2/23/24 (Fri)
The 1955 film is a follow-up of sorts to On the Town, co-directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly. The earlier show featured three sailors going off to war, whereas this opens with three soldiers returning to their lives after the war’s end. Comden and Green had conceived this, as with the earlier show, as a Broadway musical, but were convinced to write it directly for the screen instead.
2/15/24 (Fri)
This 1954 film, made in the glory days of the MGM musical, falls well short of the dizzying standards that the studio had set. The wonderful Broadway version offers ample opportunity for big-screen treatment: it’s set in the lush highlands of an exotic locale with distinctive speech, clothing and culture, and has fantastic music and dance scenes that could easily be opened up for the movie. Unfortunately the filmmakers were apparently unable to film on location in Scotland because of weather and cost issues, so the production looks somewhat cheap, like The Sound of Music without the Alps. Also, Alan Jay Lerner’s dialogue comes across as dated and sappy. That’s not true of other MGM musicals at the time, including Lerner’s own films, and is certainly not the case for Lerner’s engaging stage script. The film feels of its time. Continue reading
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