matter of fact they perform a challenge dance that is the film's highlight, but their performances are a little soft and as cute as Janet Leigh is, there had be someone more musically inclined who could have made this role sparkle the way it should have.
The songs by Jule Styne and Leo Robin are unremarkable and vastly inferior to the songs in the '53 musical. The score includes "As soon as they Look at Eileen", "I'm Great", "There's Nothin Like Love", and a dance number called "Give me a Band and My Baby" featuring Garrett, Fosse, Rall, and Leigh and some clever choreography by Fosse that hints at the genius he would later become creating dance on film.
Garrett is a lot of fun as Ruth though and manages to create a semblance of chemistry with the clearly miscast Lemmon, but Leigh makes a rather bland Eileen, though she does look breathtaking. Richard Quine's zingy direction does keep things moving nicely, but the score and some of the casting really hurt this one.